Fish On!

July 23, 2014 After breakfast we paid back Fred Meyer for their hospitality by buying our needed supplies there. I wanted to visit the Anchorage Botanical Garden so we made that our first stop. It wasn't quite as impressive for me as I had hoped so our visit was relatively short. Off to Seward. Driving back down through the beautiful mountain passes was relaxing. Traffic was light. We pulled into the campground Bob T. was staying at.

Forest Acres Municipal Campground on the right just as you entered Seward. We hadn't even seen this one on our first trip down. It isn't as well marked, but has some well spaced and treed sites. Flush toilets and water supply, a dumpster, and fire pits and picnic tables at most sites. In the first section we saw a large boat. We figured it had to be Bob. We picked out a spot nearby and went over and introduced ourselves. Bob was very welcoming, inviting us to join his campfire. When the crew came in who were going out to fish Thursday, it turned out that only 2 were going. Bob invited us to join the crew. They were leaving around 8 am. This sounded perfect. We eagerly joined up with the Thursday group and let Friday be as it may. Thursday (the 24th) began as a clear blue sky morning and you could feel the excitement in the air. We set our alarm clock as we have been staying up too late and didn't want to be the slowest one in the group. We had our lunch and extra warm clothes all packed up and met Bob at the boat, (our sites met together at the campfire in the rear) and we sat and had coffee and awaited the others. Soon enough two cars arrived and we hooked up the boat to the trailer and Bob's truck and the wives of the other fellows gave Bob and I a ride to the docks. There we purchased our 1 day fishing licenses and headed to the boat launch.

The water was quite calm and became gentle rollers on the way out to sea. Bob let me drive the boat most of the way! It was quite a thrill.

First we stopped to view the Stellar Sea Lions. I even saw one female marked E 108 on her side flank with a small pup. At one point she was swinging her tail back and forth over the edge of rock. I was unable to film that clearly with the boat rolling up and down. It was quite a sight to see them sunning and several pups napping or resting with each other in small groups. The males were squelching and making lots of grunts One even looked like "Jabba the Hutt"!

As we rode further out (we would go 45 miles out to sea but still near the sheltering effects of islands) we saw puffins and whales and some friendly pods of black and white dolphins. At first I thought I was seeing orcas. But it was a group of dolphins and they circled our boat a few times and glided up and out of the water very fast, making it quite hard to photograph before they moved on.

We started fishing in earnest and it wasn't long before we all had "Fish On!" We all caught several Rock Fish, the guys pulled in 2 nice sized halibuts, and several "Yellow Eyes" which are red snapper. I caught 4 green flounder that weren't large enough to take, and I was told they weren't as good eating so they were carefully thrown back. But It certainly was fun to reel them in. After 4 in a row we moved to another spot to fish. I'm sorry to say I was fishing in earnest as these fellas rely on these fish for their winter food and they cleaned them out while we fished the last hole. So there aren't any pictures of fish, you will have to take my word for it. I could take a picture of our camper freezer though, that is now full of vacuum packed fish. We were out on the water from 8:30 am until 9:45 pm. As we made our way into the bay the sky had darkened and you could feel cooler air flow off the Harding Ice Fields, and I got a shot of Bear Glacier. It is quite impressive.

Anchorage Heritage Museum

July 22, 2014 This morning we had no firm plans. As headed back down to Wasilla we decided that we would either get to fish this week or we would have to move on to Valdez. We came up with 2 or 3 days of possible activities for Anchorage. Any fishing trip would take us down that way anyway.

