Hi again! Sorry for the delay in posting – we’ve been busy with a visit from my sister, Laura, and still dealing with spotty internet. I am writing this post sitting in a parking lot in Anchorage while Steve and Bill work out at a gym.
We moved from Seward over to the other side of the Kenai Penninsula, to the Kasilof area. Kasilof is about 1 hour north of Homer. Homer is at the southern tip of the Kenai Penninsula, and is known for fishing – some of the popular TV shows about Alaska fishing are based on boats that go out of Homer. We (I) thought it would be a nice place to hang out for a couple of weeks while we had some visitors in August. I was wrong. We were pretty unimpressed with the general area. Not nearly as pretty as the other areas we’ve been in, very flat and coastal plains. In Kasilof, only very distant mountains were visible – there are 2 rivers, the Kenai and the Kasilof that run through this area and are huge Salmon fishing rivers. So lots of fishing charters around. And in Homer, which is boardered by Cooks Inlet with mountains across the bay in Kachemak State Park (that was pretty), the town was not very attractive, at least compared to what we have seen elsewhere.
I was very, very distraught as we drove from Seward (beautiful) to Kasilof where we had a 2 week reservation at an RV park. It got less and less pretty as we drove, and Laura was coming in 2 days! I had been sending her all kinds of pictures of the beautiful scenery and wonderful hiking in the mountains and now we were parked in the middle of flat land and no mountains!!! Crap! We talked about moving, but we had booked this bear viewing trip for Wednesday, Laura’s last day in Alaska, and the tour went out of Homer, which was still an hour south of us. If we moved anywhere, it would be even further away, and we had to report in for the tour at 6:30 am and drop Gerry off at doggy day care even earlier. I called the bear viewing tour place and our tickets were non-refundable since it was within 30 days 🙁 So we stayed in Kasilof and made the most of it, looking forward to the bear tour, which was a boat ride out to Lake Clark National Park, which is only accessible by boat or plane, then go to bear viewing area to watch them catch salmon in the rivers, which would be fun to see. A great day on the water and wildlife viewing – how Alaskan! I’m going to jump to the end of this part of the story – THE BEAR VIEWING TRIP GOT CANCELLED 2 DAYS AHEAD DUE TO EXPECTED HIGH WINDS!!! AND THEN THERE WERE NO WINDS!!! BUT STILL CANCELLED!!!! 🙁
We moved back to the Portage RV park we liked so much before on Laura’s last day, and are staying there for Bill’s visit and Samantha’s visit. Sorry Laura, we tried!!! We did have a great visit and did lots of fun things. And really, we are lucky and grateful to be on this journey, I am not complaining!
We took a small plane (very small, 5 seats) taxi to Seldovia, a cute small town across the bay from Homer. We did a nice hike there and had lunch in town. The flight back and forth was absolutely beautiful and we saw 2 Orca whales on the flight back. Gerry did great on the flight, didn’t bother him at all. Lots of pictures in the attached link from this trip.
We took a water taxi one day to Kachemak State Park across the bay from Homer and did a great hike to Glacier Lake – beautiful glacier and lake, with huge chunks of ice that had fallen off the glacier in the lake. Had lunch by the lake and while we were on the water taxi back across the bay, Steve helped our boat guy stop and pick up some kayaks. We also did a couple of hikes closer to Kasilof which were pretty flat but pretty through the woods – we saw salmon in the rivers swimming up stream and trying to jump the rapids. Amazing how they do that.
We also spent a fantastic day in Kenai Fjords National Park over by Seward. It was a 2 hour drive each way, and we took Gerry back to the doggy day care he had been to before there, which he loved. We spent the whole day hiking the Harding Icefields trail which was amazing. A very challenging hike but worth it. We also got to see mountain goats up close while on the trail.
We cooked seafood almost every night during Laura’s visit – crab legs (twice!), scallops, shrimp, salmon, halibut. It all has been delicious and so fresh. Much better than what we get at home.
We were on the lookout for wildlife, but didn’t manage to see any bears (tour would have taken care of this!), and only the backend of one moose in the woods. But we did see eagles, the whales, and swans. We did see a lot of bear scat on one of the hikes, but didn’t run into a bear which is a good thing!
Having Laura visit meant so much to me. It has been hard being away from her, we’ve always lived in the same place. And this is the longest I’ve gone without seeing her. This adventure has been great and I’m so happy we are doing this, but I do miss family and friends back home so much. So even though the location wasn’t the best, the time spent together is what counts and my heart is happy 🙂
We had dinner with Michael and July in Anchorage when we took Laura in to the airport. Michael is Steve H’s son, and lives in the Anchorage area. So nice to catch up with them and we’re hoping to be able to get together at least once more when we’re making the trips back and forth to the airport.
So that’s my update for now – Bill is here now (has rained since the minute he got here 2 days ago….hoping for a break in the weather soon), and Samantha, Josh and Ryan get here on the 16th. Then Guy comes in on the 25th. Family and friends to share this great adventure with – life is good!
Lots of pictures and a few videos in the links:
https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkTOQgkfsZk539bFN
https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkVPoBIx_bfJtqYbj
https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkWRECBG9VvnIAYCF
https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkX7YV65Yzkn_schS
