Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Last night after I posted the blog for yesterday, we walked out to the beach.  There were a couple crazy kids running into the water - this water is very cold - so Wayne had to get a picture.  We also saw the eagles again.

 

Today we had a very relaxing day.  We slept in, got up and took our coffee to the beach for a walk.  It was beautiful, the tide was out so we could walk way out onto the beach.  The beach is very different here in that it is all rocks and very few sea shells.  The rocks are all very smooth and seem to be flat or very round.  I have started a collection so when I get home I can fill a jar with my rocks from Alaska.  While we were walking this morning we decided we should just stay a couple extra nights here so we are.  The campground is filling up but still no one in front of us so we still have a great view of the ocean from the camper.  We went to the "Time Bandit" store today.  In case you don't know (which I didn't) the Time Bandit is one of the boats used on the TV show "Deadliest Catch".  We thought maybe it would be docked at Homer Spit but it is apparently a 3 1/2 day trip from here.  We went out onto the Homer Spit and walked around today.  That is as far as you can go here it is officially the "end of the road".  We also realized today that from now on we will be heading home even though it may take us a while to get there.  We are having such a great time but I know it will be good to be home.  Wayne just informed me that so far we have driven 5,383 miles!

Tomorrow we are going to Ninilchik - it is about 35 miles back on the road but there is a old part that we haven't seen and a Russian Orthodox church that we would like to check out.  We took the camper off the truck yesterday so can just drive the truck around.  Didn't take very many pictures today but will post a couple.

The Eagles on the roof top

Crazy kids in the water

Seafarer's Memorial on Homer Spit

Says:  This bell tolls for all the souls set free upon the sea

June 10, 2013

Happy Monday - lucky for us we have a clock in the camper that tells us what day of the week it is!!  We are now in Homer, Alaska which is as far south as we can go.  We left Seward about 8 this morning thinking we would have breakfast somewhere as we drove through Seward.  The one place we could find parking looked pretty cool but we waited for about 5-10 minutes and still only had menus so we left.  We didn't find another restaurant until we got to Moose Pass but it was well worth the wait.  The food was great and the service even better.  We got into Homer around 3 this afternoon and are staying at the Ocean View RV Park.  It is great and overlooks the Gulf of Alaska.  We have seen two bald eagles already - they are so beautiful.  We are going to stay here at least 3 nights depending on what we find to do.  Wayne may go on a fishing charter but I have decided I don't need to, I will be perfectly happy sitting here with a blanket and binoculars while he is out fishing!

Here are a couple pictures from today.

Water fall right outside Seward

Wayne on a "fishing walk"

Bald Eagle in flight

Bald Eagle resting

Home for the next 3 night

June 9, 2013

Today was the day for glaciers.  We went on the Kenai Fjords National Park tour.  We left the dock at 10 a.m. and arrived back at  6:30 p.m.  We saw several humpback whales, lots of orcas (which we learned are not really whales but the largest porpoise) sea lions, bald eagles, dall porpoises and a horned puffin.  The wildlife was really cool, especially the whales, however, the highlight of the tour was the Aialik Glacier.  To get to the glacier the captain had to guide the boat through an ice field but she managed to get us within a 1/2 mile of the glacier.  We got to see the glacier calving today.  Calving is when the glacier moves and parts of it fall into the water.  When this happens it sometimes sounds like a gunshot but most of the time sounds like a really loud clap of thunder.  We saw several really big chunks fall and heard lots of the thunder sound.  The thunder sound doesn't happen until after the ice has fallen so you have to be a little lucky to see.  Another one cool thing about a glacier is the blue color you can see in the ice.  The captain informed us that it is blue because all the air is pushed out of the ice so all you see is the blue of the ice.  We took a lot of pictures today but a lot of them are not very good as it was hard to catch stuff on camera.

Towards the end of the cruise we stopped at Fox Island (a private beach for the tour company) where we had a great buffet.  All the salmon and prime rib you could eat.  The prime rib was really good - I wasn't a big fan of the salmon.  After we got back we decided to take a short drive to Exit glacier where you can hike up really close.  It is about a 2 mile hike but you can see the glacier really well.  This one does not calve but it is suppose to groan and moan although we didn't hear any of that.  We are now back at our campsite and really tired.  We are thinking about staying in Seward (at a different campground) one more night before we move on south to the Homer area.

Here are some of the better pictures.

