Beaver hunting!

Our friends Mike and Natasha invited us to go on their boat up the Kuskokwim river.  We were so excited to go and see another part of Alaska that we wouldn't have been able to see, unless we drove on the ice river in the wintertime.  (we'll see if that happens. I don't know if I have the guts!)

Anyways, it was the 4 of us, plus another of their friends and his kid, and we were all going beaver hunting!  We took off up the river and Mike occasionally took offshoots until we saw a beaver in the water.  Then Mike guided the boat around, keeping the beaver about 20 feet away in the water so the other guys could take a shot.  It took about a half hour, and multiple turn arounds and shots before the guys got it.  LOL, I was so impatient, I almost told the guys to give me the gun and let me take care of things.

Here's Jeff in the co-pilot's seat!  It was about 37 degrees that day, so by the end of the day, we were all frozen through.

 This is my friend Natasha!  We met when she asked Jeff if his wife would like going with her to a Scentsy party, which of course I was!  She's been here for (I think) a year and a half and knew what it was like to move to a place where you don't have any friends.  She was so sweet to include me in different activities and I got to meet alot of new people thanks to her! :)

 The first beaver the guys sighted!

 The guys are preparing for the hunt...

 After they got the beaver, I had to hold it up because I'd never seen one so close-up before.

 The river

 We couldn't figure out if these were swans or geese, but other than the beaver, that was all the wildlife we saw, which was kind of disappointing. Natasha said sometimes you'll see moose and bears.  Maybe next summer we'll go camping with them and see more wildlife.

 This cross was on a hillside by the river.

 We also saw a bunch of fishcamps!  They are basically barebone homes where native people go in the summertime to catch fish for subsistence living. 

 On our way back to Bethel, we went through the ship graveyard.  Floating through these ships and boats made me sad; it felt like a ghost town.  It seems to be pretty normal up here though, to leave something where it dies.  There are so many cars just sitting in people's driveways, that have obviously been sitting there for years.  Our next door neighbor has a tow truck that looks like it's from the 40's or 50's sitting among his other stuff in his driveway.

 And here's the port in Bethel again!  At this point, we were grateful to be back because we were all so cold!