Our Grand Alasakan Adventure

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I do hope you get to see McKinley from the air.  We were fortunate to have a perfectly clear day for our air tour of the mountain and it was the highlight of our trip.  If you think it's impressive from the ground, wait until you see it from 21,000 feet!  We took our flight out of Healy River on Talkeetna Air.  It was a 2 for 1 in the coupon book, so a real bargain.  That paid for the whole book.
 
One time, I was there on Sept 2nd. The park closes at the end of Aug (or at least used to) and the buses stop making the trip up the mountain. At that time (and maybe still) we were allowed to just drive the (rented) motorhome up the mountain to the gold mine @ the 10K' level. That was quite an experience.

As you say, the mountain is at it's most impressive when standing 20 miles from the base and looking up 20K'. There is usually a cloud line at around 10K' and to realize that, just takes your breath away........ BTW..... it was -10* at 10,000'. Thankfully, the weather was spectacular when we were there. I have a pic that I took of McKinley and it hangs on the wall next to my chair..... I love that pic. Sorry about the reflection but I can't get the frame in my scanner and I don't want to remove the pic from the frame.
 

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We learned that one of the reasons Mt. McKinley looks so spectacular is that it rises 18,000 from the valley floor which no other mountain does, including the ones in the Himalayas.  The others may be higher in elevation but they have higher valleys surrounding them so they look smaller.

ArdraF
 
Thanks for all your comments.  I do hope we get to see McKinley from the air.  Time will tell.  And now there is a lottery to see who can come into the park after Sept 15 (that is the last day for shuttle buses).

July 13, 2014 ? Day 54
We broke camp and drove 137 miles to Eagle River about 10 miles north of Anchorage.  We will be at the Eagle River Campground for the next few nights.  This is a State Park and no hookups, luckily we filled water tank before we left.  We are in Site 57 which is a good, fairly level, and heavily forested site. There is a black bear who seems to be hanging out around here but we haven?t seen a sign of it yet. Headed to the local Wal-Mart to restock the motorhome.  It will be nice to have consistent cell service for a few days.
Met up with Dick and Cindi Nenahlo?s for the afternoon and evening.  They are the parents of one of Ryan?s former roommate and co-worker at CountryWide and then Bank of America, Christina Nenahlo.  Christina has found her way to live and work in Denver and we have adopted her into the family.  She is a lot of fun to have around.  We had a wonderful time chatting and eating an awesome meal.  We traded stories of our children and most likely make them say ?oh mom, why did to tell them that? comment.  I love to do that to my children.  We had such an enjoyable time, we plan to meet again on Tuesday night for dinner. Dick and Cindi were very helpful in giving us ideas of things to see and do while here in the Anchorage area.  We will get a fresh start in the morning and tackle a thing or two from their suggestions.
TTFN


 
I have been reading through your trip to Alaska. Glad that you are enjoying Alaska it was a trip of a life time when we were there in 2005. Have fun an keep the stores & pictures coming.
 
July 14, 2014 ? Day 55
Camped at Eagle River Campground. The only thing to make this campground better might be hookups.  But I did say might.  Pretty nice, short distance from highway, but can?t hear it, right along the Eagle River, which is running fast and muddy, not good fishing, and the setting, pine and birch trees, sites are well spaced. Partly cloudy skies and about 55 degrees.
After breakfast we decided to take the bikes and head into Anchorage, 10 miles, and bike the Tony Knoles Coastal Trail.  We were told by Dick last night to keep driving straight and you might think you are going straight into the ocean but the road will dip down and there is a park and the trail.  He was right on all of it.  The highway turned into 5th Street in downtown Anchorage, you are looking towards the horizon and there is the Cook Inlet, which leads to the Gulf of Alaska or the Pacific Ocean depending on which part of the map you are looking at. So we stop at the top of a hill, there is Elderberry Park and the trail goes along the shores of the Cook Inlet.  After Jim fed the wrong parking meter so for $2 more he fed the other parking meter so we could park legally, we took the bikes off the rack and geared up.  The trail was paved, fairly wide and well-traveled by visitors and Anchoragens (people who live in Anchorage). Mostly level but a few good hills for this out of shape bike rider, I really need to work out more.  What the tide started to come in, rode for almost 2 hours, I might be sore tomorrow.  Stopped at a turnout by the airport and ended up in a conversation with 2 couples up here checking off another item on the bucket list, but they were from just south of Kansas City.  Chatted with them while we drank some water, watched the tide come in and caught our breath.  On our way back there was a woman older than us riding by herself towards us, she asked us if she was heading for Anchorage.  We told her she needed to turn around, when she did, there was downtown laid out for her.  She asked if she could follow us back, we were okay with that.  Stopped at Chester Creek to look for salmon, didn?t see any, but Jim saw some rainbow?s rising, and he without his fishing rod. 
Wandered around downtown for a little while with a stop at the Ulu Factory, then worked our way towards The Quilt Tree.  I am sad to say the creative juices weren?t flowing so I walked out empty handed. They had some beautiful quilts on display encouraging you to take a class to learn that pattern, and some examples of quilts with kits for sale.  Made our way back to WeBe to catch up on some emails and bank account.  Went for a lovely walk in the campground and down to the river.  I think we will make an early night since we have a big day planned for tomorrow.  A cup of Sleepytime tea will end the night nicely.
TTFN
 