We gassed up the truck at Fred Meyer then headed to the Alaska Heritage Museum. It was located downtown in the Wells Fargo bank building. This was an interesting place to spend the afternoon. (though I think I lost my new sun glasses here! darn)

Off to Walmart for the evening and supper supplies. They were in the process of putting up signs restricting overnight parking/camping. Even had 2 tow trucks in the lot! It seemed that this was not a very good quiet place anyway. So after getting each of us a small ice cream cone we decided to try the Fred Meyers. We returned to the one we had been frequenting right on Seward Highway, but that one was quite noisy so we headed to another (there are 4 in Anchorage) one, on the north east side of Anchorage. This one proved to be perfect. Very quiet and management approved! That evening Bob got a call from Bob Truedell saying fishing was on for Friday, also we might be able to join in the Thursday trip if room allowed. Everything was falling into place. We would stock up on supplies in the morning before heading down to Seward. In Seward we will camp near Captain Bob and figure out what we need.

Hiking Gold Mint Trail

July 21, 2014 And Becca's 25th birthday. Sweetheart we are thinking of you! This morning was clear blue skies and it had gotten quite cool last night. I'm sure our friend Don Tryon and his new wife Linda have gotten a nice view of Mt. McKinley in Denali if we have their travel plans correct. We tried to wave to them down in Wasilla on the 19th as the blue train (Alaska Railroad the Denali or McKinley Express?) went by us at about 11:45am. Well I almost wished we were on the other side of these Talkeetna mountains to view McKinley again as well. It is mesmerizing. But it was a gorgeous day and we were walking a trail along a lovely glacial river towards Mint Glacier. It doesn't get prettier than this!

The day began to warm up and as we had checked out the first 2 miles the night before and it was fairly wide, Bob dressed in shorts and I in convertible pants (could become shorts or hook up to capris) and my Tevas. The first five miles of this trail is considered "improved" and that is as far as we intended to go (10 Miles RT). After the second mile the trail did become quite narrow. This was fine except for the bushes and plants growing out toward the center of the trail. Pushki, aka Cow Parsnip is an invasive weed/plant that is growing nearly everywhere in Alaska. The challenge is to not get its oil on your skin. The stem contains an oil which will cause burns on your skin when exposed to sunlight. This is a very painful situation we were told. There were a few bikers doing the trail too, and this also crushed and broke stems from these plants.

We passed several old beaver dams/ponds. The furthest dam we saw was right at the Mile 5 marker. It must have been huge but it's wall was breached and the entire pool of water behind it had drained away some time ago. Sparse plants had already sprung up in it's center area. Including Fireweed (above), one of the first to establish itself in an area here. And some "Alaskan Cotton" (at right) as well. We ate our lunch of granola bars, an apple and the safe drinking water which we packed in. The streams look fresh and clear but we know they may cause giardia if untreated. And of course we had our Bear Spray handy, as there was a bear with a recent moose kill in the area. Then we started back. Along the trail I spotted some Merten's Bluebells, Broadleaf Lupine, Mountain Columbine, Monkey Flowers and several other lovely wildflowers. We hopped over most of the muddy patches we encountered on the trail. I washed my feet in one of the warmer beaver ponds on the way back. The one with two large beaver "huts" in it. The glacial melt waters in the river would have numbed my feet in a couple of minutes. We encountered no problems and totally enjoyed the beautiful mountains surrounding this glacial valley. A wonderful day spent.

Hatcher Pass

We had a lovely drive through Hatcher's Pass and spent the first night on the gravel bar of the river bed near the Dave Churchill's memorial trail head. Had a nice camp fire and read books relaxing. Hardly a car passed by as we were almost midway down the 49 mile gravel road.

