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.

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!!

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.

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.

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.

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.