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I look forward to your posts every day.  Sounds like you are having a fantastic time.
 
Thanks, we are having a wonderful time,  we love opening up the computer to see if anyone has commented.

July 15, 2014 ? Day 56

What a great day! After eating breakfast we did a little cleaning to the place, then I went to get my hair cut, yeah, and then up to Wasilla.  This is the town of the infamous Sarah Palin where she can see Russia from her back door, right.  I could see the Chugach Mountains with snow still on some of the peaks.  We drove through Wasilla on the Parks Highway the other day, but today was a special trip.  Jim reads lots and lots of book with stories of fishing, in one of them a place in Wasilla was written about, Trout?s Place.  Back in 2001 when we were here we looked and looked for this place, but it didn?t seem to be there.  We decided to make a real effort this time, well on our way to Eagle River we are driving through Wasilla and I look over and there it was.  It is now Trout?s House Caf? and Motel. Also known as The Windbreak.  It is right on the main drag how could we have missed it? It doesn?t matter now because we have found it.  It is pretty much a mom and pop place but I had a French dip sandwich which was really good.  But poor Jim, I don?t think he ate much or even tasted what he ate because the walls were adorned with mounted fish, lots and lots of fish.  And there tons of pictures of fish and people of all ages with fish.  Most were trout but there was a really nice King salmon mounted.
After lunch we headed up Wasilla-Fish Hook Road towards Hatcher Pass.  The Independence Mine is up there close to the Pass road.  It was overcast but about 60 degrees.  Lush, beautiful green brush and trees as we moved up in altitude.  From a distance the area looks like good pasture land until you realize it is thick heavy brush.  It would be difficult to try to walk through it, I bet there are plenty of mosquitoes.  I thought the road had a pretty funny name until I looked at a map, it goes straight north out of Wasilla and then makes a sharp turn (a fish hook) to go up and over Hatcher Pass.  In that area there about 38 different gold mines.  Independence Mine is now owned and managed by the State Parks.  They are slowing stabilizing and even restoring some of the buildings.  The first building we entered was the mine manager?s house of Walter Stoll and his family.  There were quite a few mining artifacts and got the feel for living there.  There was a couple of big bunk houses, an assayer?s office, mill, cook house, and machine/blacksmith shops.  We chose to do the self-guided trip; we began our walk and the sign indicated the trail was paved in some areas, dirt or gravel the rest of the way but it was the 8%-20% grade on the trail that was a little bothersome.  But on we went.  There was an ore train powered by a train car of big batteries. Instead of using pulley ore cars, they used the creek running through the mine for water tunnel and helped to speed up the process of getting the ore out of the mine.  All of it was very interesting.
After leaving the mine we drove the dirt road up to the summit of Hatcher Pass, elev 3,880 feet.  Temperatures up there were cooler and then were storm clouds brewing.  Beautiful in its own way, varying shades of green, brown, gray, white and almost black in some areas.  Slowly made our way back down the pass and into the town of Palmer to explore there.  We are thinking of staying a night and wanted to check things out.  There is a quilt shop.  Palmer is home to the Alaskan State Fairgrounds, which unfortunately we will miss.  I really wanted to see the big vegetables grown here.  Supposedly there is a garden to wander around, I guess that will have to do.  Got back in time to change clothes before going out to dinner with Cindi and Dick Nenahlo.  We were going to their daughter, Christina?s choice of restaurants, Pizza Man.  Christina it was a good choice.  Back to WeBe for a glass of wine and pie for dessert.  Said our goodbyes to Cindi and Dick, Jim will catch up with them for dinner one night in August when I am back in Denver for the week.  TTFN
 

