What a great birthday!!!

Today was a great day! Aside from missing all of you, it was about perfect. I got up around 5:30am to cook breakfast, so that i could feel better about my full day off. I went with Will, one of our fishing guides from North Carolina and Jennifer, our message therapist, my little surfer girl, from Seaside, Oregon. She is so fun and has a great spirit. We packed lunch and planned to be out for the day.
First off, we boated just across from the lodge, in the rapids. We saw a very young bear, playfully swimming and batting at fish right off the shore. Will figured, if he was eating, there were probably some fish there. We dropped our rods, no bites. As i was reeling in, i noticed on my hook there was the tinniest rainbow..... i mean, about 3 inches. It got off the hook before i could get a photo, but honestly..... It was my favorite catch of the day! We trolled around for a bit and then went about 30 minutes from the lodge, past Naknek, the bordering town. We were fishing for Silvers today, it is a species of Salmon that run right after Sockeye. Our limit was five each. I had a slow start, but got my limit by the time we left around 12:30pm. We all did.
With the rest of the day to fill, we decided to fish for Rainbow trout, they are all catch and release... Right off..... i got another really tiny fish. I think Ellie or Samantha could have pulled this guy in. After that, i snagged a pretty good sized rainbow, 24 inches, and was done fishing. I like Rainbow fishing, they sure like to fight with you, but you can't keep them. I have found i like Halibut and Salmon fishing the best. However, Will said, "i crushed those fish, ninja style!" I am going to come back with a whole new vocabulary....
We decided to tour the river for the rest of the day. It is about an hour-- round trip. We saw some more bears and a wolf. Very curious little guy that followed us along the shore. After our trip, we went back in and had a real low-key celebration. Just the ticket. We played music and darts and the staff made me a cookie cake. It was a very fun day. I wish you all could be here with me, but hopefully these pictures will capture some of it. Thanks for all the e-mails and birthday wishes.