We worked our way east and stopped at several spots to take photos. It is one of the most scenic areas we have been on our entire trip. At Summit Lake I got a lovely photo of a Hairy Marmot. He even posed for me. We hiked up April Bowl trail and became totally engulfed in the clouds. My camera battery exhausted there. Darn! We made our way over the top and down the east side to the base of the gravel road and linked the pavement. Here is where we turned left and into the Independent Mine Co. Historic Site (state park managed). We spent over 4 hours walking the self guided tour and seeing the displays and remains of the mining community. Just after we ate our lunch in the parking lot my battery was fully charged so we headed back out on those pathways again to get some photos to remember then by. We spent a night at the Gold Mint Trail parking lot and walked up part of the trail after our supper. The next morning (and most of the night) it rained so we headed down to Wasilla and picked up our needed supplies at Walmart and Fred Meyers. We had done our laundry chores and relished long hot showers so we decided it was a good night to eat out. We had a coupon for Hacienda Mexican restaurant and had eaten there before. Buy one get one dinner free can't be beat! And there was a lovely double rainbow outside the window to boot! Rain socked in again and we slept (sort of) in Meyer's parking lot but it was quite noisy tonight. We had breakfast at Carl JR's (won't do that again) and drove off to my meeting at the Kingdom Hall.

After that we came down to Newcomb Park on Wasilla Lake and watched the regatta races. Four teams in the district put on quite a show. We walked along the shore and saw a paddle boarding vendor. He gave us a "lesson on dry land" and we were tempted to try it out. However with the water at 60 degrees and the air 59-64 I though better of it but may try it in Florida's warmer temps. However the sun is coming out again and tomorrow is looking great so we are heading back up the pass to tackle that hike we missed at Gold Mint trail head.

Talkeetna

July 14 and 15th. In the morning we had about 40 miles to drive to get to the Talkeetna Spur Road. One mile down the spur we stopped at the Kahiltna Birchworks. They make Birch Syrup products. It was Interesting to compare the process of making Maple Syrup in New England. The Birch tapping season only lasts an average of 3 weeks. This year was only 17 days due to early warm weather in the area. Usually they average 1200 gallons of syrup. This year they only made 1100. Each day of the flow the syrup gets darker. Top quality sap only runs for one week. It takes 110 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. They take sap from over 16,000 trees. It is a lot of effort for the syrup they get. The bottles of syrup they sell were 10 to 12 ounces and cost about $22. We bought a jar of birch caramel ice cream sauce, 9 oz for $12.50. Expensive but very good. Before we left I got a dish of high bush cranberry cheesecake ice cream with the birch caramel sauce and Bob got a dish of their Kahiltna Birch ice cream. He didn't add any toppings. He was doing a comparison taste test against the Hager's Maple flavored creemee. Hager's wins by a nose!

We drove the final 12 miles into Talkeetna and found a place to park. This is a very small town with lots of rustic/historic sites most converted into gift shops (touristy) and restaurants. Many artisans selling their works. We walked around town and enjoyed looking at all of the wares. One thing we hadn't realized was that this town is the original home of the Denali Brewing Co. They are now located in the town just outside the main entrance to Denali NP. We had missed visiting them when we were in Denali. They still have a restaurant and bar room (and Beer Garden in nice weather) featuring tastings of all their beers in Talkeetna. Perfect! That was our choice for dinner too. After dinner we headed about 1/4 mile back out of town to a large lot that offered overnight camping for $15. That is where we stayed.

The next morning we'd enjoyed our stay in this town so much we also paid for a 2nd night. They also rent bicycles here. We decided to try the bikes. Their seats looked comfortable and the handle bars were high enough so Bob could sit straight. It was only $5 per hour. We rode around town for two hours and enjoyed that very much.

After turning in the bikes we walked back to town and I checked out a few bead/jewelry shops. Next we went to the Talkeetna Ranger Station for their displays and a 17 min. video on the process of climbing Mt. McKinley. Talkeetna is the jumping off point for climbers going to the mountain. They fly to Anchorage first then hop up here to Talkeetna. Once a team and all their gear is set and they have been given the go-ahead to proceed, a local air taxi brings them to the base camp at 7,200 feet elevation. Many aviation companies work out of Talkeetna. They offer flights-seeing trips around the mountain and will even land on a glacier. A 1 1/2 hour tour with glacier landing costs $450 pp too rich for our blood but a glacier landing must be a rush. Tonight we had dinner at West Rib Pub and Restaurant. I had the King Crab legs and Bob the "Homer Split", pan seared red salmon and halibut dinner. We both enjoyed our meals. We kept our eyes towards the horizon looking for clearing of the clouds to the north . We are hoping for one more view of Mt. McKinley! There is a breeze now and it is clearer to the south and west, but those darn clouds are sticking to the mountain range.

