August 14; ALONG THE OREGON TRAIL

August 14; leaving Mike’s and heading to the mountains. Supposed to be in the 90’s today here; heading on out at grees7:30 am at 66 degrees, and blue sky. Good-bye to the Pacific and cool breezes, and hello high-country.

We drove through the stunning Columbia River Gorge, past the hydro-electric dams along the way and eventually left the lush green rain forest behind to make way for the desert, and (today) 94 degrees. Deserts have their own beauty; maybe I can say that since we lived in the high desert of western Colorado, and the sagebrush reminds me of the years there.

We won’t camp for the evening until we are further into the mountains and the temperature drops. Just while typing this it has dropped to 88 degrees as we climb. Can ya feel it getting cooler????We pulled off the road not far after Pendleton, OR, where the terrain turned once again to beautiful, lush pine forest that is right through where the Oregon Trail crossed this territory.

This campground is called Emigrant Springs because this is the exact place where the emigrants traveling over the Oregon Trail stopped to replenish their water and rest. These pine forests were so thick that they had to cut down pine trees in order to get the wagons through; the trees were so dense that it was dark in the day time. From the looks of some of these pines around our campground, we figure that some of these pines could have been here when the oxen pulled the wagons through.
Isn’t this beautiful??? We stopped, made camp, and by 2 p.m.

we were chillin’ in our reclining chairs. We haven’t had these chairs out a hand full of times because of both the rain and mosquitoes along the way in Canada & Alaska. Even Tommy got to digging a hole so that she could chill out. It’s not hot, but I suppose with her fur coat, it could be a bit uncomfortable. She had to get a wet-wipe down before bed tonight with all that dust.

We had the pleasure of grilling Chris’ salmon outside and enjoying dinner outside. Perfectly fabulous evening.

August 15, 2008

We left the beautiful Emigrant Springs State Campground and headed to the desert. Doesn’t sound like fun; but it was. It was 54 degrees when we left at 7:30, with a perfectly cloudless blue sky. Crossing the 45th parallel (which is ½ way between the equator & the North Pole) we were squarely in the land of the sagebrush and brown grasses. Our first stop of the day was at the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. It was very interesting learning more about these 300,000 stalwart folks who braved the unknown in the mid 19th century. The most enjoyable thing was a presentation by a living historian putting on a show similar to the traveling medicine men of that era. Loads of fun, interactive, and good for many a laugh.

As we left, we observed the actual ruts that the wagons made over the desert/prairie (or whatever they call this dry stuff. There’s only about 300 miles of this trail still visible; look just like a “two track” into the bush. Early cars used them before the onset of real roads. We continued eastward to Hell’s Canyon. We wound up and down hills & mountains, all the while the temperature outside got hotter and hotter. When we finally wound ourselves around and along the Snake River, past the Oxbow Dam and further up the reservoir, the canyon got more and more rugged.

The temperature inched to 106 degrees as we reached the Hell’s Canyon Dam. We now know how this place got its name!
Traveling on, we reached Peyette, Idaho; a beautiful little area in the arid zone of Idaho. There we spent the evening with Chris’ friends, Wayne & Pat. When we set up our camper, we wondered what was all over the side of our camper, by the vicinity of the water-intake hole. It looked like we might have hit something, or something was dead there. Going inside it was easy to diagnose: (ta dah!) a previously unopened bottle of soy sauce, stored under the bed, had EXPLODED! We surmised that it was because of the 106 degrees outside…which was much higher inside the camper. It was everywhere! Could have been a worse smell, I suppose.
So, until we “connect” again…

August 13; Kalama....and beyond.

