“I was on the Ninilchik River and it was slow on Saturday and Sunday, but it started picking up on Monday,” said Carol Kerkvliet, assistant area management biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Homer.

Corrie Whitmore, a fisheries technician with Fish and Game, spent her Memorial Day weekend counting salmon, rather than fishing for them.

“It’s been slow,” she said. “A lot of the kings we’re thinking, are holding right now.”

Whitmore said that other types of salmon aren’t bothered by high, muddy water, but that kings like low, clear water.

“We aren’t seeing as many in motion as we expected to,” she said.

Whitmore said that she did not have to do any enforcement over the weekend for people fishing upriver from the sonar station, which is off limits for fishing. “People just seem to be having fun, which is exactly what we want to see,” she said.

People were having fun. There were kids riding bicycles, fishing and playing baseball. Grownups were standing in the river in chest waders, cleaning clams at the campground pumps and kicking back in camp chairs by their tents. The good weather seemed to keep everyone in a good mood.

Much of the weekend activity happened on the muddy, sandy beaches where hundreds of eager visitors took advantage of the weekend’s low tides. Adults and kids used shovels, clam “guns” and bare hands to dig and claw for fast-retreating razor clams. Some clam-diggers were geared in water-proof attire; others were barefoot and caked with mud.

At the Anchor Point Family Fun Festival there were fewer participants than in past years, but by Sunday afternoon nearly 100 kids had enjoyed three afternoons of games, including softball, bowling and soccer.

Most of the participants were local children out enjoying the sunshine and their first weekend off from school. Parents supervising events joined in with the games, while festival volunteers grilled hamburgers and hotdogs for the evening cookout.

The Anchor Point festival event that drew the most participants was the Sunday morning breakfast at the senior center, said festival volunteer Ann Bayes, who not only monitored kids activities, but served food for the evening cookouts.

The Ninilchik Emergency Services annual pancake breakfast was also popular, becoming a gathering point for hundreds of people over the weekend. Visitors from New York rubbed shoulders with Arizona travelers who shared table space with locals.

“We always have a good time, but today though we’re a little tired,” said Patti Pyhala, a festival volunteer on her third evening of grilling hamburgers.

Photo by McKibben Jackinsky, Homer News At the Ninilchik cemetery on Memorial Day, Douglas Morgan of the American Legion Post 16 in Homer plays taps in memory of those who died in service to their country.

CERT volunteer Sue Fritsch said that the idea was to be there in case anybody got a cut or needed a band-aid or aspirin.

“You couldn’t have asked for a better weekend,” she said.

Phyhala said that there was a good crowd of people and lots of family fun.

“And that was our goal for the weekend,” she said.

Sergeant Tom Dunn, with the Alaska State Troopers, had a ‘very busy’ weekend. Dunn said that typically, Anchor Point has been the center for problems over the weekend. Now, with the community taking action to prevent that type of behavior, such as zero tolerance and holding the family festival, the problems have moved to the Deep Creek and Ninilchik area.

“You name it, we had it,” said Dunn.

On the up side, Dunn said that this year there were not as many serious physical injuries. “I think most people were driving the speed limit,” he said.

Because of the volume of calls the troopers responded to over the weekend, Dunn said that not as many arrests were made as there could have been.

Dunn said that the majority of the disturbances were caused by visitors from up the peninsula, rather than locals. Every incident that was responded to was caused as a result of drinking alcohol, he said.

“There must have been 500-plus people here each day,” said Jacqueline Erion, State of Alaska park ranger in Ninilchik. Most were well-behaved, Erion said, but added that “unfortunately, there were some citations written.”

At the Anchor Point VFW there was a lot happening as well. Horseshoes and badminton, lots of food and a ceremony for the installation of new officers filled the three day weekend at the post.

But on Monday, rather than packing up their gear after a weekend of camping, the members of the VFW headed to Homer, then to Anchor Point and Ninilchik.

They were on a mission to remember. Stopping at cemeteries in each town, the VFW members held a service including a four gun salute and the playing of taps, in honor of those who gave their lives for the freedom of others.

“We do ceremonies honoring our fallen heroes,” said president of the ladies auxiliary, Jennifer Henley. “Our main goal here is to support our veterans.”

In Ninilchik, the last stop for the members of the VFW, 30 people gathered at the cemetery to remember.

“In the destiny of veterans, their souls go marching on,” said Bill Sheldon, commander of American Legion Post 16 in Homer. Flanked by Leo Steik, commander of American Legion Post 18 in Ninilchik, and Sandy Stark, chaplain for American Legion Post 16 in Homer, Sheldon added, “Because of them, our nation is free.”