america's sweetheart

Willow Palin Guts an Alaskan Salmon for Her Sweet 16

Last week, Sarah and Bristol bonded over clubbing some halibut over the head, but this week, it was all about the male bonding. Sarah’s eldest, Track, is back from his military duty, and it’s time to pull out the lines, the unnecessarily ugly fishing trousers, and hit Bristol Bay for the most wonderful time of the year — salmon season!

Sarah took the back burner to the rest of her family this week (perhaps because she was so busy signing books?) and was preparing for Willow’s birthday bash and Track’s eminent rise to the throne as fishing king of all Alaska. Willow goes out on a salmon safari and brings back some finer specimens to prepare for her birthday. There’s apparently some skill required in catching these things, which completely disproves our own long-held theory of how fish are caught.

Would you like fish-head stew with your birthday dinner?” Sarah asks Willow, happy as a halibut that Willow was doing something so arguably wholesome as filleting fish. “I’d rather she be doing this than texting her buddies, thinking she needs to be all dolled up and goin’ out and partying,” she said. “I’d rather she’d be here picking fish and processing a resource.”

Willow Palin Guts an Alaskan Salmon for Her Sweet 16