Yesterday, Chris and his brother, Mike, went out on the ocean for salmon fishing. Chris is the only one who got one....got a bunch of salmon steaks from this baby. They returned pretty tired...lots of hard work, you know. Andrea and I took the opportunity to browse the antique shops in Kalama and had a super time. We went until we found one shop served espresso also. That gave us the excuse to sit, rest the ole' feet and enjoy the surroundings. Had loads of fun.
Today we piled in the gimmy for a day trip to see Mt. St. Helens. Andrea grew up in the shadow of this majestic mountain...and it was a sad day for her when 4,000 foot of this comfortable giant that she had walked all over as a young girl blew up. It is still formidable and majestic.
We drove by many beautiful lakes on the way to Mt. St. Helens. This is Yale Lake. I won't tell you how Mike, the tour guide, drove 60 miles out of the way, missing the turn-off, looking for the over-look to see the back side of Mt. St. Helens; that's the side that blew away.

Tomorrow we leave for Payette, Idaho. Should be a beautiful trip. It's getting warm here....so, time to leave. ...and head toward the higher, cooler country.

Don't know when we'll get access to internet next, so, until we "connect" again...

August 10; The Road to Kalama, Washington

Today we went to the fish hatchery on the Kalama River, near to where Chris' brother, Mike, lives. It was most interesting. They were sorting out the steelhead trout, tagging them and taking DNA samples. The salmon were getting put through a chute back into the river to continue on upstream to spawn. This gentleman above is the fish biologist, Chris, and was most interesting when he explained what he was doing. Incidentally, this is what Chris' cousin, John Bender (whom we visited last week in Coos Bay, Oregon) used to do as a fish biologist.

Here is Mt. Hood which we viewed Sunday, on the way to Chris' brother's home. Note: the everpresent clouds (they follow us). But I'm real happy that I took this picture on the way in because it only got worse. Turns out that there were two lightening strike fires on the mountain. As we were there the smoke was working its way down the slope. There were boat-loads of snow-boarders on these slopes. They ski and snow board year round.
Chris & I were inside the beautiful Timberline Lodge that was built in 1937 by the WPA at Mt. Hood. It was totally beautiful in its rustic decor. They are renovating it, room by room, but keeping the original beauty and theme in mind.
This was the huge Bonneville Dam, located right along I 84 on the way to Portland. It was interesting watching the Salmon going up the "fish ladder" to spawn. (That was built for the salmon to get around the dam.
This was the beautiful lake we stayed at that was about 1/2 hour away from Mt. Hood. It was truly a little gem.
And then we finally got back to Mike & Andrea's home in Kalama, Washington. We dressed for theay ove weather when we left Clear Lake....chilly (about 42 degrees). By the time we got to Kalama we were way over dressed for the climate. Whew!

Bear Watching in Hyder, AK; July 29

OK, once again the style of the ( day was raincoats. But after the morning of bear watching and driving to the Salmon glacier, we wanted some sea food chowder. The "bus" was the place to go; her husband is the professional fisherman...so everything is fresh. You order at the "bus" (only 5 orders at a time, please) and then eat out or in on picnic tables. Great chowder!

And here's the pictures you've been waiting for (Jeanne!). This little 3 yr. old grizzley is just finishing up the scraps left by another bear feast of salmon. The salmon run is not plentiful enough for them to just jump up and catch them. This little guy needs practice and a few more salmon under his belt.
This eagle was swooping up and down the creek, but not stopping because of the people there. I was real happy I got this picture. Now, look at those trees. Looks like something is hanging from them. It is two different lichens, both denoting clean air. One name is Witches Hair and the other name is Methusila's beard.

Here's the little guy trolling the banks looking for a salmon to hit him in the face. Not happening.

He looks hungry to me.....that's why he finally went and finished the scraps you saw above.

Bear Watching....what a hoot!

