Author: areeb

Greetings!

I hope you all are doing well and enjoying autumn wherever you are.  I love this time of year, the cooler weather, transitioning into different recipies, cozy fires and tea.  I’m writing this post at our current spot, which is east of Portland Oregon, on the Columbia River Gorge.  I’ll do a separate post of our time here.  We’ve had some great fall weather, but, yesterday it started raining, and its been cool (49 degrees right now).  So I have a cup of tea (Cinnamon Stick by Bigelow 🙂 )  and we’ve been running our fireplace almost non-stop.  Even though it’s an electric fire, it’s very cozy and provides a nice ambiance.  I have a cinnamon candle going too…guess I’m in a cinnamon kind of mood!

All morning I have been watching 2 hummingbirds that are enjoying the hummingbird feeder the RV next door to us has out.  The folks in the RV next door looks like they live here long term, they have a kind of deck built on their trailer, and have lots of “yard” kind of things set up including several bird feeders.  On the side by us, is the hummingbird feeder and these 2 hummingbirds are there all the time.  I am surprised, I thought hummingbirds migrated for the winter, but maybe the temperature here in Oregon is temperate enough they stay for the winter.  I will try to remember to research that.  Anyhow, I am happy to have them to watch.  And, Gerry finds them very interesting too!  He’s been sitting looking out the window at them for a long time this morning.

We spent about a week on the Oregon coast – we were between Seaside and Cannon Beach, which is in the northwest corner of the Oregon coast.  We loved Washington and the beaches there…but…the Oregon coast is simply amazing.  We fell in love with the area and really enjoyed our time there.  We did a couple of great hikes, in addition to walking miles on the beaches.  We hiked Saddle Mountain – about 7 miles roundtrip and it was a challenging hike.  The view at the top was outstanding – we could see the pacific ocean, Mt. Saint Helens, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams and a fifth mountain we are not sure which it was.  The photos in the link don’t do the view justice, it was starting to get hazy while we were up there.  There were 3 or 4 Peregrine Falcons flying around also, chattering away.  They followed us as we hiked back down, talking and chattering all the way.

We also hiked Cape Falcon (I am sensing a theme here!) a beautiful hike through a heavy forest then out onto a cape with a stunning view of the pacific ocean.  We sat and had lunch looking out into the ocean and kept saying, “I can’t belive we are actually sitting here looking at this!”  It was about 4 miles roundtrip, and relatively easy hike.  All of the forests here and in Washington are beautiful, heavy, lots of moss and various shades of green.  We keep trying to capture it with our pictures, it’s hard to describe the feeling you get while in the forest.  Enchanting, peaceful, alive and vibrant.

We drove up and down the coast, sampling a few different beach towns and beaches.  Hands down our favorite was Cannon Beach.  Super cute seaside town and very dog friendly.  We ate lunch one day at a restaraunt, with Gerry on the patio.  They invite dogs to dine alongside their people guests.  Gerry sat next to me on the bench, they had dog water dishes all over, and they served Gerry his very own plain hamburger!  Yes, we have become those people!!!

We went back to Cannon Beach two evenings for the sunset, which occured about 6:50 pm – early to us, especially after the very long daylight days in Alaska.  We loved the changing light and watching the sun drop into the pacific was spectacular.  We also purchased a “chuckit” throwing thing to lob a tennis ball for Gerry to fetch.  He has decided he loves the beach even though he tries very hard to not allow the surf touch his feet.  He also discovered it is very easy to dig in the sand, and spent the better part of one evening digging a tunnel.  Lots of pictures in the links below.

So happy fall to you all, hope you enjoy our pictures, and I’ll be back soon with an update on our next adventures!