Leaving Seward, AK and on to Willow

On July 14th we woke up to the glorious sunshine we have been waiting for. After breakfast we went to the dump station and then added fresh water.

Next we were off to Exit Glacier. The valley and surrounding mountains were beautiful. They had signs with dates showing where they believe the glacier was from 1800 and at various intervals. It is definately on its way out. Since 1998 they have added around 100 yards to the trail to get you to the edge of the glacier. Soon you will have to take the 6 to 8 hour strenuous hike to the top of the mountain to see the Harding Ice Field to see the ice up close. That hike was more than we wanted to do today. The Harding Ice Field is 80 miles long and 50 miles wide. It supports dozens of glaciers from Seward all the way over to the Kachemak Bay and Homer. We drove down to a beautiful turnout looking across to the glacier and ate lunch.

I decided I wanted to see the Seavey Dog Kennel. It was just down the road. The Seavey family is perhaps the best known family of dog mushers involved in the Iditarod since its beginning in 1973. Dallas, Danny and Tyrell are the young sons carrying on the tradition. Mitch, their dad has run in 20 Iditarods winning in 2004 and 2013. Grandpa Dan was one of the founders of the race and finished third in 1973 and 5th in 1974. A tour of their facility cost $70 each and involved a bus ride and the rest of the afternoon. (and a sled ride) We opted out but we did spend $70 on books and a nice Seward Iditarod Mile "0" hat for Bob. We bought Dallas's book titled "Born to Mush". It was stories of his life leading up to his win in the 2012 Iditarod to become the youngest champion. We also bought his grandpa Dan's book "The First Great Race" which recounts the events leading up to and including the inaugural race in 1973. The thrill for Bob and I was that Dan (the younger) was working in the office/gift shop when we went in. Bob got to talking with him about the race and some of the past winners. They talked at length about Susan Butcher too. He recounted for us how Dallas had posted his 2nd win in 2014. From the final checkpoint 20 miles out he thought he was racing his dad for 3rd place. Aliy Zirkle had made a fatal mistake and had stopped at the final checkpoint (during a storm that she thought was worse than it was at that time, the leader's dogs had "stopped" and refused to go any further, Aliy was in 2nd place then). She had a 2 1/2 hour lead on Dallas. When she saw him go by she realized her mistake. It took her about 20 minutes to hook up her tean and head out. Dallas didn't even see her on the sidelines due to the blowing snow. He was pushing his team like crazy toward the finish thinking he was trying to hold off his dad for the 3rd place. In actuality it was Aliy who was now only 2 minutes behind. Dallas won and Aliy had to settle for her third second place finish in a row! A very bitter pill because she had the fastest team at the end. Was it her unexplainable error that cost her the win? Can she recover and come back next year? How many top finishes are left in her team? Bob will have to watch the figures next year to find his answers. We headed off to Willow and a night at the Willow Creek State Campground ($10). We were amazed with the beautiful views all the way north with the sun shining and part clouds dappling the rich greens and high peaks of the mountains and valleys along the route.

History Lessons in Seward

We started our day's walking by heading back to the Library and Museum. We enjoyed the exhibits and spent a couple of hours here then "stretched our legs" and walked to one of the downtown restaurants for some Chowder. ("New England Style") Well lets just say that we New Englanders can make it better. We did walk up and down the streets and photographed all of the Murals we could find. And we had a handy guide card (with 16 locations)from the library to help us, but there were a few more too. I had found six and photographed them yesterday. We must have put on a few miles with this task for when we returned to the camper our legs were quite tired. After Lunch we returned to the Library Community Room for a 25 minute video about the 1964 Earthquake and subsequent Seismic (Tsunami) waves. It included recollections of survivors and was followed by a 4 minute video of the school children's artwork project that they created 2 weeks after the event. It was very heart-breaking. We learned that 12 died as a result of the disaster and it devastated the Port and Rail system at that time.

