Kodiak!

We arrived in Kodiak and got ourselves to our bed and breakfast place.  This was our view.

Of course we were on the lookout for wildlife and right away we found this guy.  A Blacktail deer!  In Alaska of all places!  Whoever heard of such a thing?

We rented a car and drove around the island.  I was taken with how different the forest was from what we are used to.

That first day we drove north to see what there was to see.



This bison herd was overlooking Surfer's Beach.  And sure enough, there were surfers surfing.

We followed the road past a missile launch site (of course),

and continued until there was no more road.  We were at fossil beach.

These were the only gray skies of the trip.  The rest of our weekend was nothing but sunshine, which is unheard of on Kodiak!



We then got ourselves back to town for the real reason of the trip...the crab!!!  Lead the way, Ezra!

 

Our first stop was the event where little kids search for coins buried in sawdust.  Esme let us get a peek at her vicious competitive streak. (I felt like this was very illustrative of our family...Paul and Esme diving into the mayhem, Ezra and mom happily watching from a distance...away from the crowds.)

Then we moved on to the food. 



We also got to watch contestants throwing a fish back and forth at increasing distances.  Good times.

 

  

We enjoyed watching this guy fish out some fresh caught crabs for a customer up on the dock.

 All in all, it was a lovely little festival and a lovely day in the sun.