Saddle Mountain Hike and Cannon Beach:  https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0plTMWUz-ZNuFyN_W3

Cape Falcon

https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0plU46rpJ-HWQGc9GS

 

 

 

Hi again!  We spent a great week on the Washington Olympic Peninsula.  This is home to the Olympic National Park, miles of rocky beaches and national forests.  We traveled to the Olympic Peninsula by Ferry, thanks to the advice by Steve H’s brother, Richard, and his wife Joyce.  Richard and Joyce live north of Seattle, and came to visit us while we were still on the “mainland” of Washington state.  It was so nice to see them, and since they have been RV’ing for many years, they gave us a lot of very helpful information.  (Picture below – those of you who know Steve H will notice how much he and Richard look alike!) We had planned to drive through Seattle and around to the Olympic Peninsula, but they told us about the ferry, and recommended it as a better alternative to driving through Seattle.  We were worried about managing the RV onto the ferry, but, it was as easy and uncomplicated as promised.  So glad we did it that way, saved us hours of driving and much less stress than navigating Seattle with the beast in tow.

We did have a couple of maintenance issues, right before we left to take the ferry, so we had to delay our trip by a couple of days.  I found a mobile RV service that came to the campground we were parked at and they replaced the breaker that controls the outlets and the gfci outlets (again!).  You may remember we had trouble with this breaker at the beginning of our trip, and had it replaced while at the factory.  We discovered our issue this time while parked at Walmart for a night, which was our staging area to get the ferry the next morning.  Since we had no hookups in the Walmart parking lot, we were using battery power and generator/inverter power.  That’s when the outlets quit working again.

A phone call to Rob (he is so nice to be our “on call technical support”! 🙂 revealed that our batteries in the RV – we have 2, 6 volt batteries, the same type used to run golf carts – were pretty low on water.  Who knew you had to put water into battery cells????  Not us!  A quick run into Walmart (they are smart to let RV’ers park in their lots, we spend a lot of $$ every time we are there) to purchase distilled water and Steve filled up the battery cells.  But, the gfci outlets would not reset (again).  So the mobile guys replaced the breaker the next day.  They also tested our batteries and said we should have them replaced.  They were losing their power and would not last much longer.  So, we found a battery place nearby and had them replaced the next day.  Was much easier than we anticipated, they were used to dealing with RVs, had a spot for us to pull up to easily, and half an hour later we were on our way to the ferry!

The Olympic Peninsula is very beautiful.  We did the Hurricane Ridge drive in Olympic National Park, and several hikes in the area, including one on Dungeness Spit – a long spit out to a lighthouse.  We love the rocky beaches in this area and also the mossy forests.  The weather was great also, which is a big plus!  We visited a few small towns in the area:  Sequim, Townsend, Port Angeles.  We found a local food co-op that had great produce and local meats, and we also found a local restaraunt that specialized in soups, bakery and coffee…we literally went every day!  There was an area that had a lot of totem poles and a Native American gallery – we enjoyed visiting it and purchased some gifts there.

Hope you enjoy the pictures in the links below!

Hurricane Ridge, Olympic National Park:  https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pk1RMo-4ioXyxr6qG

Olympic Peninsula:  Ferry, beaches and totem poles:  https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0plQRrH_fktZ70rq2A

Hi!  We have been absolutely loving Washington!  We stayed for about a week in the Bellingham area, north of Seattle.  The RV park was one of the best we’ve been to so far, and the weather has been perfect which helps too!  We did so many fun things while in the area including a great hike on Mt. Baker.  We started our hike at the end of a long national forest service road (about 12 miles), at 4400 feet in elevation.  We hiked about 2.5 miles up, to about 6,000 feet in elevation.  The views were awesome!  As good as some of our views in Alaska.  A great hike.

We also took a ferry to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.  We walked onto the ferry, we didn’t take the truck.  Gerry got to go, he loved the trip on the ferry.  So many people to pet him and tell him how cute he is!  You’ll notice in the pictures we have started using a “Gentle Leader” collar on him – it goes over his nose.  So if he pulls on the leash, it pulls his nose, which he hates, so it stops him from pulling so much.  He has gotten so big and strong he was doing damage to my arm and shoulder from pulling on the leash so much.  We will be taking doggy manners training classes when we get back to Columbus!  Friday Harbor was a very cute tourist town, we really enjoyed visiting it and enjoyed the ferry ride too.