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July 16, 2014 ? Day 57
I can?t believe we have been gone for 8 weeks.  We have seen and done some amazing things.  I only hope I am capturing enough for me to go back and remember more details.  Luckily Jim has an awesome memory.
As I write tonight Jim is off trying to catch fish across the bay from Seward.  We drove down this morning about 135 miles.  We are staying at Stoney Creek RV Park just north of Seward.  Choices are limited in Seward, their municipal campground or the one we are at.  There are some USFS campgrounds going toward Anchorage.  Overcast day but temperatures in the upper 50?s to low 60?s, but fairly windy, especially down in Seward.  Gas today was $4.42 per gal, campsite was $40 a night. It is nice to have water and electricity.  There is a creek running behind the campground and we did see an eagle flying overhead. If Jim gets back soon enough we will go explore.  Drive down was uneventful, yeah, we like it that way.  After getting checked-in and a little late lunch we wandered into Seward to get the lay of the land.  Remember it has been 13 years since our last visit here.  The town has grown some, there is a Safeway now, a pretty ugly one I might add.  We tend to gravitate to water when we leave Denver and this was no exception.  We stood at the edge of Resurrection Bay and watched some folks snag fishing.  They threw their line out and jerked the line back in, trying to snag a salmon.  We looked in the creek that emptied into the bay and saw a few King Salmon, then followed the creek up to a pond and there were hundreds of King?s. They were darting in and around, jumping and skimming the top of the water.  I thought it was pretty cool.  Went down to the harbor to get my fishing license and King stamp for tomorrow?s outing with a guide for King?s.  We heard the Kings are real slow coming in so time will tell if we get any or get skunked.  Wandered around the harbor and then downtown.  I did spy a quilt shop and had to go in and this time I did make a small purchase.  I was very surprised to see they carried Creative Mountain quilt patterns.  This is from the quilt shop I go to in Centennial, Colorado.  I felt really proud.
I need to back up a minute, when we checked into the campground there was a gentleman who works here and he is real big into fishing.  He told Jim he could follow him tonight to try his luck at some Chum Salmon, also known as Dog salmon.  This is because Alaskan won?t eat it, they just feed it to their dogs.  But from what we have been told, they are fun to catch.  But this guy was giving us the regular old fishing report.  Jim was all ears.
Jim also called the guides for tomorrow to see if we would still go if the Kings aren?t in and they said we might switch over to fish for Sockeye salmon.  I really want to get a bigger King than 13 years ago (37 lbs), but if it means we ship some home or not, I will fish for Sockeye.  I think it is funny I am being particular about the salmon I catch, I don?t eat it, I am allergic to fish.
The kids have finished playing soccer in the field between us and the creek.  Jim just called to say he was on his way back and he did catch a baby rockfish.  So I guess it is time to open the bottle of wine and call it a night.
TTFN
 
Hey you two  I just finished catching up. The pictures of Denali are fantastic!!! What a thrill to see the mountain but I'm sorry you were unable to go on your flight. Hopefully you'll be able to go later. It's getting hot here. Looking forward to seeing you soon Mick.  Keep enjoying and love you.
 