Our camper on the town beach campground is right in front of some of the remaining posts from the dock structures that were destroyed at that time. The Earthquake was one of the largest ever recorded in the USA, 9.2 on the Reichter Scale and lasted well over 4 minutes. It produced several great tidal waves, the first of which hit the town with in minutes as sections of the bay floor slid from the opposing shore and created a huge swell 20 to 30 foot high. Then all the water drained from the bay and headed back to the ocean! 25 minutes after the quake and this huge wave returned with a crest wave that was estimated at over 100 feet high and racing towards the town at 100 miles an hour. There were huge fires that resulted from the rupture of the towering oil storage tanks and oil tankard train cars that were loaded along the shore.

Today the harbor supports large cruise ships, numerous fishing vessels, marine tours and more.

We finished our walking by heading all the way back down to the boat docks and checked out the latest fish that came in from the charter vessels. There are several seafood markets and processors and we picked up a package of cod and one of halibut. They were caught within the past week or so and frozen. We shall try the halibut tomorrow. We may want to go back for more as the price was great!

Through Soldotna and Russian River all the way to Seward

On July 8th we returned to Soldotna and spent a good deal of time at the local laundry and showers. With everything fresh and clean we picked up our mail drop at the Post Office then headed to Fred Meyers again. We topped off both of our propane tanks (took 6.1 gal at $3.69/gal) filled the gas tank and noticed that on the south side parking lot there was a dump station with fresh drinking water!! Far better than the "rusty" water we had in Ninilchik. We had filled twice there and the second time I think it was at the bottom of the "barrel" so to speak after all the holiday travelers passing through. We purged what was left in our drinking tank and refilled with the good clean tasting water. I had missed the sunday service in Homer so I wanted to be sure to go to the Tuesday evening meeting in Soldotna. We drove to the Kingdom Hall and made supper there. I changed and went to the meeting 7:30 to 9:30 pm. That allowed Bob to go down to the St. Elias Brewery and Pizza House. We had missed that one on our first trip into town (as well as the one in Kassilof). Bob tried the 10 beer sampler that was all that they had at present. Five were quite good. He settled on the XPA for his pint. All the beer they make is sold on site. Growlers can be filled and taken out. Apparently the brew-master is very busy just trying to keep up to what is sold through the restaurant bar. He makes some quality brews. Meanwhile I enjoyed a nice meeting. The Soldotna and Kenai groups switched days and I missed Jenny and her family from the Kenai group. I had memorized the girls names well this time too! They were so nice. But I found a few faces that I had spoken to last month back at the Anchorage Regional Convention and I knew I was among friends. The reason for the switch was their Circuit Overseer (from NJ) was there this week and he gave a very motivating talk. I also received permission to spend the night in the parking lot. Perfect for a nice quiet night. The next morning we drove up to Russian River Forest Service Campground and found many openings. The fish run had slowed down considerably. I thought it was "closed" but found a few fishermen here and there. They may have been restricted to 1 fish a day. We did see a nice one being carried down the Russian River Falls trail. When we arrived at the viewing deck (2.3 miles each way) we could see a lot of fish in the backwaters at the bottom of the falls, but not as many as 2 1/2 weeks ago. We did see a female duck with a brood of 6 ducklings swimming up from the lower falls into this backwater. She had made many attempts to go up the fast moving water and slowly was succeeding when they all were washed down stream. At one point a sea gull pulled one out of the water! It later dropped it but that one was so far back from the still advancing mother that we doubted it would ever reach her. She got 1/3 of the way up the falls when she decided to go up the moss/rock face on the far side instead. It was very steep and she had also lost another duckling in the process. But that little one was trying to go "up" the rock face just a bit upstream from the mother. It would have been easier to go around the corner to find it's mother, but kept trying where it was. I must say both separated ducklings were very determined. It was exhausting watching them. After a spell we headed back down the trail to our camper. The rains began in earnest and we could hear them all night. In the morning we slowly made our way back down Sterling Hwy and south down Route 1 to Seward. We stopped