Scott and Karen

A couple of weeks ago my friend Karen and her husband decided to renew and have their marriage Blessed by the church.  How wonderful is that!!!  They ask me to take photos which surprised me and scared me.  I take nature pictures, never really done the human photo thing.  But I agreed and I am glad I did.  I was honored to be part of such a beautiful day.  It had been grey and rainy for a few days, but that afternoon the sun came out and turned into a beautiful day.  Their son stood with them, Karen's Mom was here visiting and she had such a look of love on her face as she watch them.  It was one of those moments in life that make you very happy.    Thanks guys for including me on such a wonderful day.

Survival suit race

Silly me, I didn't think about anyone not knowing what a survival suit race would be or what it would be about. If you have ever watched the Deadliest Catch you have seen a survival suit. Bright red, looks like a giant rubber suit that covers you from head to toe and only your face is showing. It is a pain to get in but hey if will save your life it is well worth the effort to get in it.


Kodiak is a small town with a large fishing community. We are the second largest island in the U.S. Our island is the beginning of the Aleutian chain. Our fishing fleet can be exposed to some of the worst weather you have ever seen. It is a horrible fact that too many lives have been lost to the sea. Survival suits are one way that you have of trying to survive if you go down.

If a boat is sinking you put on your survival suit, life rafts are deployed and launched. Sounds like it should be easy to get in. Wrong... By the time the life raft has been launched it could be 100 yards away and the crewmembers of the boat are going to have to swim to the life raft. Our waters are cold even in the summer. Right now it is around 38 Fahrenheit, crab season the water is below freezing, and the wind has a habit of howling!

Every crewmember is required to get in their survival suit in a certain time to be able meet USCG regulations. Everyone practices, even the Coast Guard has survival suit training.

Ok so I have gone on about the survival suit so here is where the race comes in. During Crab Fest we have a race, a "friendly" competition to see what team can put on their suits, and swim to a life raft the fastest.

Each member of the team must:

Run down a ramp

Unpack and don a survival suit

Swim 100 yards of cold teeth chattering water

Get into a life raft



The team with the fastest time wins.

Survival suit race pictures

Crab Fest Pictures

Crab Fest

Sometimes I just seem to run out of free time!  Crab Fest has come and gone.  It was a beautiful sunny day for the first day and then the rain set in for the rest of the Crab Fest turned into the Kodiak Rain Festival!  Oh well, everyone that went still had a good time.  There was great food for everyone to choose from.  VFW had the funnel cakes, and fried twinkies, CPOA had the turkey legs everyone has been missing, and of course their were the bruin burgers and dough buoys.  Personally you couldn't pay me to eat the last two! YUCK.  Not that I want a fried twinkie.  I did go to Marie's and enjoy some of the best steak taco's I've ever had.  And one day we had some great B-B-Que sandwiches from organic beef from Alaska Beef.  The Mudd's know what they are doing.  If they start selling wholesale I will be getting a side!  I didn't take a lot of pictures due to the weather but I took a few of the survival suit race and people on the midway and some of the kids with "fair hair" the hair was fun.