July 17, 2014 ? Day 58
Long day.  Made sure we were up and functioning early so we could have a leisurely drive to Kenai to meet our fishing guide.  Last time we were scrambling.  Made good time despite the traffic.  It was astonishing to see the number of dip netters we passed.  No wonder there are low numbers of fish coming back.  If you are a resident of Alaska your limit for salmon is 25 for head of household and 10 for each family member living in that household.  We have heard that sometimes they complete their limit in a couple of hours or less.  Something else interesting that we witnessed was the cleaning of the brush along the highway.  You have the picture of lots of pine trees and green brush, well they use this thing that chops, grinds and spits out the trees and shrubs all at the same time.  I am use to the side of the road being mowed not spitted back out as mulch.
We made it to our rendezvous point- The Pillars- with one little glitch- the parking lot was full and you were only going to be let in if someone left and we were 3 cars back.  Jim phoned the guide service and we sat and ate our lunch while waiting.  Luckily we were early and they ended up making a spot for us to park.  Finally met up with guide, Zach from Broomfield, Colorado who is finishing his masters at Colorado School of Mines.  And we were sharing the boat with father and son, Bill and Justin of Melbourne, Australia.  Lots and lots of boats on the river and 100?s of people fishing 10 feet apart up along the shore.  We went up river a bit and threw our lines in and slowly trolled downstream for King Salmon. This isn?t the type of fishing you throw line out and real back in.  It is very relaxed fishing unless you get one on.  Sadly after 3 hours of trolling for Kings and not a bite we moved out of the fast central channel for the quieter bank of water to try and catch some sockeye.  So up the Kenai River we went looking for some vacant shoreline to tie off and try our luck.  Waders on, we ventured on the edge of the water.  There was a narrow rocky ledge before the water dropped off and it was cold about 40 degrees.  Then you let out about 6 feet of line with a weight attached and another 3 feet of line with a bead and hook.  You flip your line out, let it drift with the current and when you feel a little drag, you jerk the line in.  We were trying to snag the sockeye.  Not truly fishing- but whoa- I was the first one to catch a fish.  Unfortunately it was a fingerling, maybe 3 inches long.  Megan and I will have to arm wrestle to see who caught the smallest fish.  When Zach gave the cue to stop fishing, which was ?10 more cast?, Jim had a fish on and he jumped about eye level with Jim like he was taking a picture of his shocked face.  The fish took some line and swam under a tree that was sticking out in the water.  Zach was slowly inching his way out on the tree trying to loosen the line for Jim to reel in some more line so Zach could net it. Just as Zach had the net out to scoop up the fish it broke the line.  Jim had about 11lb fish that gave him a good fight.  While Zach was cautiously scooting off the tree Bill had a fish on and they were able to get it in the net but it was only about 8 lbs and there was a chunk of flesh were a seal had gotten a bite out of it.  Zach fillet it for them and they offered it to us because they had some still left from yesterday and another day of fishing to go. Finally time to head back. The Kings got the better of us and I would like to think the 50-60-70 pounders will be there for me the next time I try and a couple of sockeye lost.
It was a fun day.  Zach worked hard trying to find us fish and he felt bad we didn?t catch a King.  But I will return and watch out when I do. 95 mile drive back to WeBe but we stopped for dinner on our way out of town.  A little tired when we did get home so checked emails and called it a day.
TTFN
 
July 18, 2014 ? Day 59
Whoosh, what another long day, we need to stop this and relax for a minute.  Today was our Kenia Fjords Tour.  We had to be in Seward by 9:15 AM, so I set the alarm to make sure we were up.  No worries, last night was not a night for me to sleep.  I am dragging today.  Our tour is to take us out to Kenia Fjords National Park, which is mostly made up of water. Capt. Steve was driving today and this is a much bigger boat than the Lula Belle out of Valdez.  We sailed out of the harbor with partly cloudy skies but it looked like we could have blue skies later, which it did.  Sailing through Resurrection Bay is beautiful, mountains about 3,500 feet rise up from the ocean.  Trees cover rocks, we actually passed over the spot where the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate collide.  The Pacific Plate goes underneath and pushes up the North American Plate. We see 3 glaciers off to the east and Lowell Point, which is the farthest you can drive in Seward. ?Seward was an important transportation hub for Alaska?s mining, fishing and trapping industries.  Resurrection Bay was named in 1792 by a Russian fur trader and explorer Alexander Barnof.  While sailing from Kodiak to Yakutat he found unexpected  shelter in this bay from a storm and named it Resurrection Bay because it was the Russian Sunday of Easter? (Milepost).
We past Bear Glacier- 3 miles wide and 13 miles long, part of the Harding Icefield and the beginning of the Kenia Fjords National Park.  The National Park was ?formed when glaciers flowed down to the sea from the Harding Icefield and then retreated, leaving behind fjords, the deeply carved glacial valleys filled with sea water.? (Milepost)  The park is over 600,000 acres, mostly accessible by boat and the Harding Icefield covers 714 square miles.  We made our way up to Aialik Glacier where we did see a little calving, it was about 300 feet tall and we were about 1/3 to ? a mile away.  But I am sorry to say Columbia Glacier was much better.  This was good, don?t get me wrong, just not as big.  We also saw Addison and Pederson Glaciers.  Aialik is a tidewater glacier, which means it flows into the ocean. 
We then headed for Chiswell Islands to check out the Stellar Sea Lions and several different birds.  All toll today we saw Stellar Sea Lions, sea otters, Dall?s porpoises, humpback whales, Horned Puffins, Common Murres, Tufted Puffins, Cormorants, Bald Eagle, Harbor seals, Rhinoceros Auklet, Black-Legged Kittiwakes, Mew Gulls and a Mountain goat.  One humpback was doing what the Captain called a tail lob, the whale flipped its tail in the air and then over to the side quickly. He whale did this several times in quick succession.  Too quick for us to even grab cameras, we have a memory.  The Captain also spotted a ?smack of jellyfish?, the water was considerably lighter than surrounding water and the area was filled with jellyfish.  First time I had ever heard of that.  Not far from this was Barwell Island which was a piece of rock sticking up out of the water several hundred feet with ramparts at the top of it.  It was a military station during the World War II.  Those deployed there had to be hoisted up with a cable and spend summers with thousands of birds nesting and 60 foot waves crashing against the rock in the winter.  Thank you to the men who spent the time in the service out there.
Around 4:45 PM we stopped off at Fox Island for a dinner of salmon, prime rib and crab legs.  It was pretty tasty and while we ate a National Park Ranger gave a presentation of the area.  We had some time to skip some rocks before the Captain called us aboard again.  There was even a person swimming in the water, burrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!  Jim got off some great skips, I suck at it.  Back to the harbor and docked about 6:45 PM, time to head for WeBe and start typing.
TTFN
 

