I went to my father in law’s memorial service in Anchorage Wednesday and Thursday. The outdoors memorial service at Fort Richardson was very nice on a beautiful day. The reception that followed was nice, too, with good food and lots of memories shared of my father in law. He was a great guy – I think he started the Anchorage Nordic Ski Club and the Moutaineering Club. He wrote a couple books on cross country skiing in Anchorage. Attempted an ascent of Mt. McKinley. And he was a lucky charm out fishing. I whale watched all day on Friday. Whales were bubble netting and so that’s about as easy as it gets. Watch them bubble net. Drive by the marker with the sea lions on it on the way back. Take a photo of the glacier if it’s now covered by clouds. Drop off one group, pick up another and repeat. Everybody’s happy. The berry crop is still coming on strong. I grabbed the empty 2+ quart clear plastic jars with lids that Costco cashew mix comes in after the Anchorage reception and threw those in my bag. Those were the ticket for berry picking. I picked about 15 lbs of salmon berries on Saturday morning. I came home, vac packed the berries, and went back and got 20+ lbs more in the afternoon. I figure that’s about 100 lbs in the freezer now. On Sunday, Jeff and Teri invited everyone over for dinner. I would make desserts and try to catch up on some things for Sara. Jeff and I fished at 4 am till about 830 am for king salmon. As usual, we watched everyone around us catch one but we did not. After a nap, lawnmower repair was next. The carb came in to fix the lawnmower. It was an easy job to change out. Of course, then the kill switch cable was broken so I had to order that and hopefully when it gets in the mower will be back up and running. Other chores like fixing the wheel jack on the boat trailer, replacing the house siding where I repaired rot and building a new deck for Sara in the back yard will have to wait. I made 2 pies and a crumble to try out salmon berry desserts. 1 pie I’d leave for Sara when she got home from Anchorage. I dropped one pie on the floor as I was heading out. Pie plate fell off the counter after doing a perfect 180 and splat. All over the floor. So I was down to 1 pie and 1 crumble. Sara was SOL. I used little sugar in the dishes and everyone seemed to like them that way. Luckily there was some pie left for Sara to try. The obsession to get more berries is about as bad as the hooters calling earlier in the spring. I even heard a lone hooter up the hill as I picked on Saturday and it made me smile.