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August 05, 2007
Then and Now
We are in Chicago, about halfway through a six-hour layover en route to Manchester. I am the fidgety type, not predisposed to gracefully weather six hours in an airport. I tried reading for a while, then pacing, then did some eating before going back to reading. On the brink of losing my mind, I remembered that I had promised to post more on Alaska when I had the time. Today, I have the time.
We fish in Brisol Bay, which feeds many of the richest fishing districts on Alaskan Peninsula, the arm of land that leads to the Aleutian Islands in Southwest Alaska.
The Behr compound is in Coffee Point, a nontown with some ramshackle buildings where people fish in the summer. The closest real town is Egegik , which has a year-round population of 30 or so people. If you go to Google Maps any type in Egegik, AK, the bump of land just to the west and on the opposite side of the river from Egegik is Coffee Point.
Bob and Seiko first went up there 30 years ago, following an entrepreneurial spirit and a sense of adventure. Here is a picture of the compound taken near the end of the first season, when Robbi was two.
The folks in the picture are Roji, Seiko, Robbi, Maiko, and a beloved dog long deceased the name of which I cannot now remember. The building in the background is what we now call the "old house," currently used for storage. Back then it was the only house, used for everything.
In commemoration of the 30-year anniversary, we decided to recreate the pose this summer, with limited success.
The cast of characters is the same, except that Iggy was good enough to stand in for the deceased. The "old house" has expanded greatly, and a bunch of new buildings have transformed the tiny house on the bluff into a full-blown compound. More on that to come.
Posted by bogenamp at August 5, 2007 11:07 PM