One day we took Gerry to doggy day care are spent the day touring Bellingham, Fairhaven (a super cute historic area in Bellingham) and drove Chuckanut Drive, an attraction in and of itself in the area.  Beautiful drive, beautiful homes and a great little restaraunt too!  The restaraunt looks right out onto Puget Sound and an oyster farm.  So of course Steve had oysters!  Wish I liked them, but, they are not for me!  We also went to a Tea Room – first time I have been served tea with a cozy over the tea pot – loved it!

We did another hike in the area, in a beautiful forest – the forests here are very thick with vegitation and moss.  Like walking in an enchanted forest.  All in all a great area to visit and we loved it.  This was our first stop after the “Alaskan Adventure” and it felt good to be in an area with more “stuff” around.  But still beautiful.  I think we were ready for a little touristy activities and this filled the bill!

And I have to mention the blackberries!  They are everywhere – along the roads, along the trails, and our RV park had a large grassy area (great for running Gerry!) that was surrounded by wild blackberries.  We picked to our hearts content, I made blackberry cobbler and a blackberry syrup we put on ice cream….Steve literally cannot walk past a bush without picking and eating!

i’ll have another post soon about our trip on a ferry (RV and all!) to the Olympic Penninsula and our beach visits there.  In the meantime, hope you enjoy the pictures of Mt. Baker, Bellingham, Fairhaven and Chuckanut Drive!

https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pk0cHsXn8Mbv75Nno

 

 

 

Hello again everybody!

As I’m sitting here thinking about what to write in this post, I can’t belive we are already done with our time in Alaska, driven back down the Alcan and the Cassiar highways, and have already been in Washington 2 weeks.  How time flies!  Today is the last day of September…how did that happen???

We truly loved our time in Alaska and also the drive to and from there.  It all was an experience we will always remember.  Even though the weather was not great, especially the last few weeks, it was spectacularly beautiful and unlike anywhere else we have been.  We try to capture it in our pictures, but I know they do not begin to convey the vastness and beauty we experienced.  The hiking we did there was exhilarating…I imagine all our pictures (and there’s more in the links below!) of mountains, hiking trails, and glaciers must look a lot alike.  “Oh, there’s another giant mountain with glaciers on it they are hiking again…”  but it does not feel that way when we are hiking.  Each hike and trail has it’s own unique beauty and our experiences on each hike were all different.  We did 2 hikes twice – Portage Pass (Whittier) and Mt. Marathon (Seward), taking visitors back to favorite hikes.   I think the hiking, challenging ourselves and experiencing the vast outdoors was good for our souls.  It makes us happy 🙂

We retraced some of the Alcan highway on our way out, then picked up the Cassiar highway, a 450 mile long stretch of road that goes further west than the Alcan.  It took us down near the southeast Alaskan panhandle, where Jueanu, Ketchikan, Sitka and the inside passage are, where a lot of cruise ships go.  There are no roads into those areas, only boats and planes can take you there, so we did not get to see that part of the state.  We did stop in Stewart, BC, which shares the boarder with Hyder, Alaska and there’s one road that you can take into Hyder.  They both are very small towns, surrounded by mountains, waterfalls and glaciers.  Hyder Alaska is on the Prince William Sound, on the opposite side of  the sound from Whittier.

We met a nice couple, Vince and Vickie, who are from Louisiana, at one of the campgrounds along the Alcan.  We traveled with them for a couple of days, and they joined us in Stewart/Hyder.  We had fun going to see Salmon Glacier together and also watching for bears at the river where they come to feed on salmon before hibernating for the winter.  Salmon Glacier was at the end of a VERY rough, pot hole filled, gravel road, about 12 or 15 miles long.  It took us over an hour (each way) to drive those 12 or 15 miles to get to the glacier.  But wow!  The biggest glacier we saw on the entire trip, other than the one we landed on in the helicopter.  It was amazing.  Lots of pictures in the attached link.   We saw LOTS of bears while in Stewart/Hyder also.  One in the RV camp, right by our RV, 2 or 3 in town on the streets in the evening, and 2 at the bear viewing area I mentioned above.  They all were black bears.

