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Saturday, July 31, 2010

Anchorage

We are back in Anchorage and have an appointment Mon. to have a new leveler put on the RV. Wouldn't you know there is an air show this weekend. We went this afternoon when the weather was better and watched the Canadian Snowbirds and the Blue Angels. We will probably go again tomorrow.
I haven't had a good internet connection in some time, so right now I'm using the Verizon dongle which could be costly.
We enjoyed a few days in the Portage Valley and a quick visit to Whittier.
I'll put photos on Flicker when I have a good connection.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Under the docks

We have been learning about the Alaskan sea creatures the last couple of days.
We tagged along with a bunch of kids on the harbor boat docks to see what lives under the docks. The kids would reach under and pick off the sea stars, scope up jelly fish and pull up the buoys to find crabs, mussels, barnacles and anemones.
We walked the beach next to our RV park as the tide was going out and found more anemones, barnacles,jelly fish and some other little creatures.
The sun is out today so we better get out and enjoy it!!


Tuesday, July 20, 2010

A visit to Seldovia

The weather wasn't great today had a little mist now and then but we took a boat over to the little community of Seldovia. It is an old native and Russian community, Seldovia means Herring in Russian. In 1852 the Russians observed the spring herring run, a there began an industry. The Russians had also used the natives to hunt otters for their fur.
In the 1920s the fisheries had been discarding rotting fish and offal in the water for so long it killed the necessary vegetation for the herring so now the fish is salmon.
The salmon canneries were destroyed in 1964 when the Good Friday earthquake hit and the town dropped 4 feet and tides flooded the town. A little part of the boardwalk is left and now fishing guiding and tourism is the main industry now.
Can you find Eddie, he enjoyed his tour of Seldvoia too.



Monday, July 19, 2010

Exploring Homer

What a surprise Monday, the skies cleared in the afternoon and we hurried about exploring Homer getting some photos with blue sky.

We drove up skyline drive and got a good photo of the Homer Spit, the spit has the boat harbor, campgrounds and touristy stores and restaurants. A lot of stuff for a little piece of sand and rock.

I have put a few pics of Homer on Flirkr, the internet seems to be working but it still slow.

I'm hoping we see some nice weather tomorrow too.

In Homer AK

We are now in Homer at the Ocean View RV park and as usual when we move the RV it rains, we had a light rain most of the day Sunday. Homer is only 70 miles south of Soldotna. The weather forecast is looking dreary for this week more rain just about every day. The temps have been unusually low for this time of year it's been 48 for the low and the high 52, so the heater runs every night and I wear a jacket or sweatshirt every day. Please send some of your heat this way, just a little!Here is Homer's greeter!!
Our view out the window when no one is parked next to us and the clouds are gone. This morning you can't see anything out there.
The Internet here is slow and last night I couldn't get on, and Ken couldn't stay on, I think too many were on line as this is a bigger park with 86 sites and they all look full. This morning I'm on! This is one of the more expensive parks we've stayed at $45 but hey it's homer and we like our electric, water and sewer and some quiet. There are cheaper places but you give up something.


Thursday, July 15, 2010

Ninilchik, AK

It was nice to see the sun out for another day, so off sightseeing.
We head south hoping to see the 3 volcanoes on the other side of the inlet, but it was too hazy. (I posted a photo of Mt. Redoubt in my last post, I have learned it is 40 miles away across the Cook Inlet.)
We noticed the lighting was good on the church in Ninilchik and stopped to take photos.
We were able to go inside and a priest was there to tell us and several other visitors about it and it's history.It is a Russian Orthodox mission church called Transfiguration of our Lord.
It has 5 domes one representing Christ and the 4 others evangelists, it was built in 1901. There were 100 of these in Alaska, ( posted a photo of the church in Kenai on my Flickr site.)
Behind the door and a red curtain is the altar, it represents heaven and the light coming from the dome above is the light from heaven. Parishioners stand in the small naive.

These are the wedding crowns.
We didn't go into the town to visit the rest of the historical village, maybe we'll make it on later trip, it was really quite interesting.
We then decided to head on down to Homer to see what RV parks were available and have lunch. I had fish and chips, with fresh halibut which Homer boasts as being the halibut capital of the world, Ken had a turkey and bacon melt. We made reservations for a week starting Sunday at Ocean View RV, the lady at the Homer Visitor Center stays and works there too. She was working at the RV park when we went back to make our reservations and she was really appreciative that we took her advice to stay there and got us a really nice spot so we could have a beautiful view of the ocean, I believe it's the inlet not the ocean.
The bird of the day was Bald Eagles, I believe we saw 10 or more I didn't keep count.
Maybe, we will have another sunny day it's about time Alaska had a little summer but on the other hand the mosquitoes haven't been bad with the rain and cool temps.




Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Soldotna area

We found a space for 5 nights in Kasilof RV park 12 miles so. of Soldotna. It is a nice quiet wooded park with only about 30 spaces. This morning I heard a loon, we have a lake right across the the road, we didn't know it was that close til this afternoon as there are trees hiding it from view.The sun came out today and we could see the mountains of the area, this is Mt. Redoubt an active volcano. Last year it was spouting and puffing. The body of water is the Cook Inlet, the tide was low.
We went out looking for birds and all we found were fishermen.

And more fisherman!!!
We found birds at the lake across from our RV park, our first merganser duck.
I called my cousin who lives in Soldotna, they are having guests for the weekend so we'll get together with them when we come back this way from Homer.