This morning we woke to rain, of course, and drove to Hyder, AK just a couple of miles from Stewart, BC. There at Fish Creek in the Tongass National Park, where they have a boardwalk set up for bear viewing, we saw a wonderful 3 yr. old grizzley. He was trolling up and down the creek for a breakfast of salmon, but most of the chum salmon were not yet running. We also saw a bald eagle wanting his share of any salmon. This viewing lasted perhaps 90 minutes.
Then we drove up to the Salmon Glacier; quite a nice, steep, winding drive for about 18 miles up the mountains, through a canyon, to a glacier field. This field crossed back into British Columbia, though there were no customs agents for either country on this road. Apparently every 10 years they come and trim out a path along the whole length of the border, which we could see going up the far mountain. I suppose folks with ill intent could get over the border there…but it is some of the most rugged terrain in the country…wouldn’t be easy.
Then we went back for two more tries to see bear; to no avail. Perhaps we’ll get up tomorrow and look again. It’s only about 10 miles from our camp. Then we’ll head out in the general direction of the state of Washington. We may stop at Prince Rupert along the west coast, too.
So….until we connect again….

On the Fjordland Ferry to Juneau; July 26

We got so excited about this blue sky! And see the beautiful mountain picture I can take when there is blue sky!!!! This was along the Lynn Canal on our way to Juneau.
Another beautiful picture....and we all soaked it in!!!!
In front of the Mendenhal Glacier....and see the huge field of fireweed. They said that these were 6 feet tall!!!
Mendenhal Glacier.
These sockeye salmon sure are read. It was very shocking red! Then after they spawn all of their eggs they go further upstream and die within several weeks. But their dead carcasses add a lot of necessary nutrients to the water for the baby salmon....how about that!!!

Saturday morning....started with liquid sunshine

We were up bright and early to the sounds of our “coastal weather” dripping on our roof. Oh well…we were ready to get on with this adventure and donned our rain suits and water-proof hiking boots. We had run out of propane last night (RATS), so we hadn’t had our coffee (DOUBLE RATS!), but we were excited about the 2.5 hour catamaran trip to Juneau; so, all was well. We walked the length of two football fields to the Fjordland’s dock. By the time we got there we could see blue sky popping through in the overcast distance.
We made a quick stop in Haines to pick up some more passengers; by that time we had quite a bit of that blue stuff that is called sky! On our trip to Juneau we saw several humpbacked whales spouting and “sounding” (when they dive deep and you can see their tails flip above the water), seals sunning on some rocks ( not harbor seals, but an endangered species), and bald eagles. Whenever we saw the whales or seals the captain would pull around so we could take pictures or listen to the seals. Had a great time.
We met 2 other couples who were retired and traveling like us and really enjoyed our time with them; very funny and ordinary folks. One couple was traveling on a motor bike from Las Vegas and the other tenting also, traveling in a truck. Both were retired military. (With all of our “coastal weather”, needless to say, they were getting pretty soggy in their tents and extra tarps over them.) We had lunch with them and enjoyed every minute.
We had a tour of Juneau, stopped at the Mendenhal Glacier and visitor center, and did a bit of shopping. The “calves” or chunks of ice that break off the glacier contain snow that fell when George Washington was president! Then we saw a creek there where sockeye salmon were spawning. They turn bright red when they get into the creeks or where they are actually spawning! They looked nothing like the salmon Chris caught the other day!
When we got back to Skagway harbor, we were again greeted with the ever present “coastal weather”. We heard that it had been raining all day. Did we luck out!
Sooo…until we “connect” again…

July 24; the Eagle Capitol of Alaska, HAINES

Once again, these pictures are not in the cronological order in which they happened, nor in any kind of order. Can't seem to get it right when I'm making several different uploads. Anyway, bear with me. The above pic is of the beautiful Chilkoot Lake Park campground. Note the long, tall, big trees! Haven't seen these kind of trees since I don't know when....the interior of Alaska seems to be inundated with scrawney black pines; not pretty in my view. So we jut looooooved this campground. As a matter of fact the sockeye salmon are running now and Chris caught a beauty this am.