Choosing Alaska as our first destination on this journey was ideal for us.  It pushed us to figure out the whole RV thing.  We are still learning, but boy do we know so much more now than we did at the beginning of this trip!  It also took us to a whole new environment to explore together and that is good.

I’ve put together several albums of pictures from our last days in Alaska as well  as driving along the Alcan and Cassiar highways.  Hope you enjoy!

On the road again:  https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pknoM4F3tXVoUjR8Y

Salmon Glacier:  https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkxa7KFeg4ADNIX8_

Stewart BC/Hyder Alaska:  https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkzLGKFgC_-C6AIGF

Crow Pass hike:  https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pk1wWBGX2CjUlwIlK

Turnagain Arm Drive and Portage RV Park:  we stayed at this RV park twice, for about 3 – 4 weeks total, it is near Girdwood.  We were here for both Bill’s and Samantha’s visits.  We loved this RV park, we had fantastic views right our our door, and it was close to Whittier, Girdwood and only a little over an hour to Anchorage.  We drove the Turnagain Arm each time we went to Anchorage or Girdwood, which was dozens of times.  The Turnagain Arm goes along the Cook Inlet.  It was one of the most beautiful drives we have done on this trip and we stopped many times at the turnouts along the road to take pictures.  Here’s a round up of pictures from that drive and RV park:  https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0plFbuzrTXneTOLmm0

Hello!  I wanted to provide a quick update on our travels – we decided to skip Vancouver, BC.  After a careful look at the map and talking to fellow travelers, it seemed too difficult with the RV.  It’s a big city, and we would have to stay about 45 minutes – 1 hour outside the city to avoid driving the RV into heavy traffic and potentially difficult roads with such a big rig.  We could have taken a day trip with just the truck into the city, but in the end we decided to skip it.

So we crossed the boarder late yesterday afternoon into Washington.  We are parked at a lovely RV park in Ferndale, WA, which is near Bellingham.  We’re off today to a hike at Mt. Baker, we have a ferry trip to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island planned for Sunday, and we’re getting the oil changed and tires rotated on the truck Saturday in Bellingham.  So excited to get a good hike in today – we all need it, especially Gerry!!  He had a doggy daycare day a few days ago while we were in the Prince George area, which tired him out a bit, but these days he is always full of energy!

I still have at least 1 or 2 posts to do from our last stops in Alaska (lots of bears and a huge glacier!), so stay tuned.  Hoping to get that done in the next few days.  In the meantime, it feels good to be in the lower 48 again, the sun is shining, Mt. Baker looks beautiful and we can’t wait to hike it today!

Howdy!  Guy came to visit at the end of August and we had a great visit in spite of rain every day.  We moved to Valdez, Alaska, after Samantha and her friends left.  We made the drive in 2 days, it was about 7 hours all together.  We stayed at Bayside RV park, right in town and next to the boat harbor.  Valdez is a beautiful area, surrounded by mountains, glaciers and lots of waterfalls, and is on Prince William Sound.  I’m sure it is even more beautiful when it’s not raining…but I couldn’t tell you since it rained every single day we were there.  Steve and I finally bought rain boots, we couldn’t walk Gerry or go outside without getting our feet soaked.  The RV park was busy with a lot of Alaskans there to fish the Silver Salmon and fill their freezers.  Many of the campers had full size deep freezers sitting in their camp, they would fish all day every day, filling their freezer for the year.  Some were also fishing for shrimp and I’m sure other creatures as well….we were one of the few RVs that didn’t have Alaska tags.  The tourists are all leaving quickly  before weather becomes an issue.