for a short hike to Kenai Lake which was beautiful and got our last 2 stamps in Moose's Pass and in Seward. We checked out the USFS campgrounds along the way and would favor #10, Trail River CG. We may stay there on our way north to Anchorage. There were a few others that looked nice too, and one that favored tenting. In Seward we stopped at the Visitor's Center (for that stamp) and then south to the Resurrection Bay. It was at that bend that the Alaska Sea Life Center is located and we parked there. We had a coupon for 20% off adult fare ($20) which was better than the 10% Senior discount. That Kenai Peninsula Passport book was helpful again. We spent a couple of hours checking out the exhibits there. My favorites being the water fowl habitat, and a friendly seal that liked to dive and blow bubbles while it ascended in full view of the lower level. We went out down the street a short ways to the Seward Brewing Co. and had an early supper (lunch was an ice cream!). They had a nice grilled halibut fillet over a bed of spinach, with a creamed cauliflower and a creamed celery pate on the plate. Very tasty. They have been in business for only 2 years and we were told had new owners as well. The restaurant was very nice and the 4 beer sampler was pretty good too. Bob chose another offering, the Glacier Brewery's IPA for his pint tonight. We returned to the Sea Life Center and enjoyed more exhibits. We intended to spend at least 3 days in Seward and those USFS campgrounds were at least 10 miles north of town so we spent the first night at the Safeway grocery store. There were several other campers there. I went inside to ask permission and was told "there are no signs prohibiting it" by the customer service rep, and that others had done so without any problems, though the store does not promote it. We had a quiet night. It stopped raining half way through the night but then misted on and off during the next day. We walked around the downtown and checked out a few of the murals on the sides of buildings. Seward is the "Mural Capital of Alaska". There were many informative ones and some very artsy ones as well. I liked the Native Alaskan ones and the blue whales. We discovered there is a city campgrounds with several areas along the bay. Dry camping is only $15/night (one night free with 6 in a row) and we found several sites available along the water. As we were pulling up there was a sea otter floating on it's back just a few yards from shore eating clams. A perfect site! There are some picnic tables and stone fire rings available. We moved our rig into position and will settle here for the next 3 nights. They have a beautiful Library with a museum in it that we will check out tomorrow.

Back-Tracking!

We weren't quite ready to leave the area so we did some considerable back-tracking! On July 6th we headed back to Homer and I just missed the meeting at the local Kingdom Hall. So we drove to Bishop's Beach and went for a long walk along the shore. It was low tide so we could walk out onto the sandy sections that were now exposed. Fascinating rocks were exposed and just a few sun bleached clam shell wedged between. After eating a light lunch at the small park next to the Estuary we headed east out of town. About 14 miles or so from downtown Homer we took a left to Evelines' Trailhead. A local resident had donated 80 acres of prime mountainside meadow land in memory of his wife. It is for non-motorized use. Hiking and Cross Country Skiing. It is especially known for it's variety of wildflowers. Right up my alley! It also had views of two of the glaciers across the bay. Our intention was to spend the night in the parking lot although there was a sign up saying no tent camping. There were only a couple of houses past it in any case we would have no negative impact on the roadside lot. A group of 8 "Rotarians" came up and asked if I would take their picture. As I was doing so another couple was walking up the roadside with a 3-legged black lab. "Rocky" was actually their neighbors and the couple (Peggy and Tom) were quite friendly. Peggy asked if anyone would like some rhubarb as Bob and Tom started a conversation away from the group. One thing led to another and the 4 of us walked to their place to pick some rhubarb. They actually live in Washington State. Peggy is a native Alaskan from Juneau. They are in Alaska house sitting. We received a grand tour. The house had a wonderful layout including an impressive great room with a wall of glass. The stunning views across Kachemak Bay displaying the glaciers and surrounding mountains were breathtaking. We ended up having dinner and drinks with these wonderful people. We sat there until 11:30pm when Bob suggested it was time for us to turn in for the night, and Peggy gave us a ride back to our camper. Bob and I agreed that we had never met anyone as hospitable, friendly and easy going to two strangers as these fine folks.