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Brings back memories of our trip in 2002. We first saw "The Mountain" from Byers Campground. Our picture looks much like the once that we took. We drove into Talkeetna and camped down by the river. We did take the plane out of Talkeetna on a day when you could not see the top of the mountain. We were able to see the "base camp" and the steep wall of the cannons and were able to land on the glacier. Still one of the high light of our trip.
 
We are glad to bring back such great memories.

July 19, 2014 ? Day 60
Heading to an area we have never been, Homer, AK.  Drove 167 miles, mostly partly cloudy skies, but that was after waking up to rain.  We had to break camp in the rain, yuck. The scenery was mountains with heavy brush.  Traffic very heavy to Soldotna and then slowly thinned.  As we are heading south on the Sterling Highway we begin to see across the Cook Inlet.  Now we are seeing some really large mountains with snow a good portion up.  We had have a beautiful view of Mount Iliamna, elevation 10,016 feet and we are over 53 miles away.  Then there was Mount Redoubt, elevation 10,197 feet at 54 miles away. This is an area called ?ring of fire?.  Awesome scenery and I just wanted to stop the car and gaze.
We set up camp at Oceanview RV Park.  A typical Alaskan campground, sites close together and we are backed right up to another campground.  But there are views of the ocean.  Had a great dinner cooked by moi. Headed out to check out the Homer Spit which is 4 miles of land that juts out from the mainland.  It has camping, charters, restaurants and gift shops.  At the very end is a hotel and restaurant.  There is also a place called The Lagoon, which is a lagoon with sea water the fills and drains with the tide where the locals come to fish for salmon.  Fish and Game have stocked the lagoon with baby salmon who then imprint this is where they come back to as adults to spawn.  It was amazing to see these fish jumping in the water.  We saw a few get caught, small to medium size of silver salmon.  If the gale force winds wouldn?t have been blowing I would have sat and watched them fish, but it was too cold and windy to stand out there for long. 
Took the East End Road to see where it went.  We did find a winery which we will have to check out, lots of homes that have wonderful views of the mountains, glaciers and ocean.  Jim could be quite content here, I think.  I hope he will come visit me in the summers.  This road just goes on and on, we drove it for 12 miles and finally gave up and turned around.  Stopped at Jellybean?s for an ice cream, yummy.  But now my tummy is full, I think it is time to call it a night.
TTFN
These are pics of Mt Redoubt and Mt Iliamna
 

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If you get a chance, head to Anchor Point and watch the boats get launched into Cook inlet with tractors. As you turn onto the beach road be aware of the road signs, this road will also dead end at the beach just as the Sterling does in Homer.
 
I sure hope that you seize the opportunity to go halibut fishing while in Homer.
 