Resurrection Bay when we left on our cruise

Humpback Whale

Orca

Ice Fields

Us on the boat in front of Aialik Glacier

Aialik Glacier

Fox Island where we had dinner



Exit Glacier

June 8, 2013

What do I say about today - I don't think there are enough words to describe the beauty we have seen.  We drove from Anchorage to Seward and are staying at a campground called Miller's Landing.  We saw a lot of waterfalls today - just coming down a mountain and they were beautiful.  We only have electricity here but we don't really need anything else.  I am sitting at the table in the camper looking out the door at the ocean and mountains covered with snow.  I was just watching a sea otter play in the water and a bald eagle just flew over.  The beach here is nothing like California;  it is very rocky and hard to walk on and the water is very cold.  It is just beautiful.

Tomorrow we are going on an 8 1/2 hour National Park tour with Kenai Fjords Tours.  We leave Seward at 10 a.m. and are supposed to have a buffet meal at Fox Island as part of the tour.  It should be amazing and, hopefully, we will see some wildlife - I would really like to see a whale and they say that is possible.  I will post some pictures than am going to sit outside and watch the waves.

View while we were eating our lunch

View as we were driving

One of the waterfalls along the road

The view from our campsite

Well, today was a really good day.  We took the public bus to downtown Anchorage this morning (only cost $1.50/per person because we are over 59 - and they did check).  It was a quick ride down and we only had to wait a little bit for the bus.  We walked to the Ulu Factory first - in case you don't know an Ulu is an Alaska knife - and saw them make some.  The salmon derby started today so we walked around to the back of the factory and tried to see some salmon in the river but did not.  We did talk to a guy that was going fishing and he said they were waiting for the tide to go out as the water was shallower then and you would be more likely to see and catch fish.  We took "Lolley the Trolley" from there back downtown and just walked around some more.  We did have lunch at the Glacier Brewhouse (a tip from the guy who was fishing) and the food was great.  We tried wood-fired salmon and it was great.  Didn't taste anything like fish - maybe I do like salmon after all.

We have made reservations for the next two nights in Seward at a campground called Millers Landing.  Our site is oceanfront and should be on the beach!!  We may stay there longer depending on what we decide to do.

Some pictures from today.

Historic Courthouse in Anchorage

Statehood monument to Eisenhower

The Ulu Factory

River where we tried to find Salmon

Today we left Denali and drove to Anchorage.  It was our lucky day as we became part of the 30% who get to see Mt. McKinley in all it's glory.  As we drove south we could see the peak and there were clouds below but the further we got the better the picture.  We stopped at a lookout and I climbed on top of the camper to get above the trees for a better view.  Another car of people stopped and one of them climbed on top of the camper also to get a good shot.  It was kind of funny as a tour bus drove past and really slowed down - guess they wanted to check out the view also.  We stopped at an Artic Fox dealer in Palmer and they have ordered the part we need to fix the faucet - we will be back through here in a couple weeks and it should be here by then.

We are both a little disappointed with Anchorage so far.  The first campground we were going to stay at was hard to find and was in an industrial part of town so we decided to try a different one.  The good thing about this one is that it is right across the street from Costco and has full hook-ups but those are the high points.  We are going to try to catch a bus to get downtown tomorrow to do a little sightseeing and then will be off to Seward, Kenai and Homer.  I think we just have to adjust from the quietness of Denali to the bustle of Anchorage.  Hopefully, tomorrow will be better.

Here are some of the shots of Mt. McKinley.

Mt. McKinley #1

Mt. McKinley from the top of the camper

Mt. McKinley 3

Alaskan War Memorial at a rest area in Denali State Park

June 5, 2013

We got up this morning and took a hike to Horseshoe Lake which is a 3 mile hike round-trip.  It was great going down because it was down, however, it was up all the way back!!  It was beautiful at the lake and I will post some pictures.  It was cloudy, windy and pretty cold here today.

After lunch we decided to catch one of the buses that go to the park entrance (there are shops, restaurants and such there).  It was a great way to spend a couple hours and we are now back at the trailer having a little cocktail before dinner.  We leave for Anchorage tomorrow but we have had a terrific time here in Denali.  We both would love to come back - maybe we will come back and work a summer here?????  Our kitchen sink faucet is leaking so we are hoping to find an Artic Fox dealer in Anchorage so we can get it fixed.  Wayne is cut off as he just spilled his cocktail all over the floor!!!!

Anyway, here are some pictures from today.

Horeshoe Lake

The view from the top of the trail

A view of the park entrance where we spent the afternoon