Monday, July 12, 2010

Captains Choice tour

Here's our view of the mountains from Stoney Creek RV park, pretty isn't it. I'm a bit tired tonight and my thoughts and fingers probably aren't working very well.
We took the Captains choice tour of Fjords Nat'l park, the captain stops for most wildlife, it is a 9 hour cruise. The picture at the bottom of this blog is the boat we were on, it is a small boat for a small group of 16 people. We saw whales, birds, sea lions, seals and sea otters, I didn't get many photos of the wildlife, too hard for me to get a good photo in focus on a rolling boat. Ken got several good photos, and a cold as he spent a lot of time on the bow of the boat with the other photographers getting the good shots (he probably caught it Friday he spent alot of time on that bow too).
The boat in the pic above is like the boat we were in on Friday, a larger two decked that carries 150 people. This is taken in front of the Northwestern glacier today.

Our day started out beautiful with blue skies, calm water but as we were heading back from the glacier the seas turned a bit rough, the sky grey with some rain but we weren't worried we had a good captain.
I have to remind myself that the forest here is a rain forest, so that means lots of precipitation and it is what I expected, lots of rain but not so cold.
We are heading out tomorrow, somewhere on the northern side of Kenai Peninsula where ever we can find a spot as I heard the fishing is getting good and the campgrounds are filling up.
The part for the RV had not been ordered as of Friday, I hope they ordered it today, they weren't sure what was needed after they had looked at the broken leveler too. We may be getting it fixed in Texas not Alaska at this rate.



Friday, July 9, 2010

Almost 2 days without rain

We've had almost two days without rain the sun even came out. Our Thursday cruise we changed to Friday as the seas were too rough to get out to see the glaciers, they gave us the choice for refund, change day or go on the cruise and get a little refund for not being able to see all the places promised. So we changed days and then went for a drive, and the weather improved as we headed north. We went to Hope, AK a little place with a big history. At one time it was the place to be, before there was an Anchorage, it was the supply town for the miners up until the railroad by passed it and went to Anchorage instead. Now it's just part of Alaska's many little towns that hold on to their mining history.We then continued on to Anchorage to pick up a few things at Walmart, cats were needing some litter and tuna. It's a 3 hour drive up to Anchorage from Seward, but it is a beautiful drive and in the car we can stop more places to take photos then when we are driving the RV. We saw 2 Dahl sheep up on the slope and were able to turn around and get photos. (Posted on Flickr)

This morning the sun was shining and not a cloud in the sky, we knew we had made the right choice of changing the cruise date for today.
We had a nice time, chilly of course and the clouds did roll back in by mid afternoon but who cares when seeing whales, puffins, sea lions and big glaciers.
More pics on my Flickr site.
We experienced our first tiny earthquake tremor Wed. evening, the RV rocked a couple of times and we both wondered what was that then forgot about it, then we heard last night that there was a little quake near Anchorage.
More rain predicted for tomorrow, laundry day??? At $5 a load maybe not.



Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Now in Seward

Good news my computer is OK it was the server in Wasilla!!This is looking at Seward from the levy, wouldn't it be even more beautiful with a blue sky.
It is chilly here, it might have made it to 60 degrees.
We are staying at Stoney Creek RV about 6 miles north of town, it's hidden away in the woods and it is very quiet. It's really a lovely place once you get here over the bumpy road. I have to go to the Wifi room to get on the Internet it's over the laundry and showers and it has a lovely view looking over the park at the mountains.
We will be here til next Tues, we have tickets for a 6 hours cruise Thurs and a 9 hour cruise Monday, just hoping the weather is decent. I'm going to dig out some winter clothes!!
Things are even more expensive here gas is $3.80, haven't been to the local Safeway it's a little scary. The RV parks have been averaging $32 a night, we have full hook up here with 30 amps and our little electric heater has been working hard. The cats really enjoy it!!
I am posting some new photos on flickr, hope you enjoy them.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Happy 4th of July

I hope everyone had a nice 4th, it is hard for us to believe it's the fourth of July for some reason. Maybe it's the cool weather low was 48 and the high today was 62.
We went to the Matanuska Glacier today, you can see this glacier from the Glenn Hwy and you can go walk on it for about $20 per person, Ken got the senior price of 15. It is on private land and is not a state park. We can now say we walked on a glacier.I have not been able to get connected on the internet the last few days so I'm using Ken's computer. Not sure if it's my computer or the server we'll see when we move to Seward tomorrow.
We have been down to Anchorage a couple times, Thurs. we ordered our part and dropped in to say hello to a cousin. He was going to his cabin for the weekend so we'll try to get together at a later date.
We visited the Native Heritage Center in Anchorage Friday that was interesting to see how the natives lived and watch a couple of dance performances. We should have gotten there earlier as we didn't get to see all the exhibits and films.
Sat. we went and explored some of Anchorage's birding spots, we got several photos of birds with their babies. I'll post pics on flickr if I ever get back on line with my own computer.
We have been to Walmart several times, we find if you want brand names you may pay around a $1 or so more, but we found good deals too. We buy yogurt and it is 89 cents, cat food is about 20 cents higher, milk was the same, frozen dinners are much higher, Subway $5 footlongs are 6 or 7 here, McDonald's has no $1 menu it's $1.60 or so. Alaska has no state sales tax, but towns may have a little Wasilla as 2% and Anchorage has none.
Hope to have my own computer back tomorrow.