This is "Alaska Cotton" on the roadside. The next morning was drizzling and we decided to head right out. We started back down the road to Homer, enjoying the beauty of the bay and mountains. We came by a combination gas station/convenience store/bakery/contract post office. Bob needed a little gas to make it all the way back to Soldotna and the Fred Meyer discount. Also coffee and a fresh baked goodie sounded like an O.K. breakfast. They had the oven heating up the place and it was damp outside so it sure felt cozy sitting in their rustic chairs at small tables reading the local newspaper. (though we would have preferred the pastries at 2 Sisters!) Then we headed up the road at our slow pace. We stopped at Norman Lowell's Gallery again for another look and the opportunity to take photos. (top photo is one of his beautiful paintings)

Then back through Anchor Point and found that elusive 2nd sign of the Westernmost Highway, located at the USFS campsites right at the end of the road! (there are 4 campgrounds along this short road and they were all full on the Fourth of July) We stopped at one of our favorite campground sites on the bluff overlooking the old town of Ninilchik. The fishing fleet was in and we took the 105 steps back down the bluff to check out the boats. There were 56 boats sitting on the muddy river bottom waiting for a rising tide and another week out on the waters plying their fishing trade.

Ninilchik Rodeo

We spent all yesterday at the campsite enjoying the most perfect day with warm 70 degree temperatures, in shorts soaking up the sun listening to the waves crash upon the beach below the cliffs. We planned well and had scrumptious Alaskan king crab dipped in butter, and fresh salad and red potatoes. We had a glass of the Rhubarb wine we got in Homer. Nature provided the perfect finale with the most beautiful sunset ever. (camera battery died just as it set) The colors brightened to crimson reds and purples and the clouds were artfully styled in sharp and crisp angles at one end of the sky to what looked like an "eagle" shape reaching down to catch a fish in the water.

Too bad there are no shots to share but they are etched into our mind's eye. We slept in (keep staying up so late to watch the sunsets!) and had a late breakfast then headed back 15 miles up the road to Ninilchik for the best little rodeo in Alaska. We arrived early enough to get great seats up high in the bleachers to rest our backs against the chain/fence, and remembered our bleacher cushions. What a wonderful little rodeo. All ages participated. There was Bull Riding, Barrel Racing, Roping events, and a Calf Scramble.

They even had 3-legged potato sack races with 3 age groups inviting audience participation. (we declined) What was interesting was the fact that everything the adults did on Bucking broncs and Bulls the kids also did.

On the Bronc the high school kids used saddles. Instead of huge bulls the smaller kids used calves.

IT all made for a nice day sitting in the sun. There was a good breeze so it did feel cool all day. My favorite expression of the day is this very young cowboy watching the Bronc Riding and dreaming of the day he rides like that!

The last Bull rider was a serviceman stationed in Alaska. He drew the short straw. This Bull was rearing up several times in the stall and tried to climb out of the shoot. When they finally opened the gate and on perhaps the second buck, the rider went airborne. As the bull swung his rear end around he hip checked the poor rider back into the gate they had just come out of. The rider stood up for a moment holding onto the gate, then he just crumpled to the ground. He was attended to and shortly walked out. Back at the campground I made a very nice home made vegetable soup to warm our bones. Our purchases at the Homer Farmers Market were being put to good use.