July 20 2014 ? Day 61
Glad to have the winds die down, I think it is going to be a beautiful day.  Walked down the end of row of motorhomes and there in a huge tree was an immature bald eagle.  And wouldn?t you know it as soon as I go to click the picture he starts to fly away.  It was still pretty cool to see one that close.  I will post that pic.  Jim and I went to the Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center, watched a couple of movies about wildlife in Alaska and perused the exhibits and then went outside to walk down to the beach.  There were a couple of adult Sandhill Cranes with their baby in the slough.  Didn?t see any other wildlife until we went into Old Homer.  You may have noticed on several blogs I have referred to the town as Old ?, you have to remember on Good Friday in 1964 the largest earthquake to hit North American struck about 50 miles east of Seward with a tsunami to strike shortly after, destroying the original Valdez, Seward and parts of Anchorage.  The towns made the decision to relocate, but all of them are still right on the ocean, I don?t understand that.  Fortunately Homer was not as affected by the earthquake so their Old town still exists.  We walked to the beach from Old Homer and saw a bald eagle take flight, they are so majestic. Drove back out to the spit and watched the fish jumping at the Lagoon.  Didn?t see anyone catch a thing today.  Walked the boardwalk and spoke to a couple of places about a bear watching trip.  It is a lot of money to spend when we have seen so many bears already.  We?ll have to think on that one.  While walking along the harbor we were intrigued with a young lady standing in the water under a walk way out to the boats.  She was using a long pole to try and fish something out of the water.  There was a young man up on the metal walkway about 20 feet up from the water directing her were to move the pole.  Finally it got the best of us, what was she fishing for? Her cellphone. I don?t think it will work anymore.
Back to WeBe for some lunch and I needed a power nap.  Jim was reading.  Got up about 45 minutes later and decided to sew for a bit.  I have 2 quilts currently going and the one today made a mess of WeBe from the fluff off the material. Changed clothes for our dinner at Captain Patty?s.  Got to the restaurant at 5 PM and there was already a 1 hour wait.  We put our name in and took a walk back down to the Lagoon now that it is low tide.  Still a few fisherperson?s, and few fish were jumping.  As we walked down there past the boat harbor it was interesting to see the docks were attached to the long metal pillars with large metal rings which allowed the dock to rise and fall with the tide.  All very interesting, we aren?t use to big harbors.  Finally we headed back to the restaurant and sat outside people watching until our table was ready.  We sat facing the water and enjoyed the view with our dinner. 
As we were finishing we noticed the marine ferry coming in.  Decided to go down and check out the ferry arrival since we will be riding on this one on Tuesday night. Lots of cars lined up to get on.  If you are driving a vehicle on, there are about 7 long rows for cueing up cars.  The ferry company tells you which row to line up in, then you wait until the loading.  Vehicles must be lined up at least 2 hours prior to sailing. First they unload vehicles on board by having 2 vehicles drive forward front to back then they rotate the platform and raise it up to the dock.  I was so nervous for these drivers, I am not sure I will be able to do this when we ride the ferry with Blazer and WeBe.  Thank goodness Jim will be driving WeBe.
Took a drive along Kachemak Bay and tried to get a good picture of Grewingk Glacier. Back to WeBe and I started sewing again but had to stop because I ran out of thread.  Oh dang it, that means a trip to the quilt shop tomorrow.  It is 11 PM and the sun is about to set. It should be a pretty sunset.
TTFN
 

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Here is a pic of the bald eagle and Grewingk glacier.
 

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July 21, 2014 ? Day 62
Today was a catch up day.  You need one every once in a while, right?  We tried to get on a halibut charter but have been told all sold out till next week.  Bright sunny day, my tomato plant is loving this.  There are about 6 tomatoes but all are still green.  They will be ripe about the time we get home.  After breakfast we went into the quilt shop and I did make a purchase.  I was pretty excited and wanted to get back to WeBe to sew.  Jim was going down to the lagoon and try his luck at a silver salmon.  Fish were swimming in front of him but none would take the hook. Once the fish come into the lagoon they stop eating. I put a couple of loads of wash in and got the sewing machine down.  I was making some good time on this quilt.  I was down to the last 2 strips of material and my machine wouldn?t hold the tension.  I fiddled and fiddled and maybe a curse word or two, but no go.  I finally had to put it back up and either I wait till I get home to get it fixed or buy a new machine.  We have talked about me upgrading my machine so time will tell what I decide to do.
Talked to Megan who started her new job today.  It went fine and I am glad of that.  But she really didn?t want to get up to go to work.  I don?t blame her.  I had put beef stew in the crockpot and it was smelling awfully good.  After dinner we took the bikes and rode on the walk/bike trail out on the Spit.  Once again it was smooth sailing on the way out but we were against the wind on the way back and I was tired when we arrived at the Blazer.  Took a drive up Skyline Drive.  It overlooks the Kachemak Bay and the Homer Spit.  It was really a beautiful drive.  We are reviewing our plans for tomorrow over to Kodiak.  We are taking the ferry, which leaves around 10 PM.  We will take WeBe for an oil change, set her up for storage for the next few days.  Kick around Homer for the remainder of the day and sail away tomorrow night.  So far it has been a great stay here in Homer.
TTFN
Pics- Homer Spit from Skyline Drive and Grewingk Glacier
 