This is a gas station!!! Can ya believe? It's in Chitina at the entrance of the Wrangell St. Elias National Park. The town is an ooooooold town that kind of grew because of the Copper mine 66 miles away. So, the town is suspended in time, it seems.
And on the mighty Copper River, not far from Chitina, they are raking in the salmon in the fish wheels and dip nets. Only Alaskans can fish in this area and in this way. If you could see one of these wheels in operation, you would see these big baskets spinning through the water (kind of like a water wheel in the old mills) and scoop up salmon and chute them into a basket. Very cool. You should see these folks....some of them are hauling freezers (!) run with generators so they can take care of all their salmon. This is a big deal here right now.
As we were leaving Chitina, we pulled onto a gravel wide spot at 3 Mile Lake and spent the night. Chris tried fishing for the trout there; no luck....but can you see how beautiful the place was? That spot off of the road is our camper....
OK....here he gets read for fishing....wearing the ever ready rain coat....always
Another view of 3 Mile Lake

And now, on our way to Valdez, we stopped to see Worthington Glacier....I think that was the name but I don't have my log (thank you Yvonne) with me right now....I really love jotting things down in this little log book Yvonne made for me while we are bumping along in the truck. OK, and earlier that day, we were taking leave of the campground (King for a Day) on the Klutina River. We spent two days there. The folks there with us in the picture also stayed there for two days; they're from Minessota. Nice neighbors. While we were staying at this campground is when we visited with Chris' two sisters who were on the Princess tour. These folks had caught a lot of salmon in Valdez, so we had a pot luck; he fried the fish and we did the pasta and salad. We loved it had had a load of fun. Our camp was right where you can see in the picture, smack on the river.
A portrait of the happy campers....ready to head for Valdez. Just another picture of that glacier I showed you before....this one is studied a lot.
This is Bridal Veil Falls...you'll read about it below; totally awesome....and it's right on the road!

Sunday, July 20; to Valdez

Fifty degrees was the order of day when we left for Valdez; fresh with showers and a full tummy of Chris’ version of egg McMuffins. Occasionally blue sky popped through. First we saw the Worthington Glacier right off the road. Took a walk to it and took pictures. Very nice; they do loads of studies on the growth and recession of glaciers there.
The drive through the Thompson Pass and through the Keystone canyon (I think that was the name of it) was once again spectacular. I seem to use “spectacular” and “awesome” as adjectives a lot to describe the beautiful scenery…can’t seem to think of other words to describe the beautifulness of the surroundings. I’m trying to get across the fact that the mountains ad the rivers, falls, etc. are so unique; a view we in the Midwest don’t often have. Anyway, in the Keystone canyon, the Bridal Veil falls were really a sight to behold. Chris estimates that they might have been 500 feet high and it was right next to the road. Of course, pulled over and took a bunch of pictures. Too bad it was so overcast, because my pictures will not really show the true beauty. We could see the pipeline running along the road, but underground (there are yellow posts marking where it is underground).
Once we were through the canyon we passed “Old Valdez”, the sight of Valdez, until the Good Friday, 1964 earthquake. Totally annihilated the town. Then, once it was fattened, they decided to move town a couple of miles to the present site. There isn’t much to see in Valdez: lots of RV campgrounds, a few stores, a museum, a cannery, a gas station, a convention center, and a few other buildings; not much to see; one could walk through the entire town in an hour and hit every street while he’s doing it!
We then drove back up to Allison Point, which is on the way to the Valdez Marine Terminal, which is the end of the Alyesco Pipeline, where the oil is either loaded directly onto the super tankers or put in storage tanks. Unfortunately there were no tankers here for us to see. We have now been from the beginning of the pipeline to the end. How cool!
Our camp is right along the water. Chris went down the steep hill and navigated a few boulders so he could try his luck at salmon fishing. No success. There are loads of people here just going nuts with the fishing. Personally, I can’t see why all fuss.

