No Longer a Teen.

Yesterday was my twentieth birthday. 

Although it's not a terribly important birthday date, it was still special for me. It signified the end of the teens, which is rather exciting, in my opinion! It was also spent with the best people around- my family, in the most Alaskan way- fishing. 

Not your typical birthday celebration, but I like to do things differently. And there were no big balloons and lots of presents, there was just me and my family, celebrating the truth of birthdays and with the gifts from nature's door. 

Crack of dawn and we were out there on the water, ready to roll.

Seas then got a little rough. Dad's face portrays it all, but being the expert captain he was, we swiftly made it through. 

With Mom white-knuckling the table, we hit this rough wave and the anchor actually came loose from the bow and smacked into the front of the boat! Birthday isn't complete without some unexpected action, yes?

After a twenty-three mile boatride out, we stopped somewhere in the middle of the Cook Inlet and let the lines down. And boy were we hitting them hard! Luck was on our side because we hit the limit in less than 45 minutes!

Naturally, Dad was the first one to catch. 

Birthday girl came next..

And I succeeded again with the whopper of the whole bunch- a thirty pounder! This guy was a little excited when I picked him up..

He started to dance about, with my hands in his gills!

Aside from halibut, we were also pulling up Alaskan king crab. Granted, they were a little smaller than your expected Deadliest Catch bounty, but crab are crab!

Maybe the crab came from Mom's hat..

Dad reeling in "no toy!"

Only to be an itty bitty 'but.

And get this, the halibut brought up a baby halibut, that came out of it's tummy! What we did next was cannibalistic..

Dad put the baby 'but on the line and dropped it down again to see if halibut eat halibut. Sure enough, not three minutes later, Dad was reeling one in..

Just take a look at that!

We also caught a number of cod, which resulted in an influx of Dad jokes. 

Cod Danggit.

Cod bless America.

Oh my cod. 

Codda love Dad jokes. 

After our successes at sea, we reeled it in for the day and headed back to Homer for a bite at Maura's. After the meal, I was given a surprise pie, complete with happy birthday!

And a rose latte for the road..

Dinner celebrations, whilst they're almost always out, were in this evening, for we had plenty of divinity to eat here! As Dad says: "everything we eat here is caught, killed, or grown."

Including Shelby Dykstra's homestead cake pops!

Greens from the garden, salad from the garden, potatoes from the garden (with homemade cranberry ketchup), halibut fresh from today, and kale from the garden!

Best birthdays are the ones spent with family, I'm telling you!