We began the day at the Islands and Oceans Visitor Center which is the visitor center for the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. It is the largest seabird refuge in the world and contains the Aleutian Islands as well as parts of southeast and north Alaska. While there, we went on a ranger walk which included Beluga Slough, an estuary where some birds reside. We saw families of bald eagles and sand hill cranes. We also learned about some of the native plants, a few of which one wants to avoid contact. We went to the Homer’s Saturday Farmers’ Market and had a few tastes but did not make any purchases. In the afternoon, we visited the Pratt Museum with science, art and culture of the area. One neat thing was a remote control camera on gull island which we were able to turn and zoom while watching the birds live. The museum also has the Harrington Cabin, a homesteader’s log home built in 1935 together with many of its furnishings. We left the museum and drove to Skyline Drive to the top of the hill overlooking Homer, the Homer Spit, Kachemak Bay and Kachemak Bay State Park with its glacier covered mountains. An impressive view indeed as we spend our last day before beginning the long trek home tomorrow, although we do have many more sights to see on the way home. We visited the shops along the spit and bought some coho (silver) salmon for dinner at Coal Point Seafoods. I grilled the salmon while enjoying the view of the bay and mountains which are also visible out our front windshield while eating.
Day 123, August 2, 2019, Friday. Homer, AK
Today for the first time ever, we took a guided kayak adventure. We met St. Augustine’s boat at the harbor and spent about a half hour to cross Kachemak Bay to the kayak dock. It was a beautiful sunny day as we paddled around Peterson Bay with the mountains and glaciers of Kachemak Bay State Park all around. The only negative was kayaking is not conducive to using a camera so no pics while on the water. I did take some pics on the boat ride back across Kachemak Bay. Dinner at the coach was sirloin burgers on the grill followed by a walk along the spit boardwalk of about 3 miles which included a stop at the Salty Dog Saloon where tradition is to attach a dollar bill to the interior.
We departed Soldotna and continued to head south on the Sterling Highway. We stopped in Anchor Point to view the western-most point in the North American highway system. We also observed the beach area and the launching/retrieving of boats. The water has such a gradual slope that it is not possible to get a boat ramp to deep enough water to launch a boat. So they use a tractor to push the boat trailer to deeper water to launch or retrieve a boat. Unbelievable! I kept watching and wondering who retrieves the tractor if it gets stuck in the water but apparently this is not a problem. We continued south to Homer, AK, and onto the Homer Spit, a glacial terminal moraine which is about 4 miles long into the Kachemak Bay and checked into the Heritage RV Park (fhu 50 amp). We visited Coal Point Seafoods on the Spit and bought some sockeye to grill for dinner.
Soldotna has a Wednesday Market in one of its parks which we visited but mostly craft works and not a lot of foods. We then visited th Moose is Loose!, a bakery well known to Alaskans. We bought an almond bear claw, a pecan roll (nothing like the southern version) and a Krispi Road Kill which is like a cinnamon roll flattened and baked to a delicious crispiness. All items where good enough to require a stop on our way back north in a few days. We stopped at Johnson’s Seafood and bought a filet of black cod (Rosemary’s favorite fish) and some dry scallops. These were local scallops flash frozen on the ship so they did not need the injection of preservatives that all store bought scallops have had which injection adds water weight and makes it unlikely to caramelize when grilled. Looking forward to trying them later in the trip. In the afternoon, we drove the car 10 miles to the City of Kenai. This is where the Kenai River meets the Cook Inlet. We walked along the shore of the inlet to find the shore lined with Alaska residents standing in the water while fighting the waves and holding large nets attached to a long pole. This is dipnetting which is opened only to Alaska residents from July 10 to July 31. One basically holds the net in the water until a salmon swims into it and then drags the net ashore to untangle the fish and put it in a cooler. The reds (sockeye) were running and most folks were loading up. We spoke to an Anchorage resident who came for three days to dipnet and caught 18 the day before and was catching some more this day. Although we found many folks doing this, he told us he comes at the end of the short season because the beginning is mobbed with dipnetters.
We visited the Great Harvest Bread Company to get a sandwich for Aaron’s return flight to San Diego. This place was crowded and large free samples of its breads and cinnamon rolls where dealt out to us. We bought some goodies some of which went with Aaron. We dropped Aaron off at the airport and said our goodbyes after a fun filled week. We then headed back to the Kenai Peninsula driving south on the Seward Highway but taking the Sterling Highway at mile post 37. We arrived in Soldotna and pulled into the Fred Meyer grocery parking lot where there were at least two dozen other rv’s. The City and the store have an agreement to allow rv’s to park there for up to 3 nights. We took the car and drove the town. We stopped at a few places along the Kenai River where there were boardwalks along the river bank with many sets of stairs leading down and into the river. The sockeyes were running and the river was crowded with fishermen with their waders in the river.
Day 119, July 29, 2019, Monday. Anchorage, AK (127 miles)
We departed Seward and headed north on the Seward Highway. We stopped at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center at mile post 79. The center rehabilitates and houses wild animals which cannot be returned to the wild. Among the animals are moose, black bears, brown bears (grizzlies), caribou, bison, deer, musk ox, foxes and a porcupine. We then returned to the Begich-Boggs Visitor Center to drop off the coach and took the car to the trailhead of the Byron Glacier. The hike was about a half hour to the glacier. This glacier although receded beyond the trail has left portions of the glacier ice which allowed us to climb onto the ice field. Lots of fun and incredibly beautiful scenery. We continued our drive to Anchorage and checked into the Creekwood Inn and RV Park. Dinner at Charlie’s Bakery (which was a Chinese restaurant) was very good dim sum. Next a short drive downtown to Gelatte for a little dessert of gelato.