Monday, July 21, 2008

It rained a bit last night; not much. Chris was up bright and early to try salmon fishing again. I stayed behind to perk the coffee. By the time I made our car-cups full of coffee and headed down the steep embankment, he had already caught one! Bingo! Two fish was the bag for the day. He cleaned them on the shore and threw the waste back into the water. The sea gulls were hovering waiting for their feast. Was fun to watch.
While we were standing at the back of our camper, looking out over this. In Valdez inlet/harbor off of Prince William Sound, we saw loads of sea gulls, sea lions with gulls pestering them for their fish, sea otters, eagles and salmon jumping out of the water. All the bears that our neighbor campers in Copper River told us were here never materialized! We were here….that’s why the bear didn’t come.
Today we’re heading back up toward the Chitina River area to the McCarthy
Road.
Later: we traveled 33 miles down the Edgerton Hwy. to Chitina (pronounced Chit’-na) at the entrance to the Wrangell St. Elias National Park (the largest of all of the national parks). The town grew with the Kennecott Copper Mine 66 miles away, where the highest grade of copper was mined for abt. 40 years and was transported on the railroad to Chitina. This National Park is the largest in North America; 6 times the size of Yellowstone; has 9 of the 16 highest peaks in North America; has glaciers that equal the size of Connecticut. Due to all the recent rains, we were told that the road past Chitina to the Kennecott Copper Mine was not in the best of condition and even had stray railroad spikes work their way to the top of the road bed (which had been the rail road bed). So, we walked around the little town of Chitina and took some cool pictures. On the drive back out to the Richardson Hwy (goes from Valdez to Fairbanks) we stopped at 3 Mile Lake on the road and camped for the night. Beautiful setting. Chris tried fishing a little while for stocked trout.

July 22, 2008

It rained all night; we were up and out of there by 8 am; it was 45 degrees. Heading toward Tok (the gateway to Alaska because to go in or out of Alaska by road, you HAVE TO go through Tok), we again decided against going to Chicken, Eagle and the Top of the World road to Dawson City because of the rain and bad roads. Later today some folks came from there in a little car and said it was dicey. Good decision. On the “Tok Cutoff” road we almost got wiped out by a cow moose charging across the road! Sadly, the beautiful view of the Wrangell Mountains and the 16,000 ft. peaks was dampened by the rain and clouds and I couldn’t take pictures. It is supposed to be in the 70 degrees here now…and we’ve been in the 40-50’s.
Revisiting a favorite campground on Deadman’s Lake about 20 miles from the Canadian border, we were lucky enough to get our same spot right on the lake. Chris tried fishing for a bit. Beautiful evening….and some blue sky.

July 23, 2008 Deadman’s Lake, AK; through Canada, to Haines, Alaska

Today was definitely a two-country tour to get to Haines. The only land route to Haines, Alaska, is OUT of Alaska through Tok, Alaska, through Yukon and British Columbia and THEN back into Alaska at ”Daltons Cache” port of entry. Took us 2 minutes at customs; not even out of the car. He liked Tommy, too. We were up and early on the road because we were going to travel half of our trip today over country we had already seen coming on the Alaska Highway. But, once again, everything looked new going from the other way! It has been rainy and cool, and I bemoan the thought of all the beautiful, stupendous, and awe inspiring photographs I have missed because of the rain….moan…but the mountains are still beautiful in their majesty. We drove all day with mountains on both sides of us. The road to Haines is a “scenic byway” in Alaska, and for good reason.
Today we had a cow moose dart across the road in front of us; that could be why the semi’s have the most huge “cow catchers” or grill guards on their rigs that you have ever seen. We also saw a black bear along the side of the road. One thing Chris noticed was the absence of wild flowers in the part of Canada we transversed today. I had been enjoying the wildflowers in Alaska immensely.
Once in Haines, we got our information for taking the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry to Skagway, and then booked a day ferry for Saturday to Juneau. It’s the capitol of Alaska, and yet not able to reach it overland; only by air or sea. And I’m certainly not going by sea.
I walked around a few shops, then we decided to go find a campground for the evening; it had been a long day. We went about 10 mi. out of Haines to the Chilkoot Lake State Recreation Area campground. It is so nice to be in big tall trees, conifers, but not the stubby, skinny black pine that the mail part of Alaska has so much of. These are sturdy, big trees. Love ‘em.
Chris plans on going salmon fishing tomorrow morning. Tonight we ate the last of the salmon that he caught in Valdez. Chris fried it; yes, artery clogging fried. Love it that way.