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July 22, 2014 ? Day 63
We both woke up excited about today, we are going to ride the marine highway from Homer over to Kodiak.  There is still lots of time before we go this evening but it is a new adventure and we are ready.
We had to get WeBe ready to put in storage for the few days, but we don?t have to check out of the RV Park till 11 AM.  And that is about the time we did, then met up at the Safeway parking lot which looked like a 3 ring circus.  What were all of these people doing here on a Tuesday morning?  Connected up and made our way over to the car wash.  Both vehicles are getting a wash, thank goodness, I am tired of getting dirt all over me when I accidently rub up against either one.  Well $24 in quarters later both are nice and clean.  I am not sure why I bothered to shower before we did this.  I think I had more soap on me than WeBe.  Next stop was to Alyeska Tire to have an oil change for WeBe. Across the street was the Sourdough Caf? that we had read good reviews, so over we went.  My review is about a ? D?, the service was horrible, the menu very limited and I decided on a burger because it is a safe food for me with food allergies.  I asked to have it medium- medium well and lean more towards the medium well.  I will say the food did come quickly but my burger was RARE!!!  I can guess you got my drift.  I returned it and then it was overdone, which was no surprise.  What can I say but chock it up to experience, but when we go back to Homer I will not eat there. I felt I was dragging a bit and ended up taking a power nap.  Woke up refreshed and made our way to Bear Creek Winery for a little wine tasting.  Most of their wines are made with some type of fruit you might find in Alaska.  Pretty good stuff I guess, we walked out with 3 bottles.  They better be in WeBe when I come back from my little vaca from the Grand Adventure.  Finished up getting ready to sail tonight.  Made our way down to the ferry pier, there is a 44 foot Class A motorhome in the cue to board.  This should be really interesting to watch.
Boarding passes in hand and all we have to do is wait to be told it is time to board.  Watched the loading of vehicles, I was so nervous watching the big motorhome go on board.  There were several other good size trucks to also board.  Then the announcement for passengers to board, yeah.  A slow process, a little like the airport with TSA only this was just the ferry, wait for the first stop, give boarding pass, then stop to get cabin key, then the walk across the dock, finally on board.  Made our way to the cabin first to drop off our gear, then a short tour.  The Tustamena has about 20 cabins, most accommodate 2 people with a top and lower bunk, a sink and a small bench.  There was storage under the bunks but wasn?t sure how to get them open.  Basically there are 3 decks plus the car deck.  Top deck was the Solarium Deck, an open deck with a window to break the wind with some seats and a couple of benches.  This is where people pitched there tents or just sleeping bags.  Deck 2 had cabins and an inside seating area with seats that reclined some, lots of windows in the front, big tables with cushioned benches on either side and what they called the theatre room.  The theatre room had seating and a place that looked like it was a screen.  People rolled out sleeping bags, blankets/pillows, there was even a woman with a pack and play crammed into an area.  Deck 1 had a bar area, cafeteria and an area with tables, benches and vending machines.
Watched the final vehicles being loaded, interesting process.  Vehicles are driven up onto a ramp and into the turn table thing.  They rotated the turn table depending on which row the vehicle was to go, then the driver of the vehicle backs into the loading area. The vehicle is secured and in comes the next one.  My stomach is now secreting acid thinking about having to do this in a few weeks with WeBe and the Blazer.  I asked one of the workers if the big Class A motorhome backed in, and the answer as?yes?.  More acid secreted.  Jim tells me to stop worrying about it.  I?ll try.  Around 10:30 PM we set sail. We watched for a while then decided bed was a better option.
TTFN
 

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