A lesson in Homer culture and history.

Today we headed out for breakfast at the Two Sisters' Bakery. We were both very bad and each got two pastries. A chocolate croissant for each of us, I had a whole grain pear muffin and Bob a raspberry/cheese danish. There were outstanding. We were "stuffed" when we left.

Our next stop was the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor's Center. It is run by federal and state grants. (It had national parks stamps!) They do lots of estuary and island research. Lots of information/exhibits here which filled our interests. One of our activities was a guided one hour walk through the nearby Beluga Slough Estuary. Our guide was a wealth of information. I learned lots about the plants. We ended up spending 3 hours at this interactive museum. It outlined 100 years of federal action to save endangered species and expand protected wildlife areas. There was another speaker with videos of Lake Clark National Park and Preserve giving tours of bear encounters and watching them fish for salmon. She mentioned checking out the live feed camera at Katmai National Park and Preserve, we all can "google" it. Then we can all watch the bears fishing. Otherwise it would require being flown in to see them in person.

We had a healthy veggie salad for lunch and proceeded to the Pratt Museum. This museum highlighted the traditions and lifestyles of the various native cultures. Also the hardships and lifestyles of several early homesteaders. Some of the settlers voice recordings told their stories, or their children did.

This is Rhubarb planted in the homestead garden. It's bigger than I am!

Homer Spit and tours in the area.

July 2, 2014. Today was a full day of activities in Homer.

After breakfast we walked down the spit and visited a few shops. At an Alaskan Native Craft shop I found some fossilized nautilus earrings that were just right. We scouted out the local fish market and restaurants. We may get to take some fish with us when we leave. The best value we found was in a Double-Decker Red remodeled British Bus selling Fish and Chips! It was called the Big Dipper Chipper. We had the fried halibut and fries for $16 and smoked salmon chowder for $5. We split an order of each and were stuffed. It was delicious as well.

Next we had free tickets for a harbor dock creature tour at the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies. We spent an hour on the docks (sometimes lying on our stomachs peering over the bottom of the docksides into the water) viewing starfish, jelly fish, anemones, barnacles, mussels and much more active sea life in the harbor. We learned how starfish eat barnacles. A most interesting hour spent! After paying for another night and marking our spot at the campground we headed through town to the overlook where we first saw Homer. I took lots of pictures and we both enjoyed watching the eagles soar. Also, in the ocean below the overlook we could see some otters and possibly seals. They were out quite a distance! We stopped at the local farmer's market, stocking up on fresh veggies.

Then we drove up West Hill Rd, to Skyline Drive. This brought us to the highest point on the Northwest side of town. What views! This road was more spectacular than the turn out off the Sterling Highway. We stopped 3 or 4 times for pictures and just plain gawking.

From Skyline drive we dropped down East Hill Rd, to East End Road. This brought us to Bear Creek Winery and Lodge. This was a very wonderful stop. They make many kinds of fruit wines. Some are blends of red or white wine grapes with other fruits. Most of their wines were very good. We both did the eight wine sampler. Both of us favored their 10th anniversary wine. It was called Glacier Rose' and was made from 100% Rhubarb. They had another wine I liked that was made from 100% Raspberries. Their Kiwi/Pear blend was my 3rd choice. We bought only 1 bottle as it should be used fresh! Upon leaving I was checking out their extensive gardens and was told by the owner from her upper balcony to feel free to wander about. It was quite a work in progress and I took lots of pictures.

They even had tall Blue Himalayan Poppies! Our next stop was supposed to be our campsite. We decided to verify the location of and hours of operation of the Two Sisters Bakery for breakfast tomorrow and the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitors Center for tomorrow. And the Homer Brewery. Of course when we got there, one thing led to another. There was a local Oyster vendor on the premises. Fresh oysters $12.50/dozen were too hard to resist and Bob ordered a 5 beer sampler. Another fine ending to an activity filled day.