July 24; Haines

We have been doing a bit of sight seeing and tonight we are taking the Ferry to Scagway. That's the only way to get there; it's about an hour by Ferry across the Lynn Canal; but if we drove it, it would be about 300 miles! That's a no-brainer. Tomorrow we see Skagway, then on Saturday we take a fast ferry for a day trip to Juneau...the capitol of Alaska that is not accessable by land; only air and water. Strange, but this is a strange, beautiful, different world here....and it's still raining.... :-)

So, until we "connect" again...

With Cecelia and Teresa in God's Country

We connected with Chris' two sisters who are on a Princess tour of this beautiful state. They arrived at the Lodge about an hour before we did, so we had lots to catch up on before dinner.
Of course, we had to pull out the tripod for a family portrait. We were camping on the Klutina River only about a mile from their lodge.
Dinner was delightful. Chris and I had bab y back ribs....definitely finger-lickin' good. They gave us finger towels that were so hot they were steaming....I guess they didn't want me to lick my fingers....fooled them!
This is so not a good picture. It was taken through my windshield on the way back from our visit with Teresa & Cecilia. They were right on the drive to our campground....and I had no time to open the window and get the picture that way.
Heading toward Valdez in a couple of minutes....so, until we "connect" again.

July 19; There is Blue Sky Somewhere!

We ran out of the rain almost to Glenallen on the Richardson Hwy at the end of the Glenn Hwy (Richardson Hwy goes from Fairbanks to Valdez). The blue sky looked so beautiful!
On the Glenn Hwy we traveled for a long time along the Matanuska River. It was at points a raging river because of all the rains. These pictures are from the Alaskan Wildlife Museum in Glenallen. Not a big museum, but an
awesome & lifelike display of animals.
Wolves attacking a moose. These pictures are from the Alaskan Wildlife Museum in Glenallen.

Isn't this a rough way to start the day?????
Having dinner with "neighbors" in the campground last night. They cooked their salmon and we brought the pasta, salad, tartar sauce. Ate way too much salmon. I loooooooved the deep fried and artery clogging Salmon. In case you haven't figured out yet from the blogs, the salmon are running....people are going crazy about it here.
Using the grill, that Christopher gave us for Christmas, to cook the salmon; worked like a charm
more pics from the Wildlife museum. Didn't the guy do great taxidermy and display????
These pictures are from the Alaskan Wildlife Museum in Glenallen

Friday 7-18; leaving Wasilla and driving to Copper River area

When we left Karen’s house at 7:30 a.m. it was raining and 48 degrees. We traveled along the Glen Highway to Glenallen. It’s the road we traveled to Karen’s house in Wasilla several weeks ago, but, like coming down the “Haul Road” from Prudho Bay, it’s a whole new view from the other direction. Just as beautiful and seeing sights that I hadn’t seen the first time through. We traveled along the Matanuska river and it was still raining. The river was really loud and had white water on it; wouldn’t have wanted to be on it today.
We’ve been here in Alaska over a month now: a week at Karen’s home in Wasilla, a week on the Kenai Peninsula, 5 days on the Dalton Hwy…and various other places hither, thither & yon. It’s been a month of fun. AND, today the sun returned at noon when we got to Glenallen and it was 58 degrees; just beautiful. We went in an Alaskan Wildlife Museum. One person hunted and got all of the animals in the museum; then he “taxidermied” them himself and mounted them in realistic displays of predators and their prey. You could just see the action. I took loads of pictures, several of which I’m sharing with you in this blog
We drove through historic Copper Center on the Copper River. We then looked for the lodge where Therese and Cecelia will be arriving at tomorrow evening. We’ll have dinner with them there.
We are staying at the King for a Day Campground; and our spot is right on the Klutina River. Positively spectacular. People are fishing just feet from us for red salmon.
We are having dinner tonight with our camping neighbors; they are cooking their salmon, and we are providing the fix’ins, my home made tartar sauce, salad & dressing and an alfredo noodles. Was fun sitting right on the banks of the river and eating….a bit of a stormy looking cloud sat in the distance, and we asked God for our blessing to not let it rain. And sure enough, the dark cloud stalled there for several hours and later broke up. Had a wonderful evening of salmon (some deep fried and some grilled on the fire) and polished off some wine w/ the neighbors. We kind of turned into pumpkins at 11. It’s weird with it staying light for so long at night. You don’t think about going to bed because it stays light until midnight or so.
Today, Saturday the 19th, we’re going to kick around in this “horrible” place on the bank of the Klutina River, read, take Tommy for walks, etc…and then later go and meat Ceil and Theresa at the Princess Lodge, close to here. We’ll have dinner with them there.
So, until we “connect” again…