Day 118, July 28, 2019, Sunday. Seward, AK
An early start as we met friends Dan & Mary Ellen at 6:45 am at J Dock berth 42 where we boarded the Sea Mission 33 with Captain Larry for a half day of salmon fishing out Resurrection Bay and into Blying Sound. My first experience deep sea fishing only because Dan convinced me that the motion sickness patch behind my ear that I put on last night would protect me. It was a fairly calm day but the fishing action was not too good. We managed to catch some rockfish of which 3 were keepers. Rosemary caught the first and the most but Aaron got the biggest. However, most of the action occurred only after my help chumming the fish. Dan said I was the first person he ever knew that the patches did not help. Well at least they helped Rosemary and Aaron. Back on land, we had lunch at Ray’s Waterfront Restaurant. A shared appetizer of Alaska oysters from Cordova were as good as Dan boasted but the price of a half dozen was almost as much as I used to get a bushel (22-24 dozen) back at UF in Gainesville, FL. I had the salmon tacos and finished Aaron’s, Rosemary’s and Dan’s lunches. Well, I did have full capacity available in my stomach. Dinner at the coach was grilled rockfish, a sweet white fish that was delicious. After dinner, we made a fire in the fire pit at the campground with wood brought to us by Dan and Mary Ellen, great friends!
Day 117, July 27, 2019, Saturday. Seward, AK
In the morning we hiked to the Exit Glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park. The hike is though forest and then along the river. We saw signs along the way with four digit numbers on them. We did not realize until we got to the trail end that the numbers represented the end of the glacier at that year. The trail ends at 2010 which during that year would have been at the glacier’s end. However, by 2019, the glacier has receded quite a bit more. A very enjoyable hike. As we drove the road away from the park we noticed the last sign was 1815 which was several miles away from the present end of the glacier. In the afternoon, we visited the Alaska Sealife Center and went on the behind the scenes tour. A very worthwhile tour which showed some of the research being done at the center. Dinner was Alaska spot prawns made with a special sauce and pasta by Aaron. Another delicious Alaska seafood dinner.
We headed up the road about 2 miles to the Chugach National Forest Begich-Boggs Visitor Center where we were picked up by our friends, Dan and Mary Ellen for a day cruise out of Whittier. We drove through the world’s longest (2.5 mile) highway tunnel on the hour at 10:00 am. The tunnel is one lane and is shared by cars and trains. It is the only road into Whittier. On the hour goes into town and half past goes out of town. However, trains have priority so there may be a delay. In Whittier, we boarded the 26 Glacier Cruise catamaran which cruises at 32 knots. Unfortunately, the weather was overcast and the planned College Fjord where 12 glaciers can be seen at one time was fogged in and we went on an alternate course. We still saw several glaciers including Harriman, Surprise and Barry, and saw some calving. We got very close to one glacier, perhaps within about 200 feet. We also saw a humpback whale, many otters and sea lions in addition to stopping at a kittiwake rookery. Lunch on the cruise was a delicious salmon chowder. A very pleasant outing despite the weather. Back to the coach for leftover king salmon. We then drove to Seward and checked into the Seward KOA.
We departed Anchorage and headed south on the Seward Highway. We stopped at Beluga Point along the Turnagain Arm. Nice views but no belugas spotted. We stopped at Bird Point and again enjoyed the views but only a few birds. We turned onto the Alyeska Highway and went to Alyeska. First stop there was the Alyeska Bake Shop where we bought a sourdough bread and a sweet roll which is a very large cinnamon roll. Lunch in the coach was hot smoked salmon on sourdough bread followed by the delicious sweet roll. We hiked the Winner Creek Trail through forest and along a rushing river. The 5 miles took us about 3 hours. We then took the Alyeska Resort Tram up 2,000 feet which offered great views of Alyeska and the entire valley. There we hiked a small portion of the Mighty Mike Trail which was very steep and difficult to get down as the rocks on the trail would slide down under each step. We continued south on the Seward Highway and took the Whittier/Portage Highway and checked into the Chugach National Forest Williwaw Campground (primitive) for the night.
We spent most of the day at the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center. The museum is huge and lots of Alaska history. There was a special exhibit “Death in the Ice: The Mystery of the Franklin Expedition” which was very interesting. Sir John Franklin left Britain in 1845 to chart the Northwest Passage through the Arctic in two ships with 129 men and 3 years supplies. None of them would be heard from again. Through Inuit tales passed through the generations and the ships discovery in 2014, the mystery began to be revealed. The ships became trapped in the ice and then crushed. Some of the crew abandoned ship after a year and a half but died of exposure or starvation in the vast frozen tundra. We left the museum for lunch at the Red Chair Café where I had the salmon bacon benedict, one more different way to eat salmon and it was delicious. After finishing the museum at the end of the day, we stopped at 10th and M Seafoods and bought 2.4 lbs. of king salmon. Back to the coach where I grilled the salmon, our first experience of king salmon. Another excellent meal with plenty left for tomorrow’s dinner.
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