Trip to Hallibut Cove

Here we were waiting for the Danny J. The rain didn't dampen our spirits....just put on the rain suits and keep going.
This is a view of Hallibut Cove as we come into their harbor.
Another beautiful view of the harbor
That huge piece of sand jutting out into the Kemchak Bay (I'm sure I spelled that wrong....but don't feel like looking it up right now) is what they call the Homer SPIT. Real touresty. This view is when we were comming over the pass on the way down to Homer
And here is the Danny J; the trusty little boat that got us to Hallibut Cove through wind and storm
Y Yup....that guy doubled over is freezing....
And here is the hourdourv that I had. Isn't it beautiful; it's salmon pate'
And this is the terrace, or whatever, that we ate on. It was wonderful in front of the fire.

July 16, 2008

The day at Anchor Point began at 54 degrees, cloudy & windy. It was misty all day; not a great day for doing stuff. We knocked around most of the day until 4 p.m. when we drove back down to the Homer Spit for our trip on the Danny J out to Hallibut Cove. We got to the “Spit” early so that we could find a camping spot. Turned out that it was about a mile from the dock that the Danny J was to leave from. The day continued to be positively yucky, weather-wise…but nice, relaxed & fun in the long run.
The Danny J left port on time; the trip to the Hallibut Cove was windy, rainy and cold. We had been advised by the person at the visitor center to make reservations for the 6 p.m. seating at the Saltry, the only restaurant on the island. A funny thing I noted when I got off the boat, was that a dog, a dingo, that we had seen on the dock in Homer Spit, had not come on our boat, but yet met us at the dock in Hallibut Cove. (Go figure....) So, we proceeded to cuddle down at the outdoor fire-pit at the restaurant and enjoy meal, which is noted for being totally home made from scratch, even down to the dishes made by the local artists. The entrées were even garnished with fresh nasturtiums from the deck. I will have pictures of these on the blog; they were beautiful. I must have looked stupid taking pictures of everything we ate (lol).
After dinner we took a walk on the boardwalk…not to be deterred by the continuing rain. We saw some kids out in the bay, in wet suits, paddling around on a surfboard, took pictures of flowers and the surroundings. It was loads of fun. There are about 20 people who live year round on the island.
The return trip to the “Spit” was just as cold and wet as the trip to the island…just not quite as windy. We saw Gull Island up close (a mound of rock in the Bay totally inhabited by thousands of sea gulls (!), saw some bald eagles, puffins, loons….and perhaps a spare bird or two….
The walk back to the camper was long and wet. We rocked & rolled all night because of the gale winds and we didn’t put the legs of the camper down. I thought it felt like being rocked to bed on a boat.

Wednesday, July 17; leaving the Kenai

We left the rain and clouds of the Kenai and drove to Wasilla again…only to find out that the whole state is being rained on…It’s raining in Anchorage and Wasilla, too. A short pit stop to shower and wash cloths at our friends home; a wonderful dinner of halibut that Chris caught and John cooked on charcoal. Yuuuummmmmy. Tomorrow we head for Copper River. There, at some point we will meet Chris’s two sisters there.

So, until we “connect” again…