We didn’t let the weather dampen our fun (pun intended 🙂 )  We did several hikes, and Steve and Guy went on a Salmon fishing charter.  We had booked a Halibut fishing trip, but it was cancelled twice due to high seas.  So they did the Salmon trip instead, which only goes out about 14 miles into the ocean, vs. the Halibut trip that went 50 – 70 miles into the ocean.  They each caught the daily limit of 6 fish, so we had plenty of Salmon for dinner and to ship home.  They saw sea lions, porpoise, seals, sea otters and eagles and also a spectacular rainbow came out while they were on the boat.  On one hike, a black bear came onto the trail, about 100 yards in front of us.  He looked at us and then went into the woods.  We were glad he wasn’t any closer!

We also did a great helicoptor tour of the mountains and glaciers.  We saw seals from the air, laying on huge chunks of ice floating in the ocean.  We landed twice on the tour – once on a beach that had lots of ice on it from nearby glaciers, and then we landed on a giant glacier named Shoup Glacier.  It was absolutely amazing.  The pictures do not begin to capture the vast landscape we saw.  None of us had ever been in a helicopter before and it is amazing what you can see when riding in one.  We have seen a number of glaciers on our trip so far, but what we see from the road or from a hiking trail is nothing compared to what they look like when you go way up and back into the mountains and land on top of one.  An experience we will not forget.

You’ll be happy to know we continued our bakery quest while in Valdez…. and I can report we found a great bakery right on the harbor front, in a converted 1950s camper.  Super cute and very good.  We went every day we were there.  Guy declared the breakfast croissant with ham and the blueberry scones “one of the best things I have ever eaten!”  The very nice young lady who was the owner even baked us 2 loves of bread – multigrain and a beautiful round loaf of rye.  We had asked about bread, she said she was done making it for the season, since she was closing in a few days.  Then she said she’d make some just for us – it was delicious!

We cooked tons of seafood while Guy was here – crab legs, scallops, shrimp, salmon, halibut.  Now you know why we hike even in the rain….we have to work off all the bakery goods, delicious dinners and ice cream!  We didn’t find any great ice cream shops in Valdez, but the grocery had  plenty!

Sharing a part of this adventure with Guy was great.  No one is prepared for how big and beautiful Alaska is, and I think Guy really enjoyed exploring a little bit of it.  He’s the last of our visitors for the summer – it was so nice having everyone – we are loving our RV lifestyle and are so thankful to be able to do this, but we do miss family and friends.  Visitors help bridge the gap a bit.

Guy, we love you and are so proud of you and the happy, healthy life you are living in Minnesota.  Thank you for coming to visit and sharing this experience with us.  Life is good.

Pictures at these links:

Hiking:  https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkkIi-rWnzsvAFatq

Helicopter:  https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkheVp9beEjy7lnJd

Salmon Fishing:  https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkiPmWB61Ys8oyjZw

Valdez:  https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pklLl_bjzOJlcdG_Z

 

Hi Everyone – just wanted to let you know, I hope to get a post up soon that will have an update about Guy’s visit and lots of photos.  We’re currently traveling south through Canada again, heading for Vancouver.  Once we reach Vancouver we’re going to decide where to go from there.  We may spend some time in the Washington/Oregon area, depending on weather and fires affecting the area.  Otherwise, we may spend time in Idaho and maybe Montana if we can catch our friends Don and Patty there before they head back east too.  These are the big decisions we face these days….not a bad life!! 🙂

We just stayed in Stewart, BC, which is on the Canadian boarder with Hyder, Alaska.  Hyder is in the Alaskan panhandle, in the southeast of the state.  We drove over to Hyder yesterday to do some sightseeing.  This area is known for bears, and we have seen several black bears in the last couple of days, including one in the RV park yesterday morning, about 50 yards away from our RV!  And kids out riding bikes right by it!!!

All is well, it is still raining a lot and internet and cell is very spotty and weak when we do get it.

Go Buckeyes!

 

Hi everyone!  I can’t tell you how thankful we are that Samantha and her friends, Josh and Ryan were able to come visit us.  Coming to Alaska takes a good amount of effort and time, and we are so thankful for our visitors.  I miss Samantha so much, I have never been away from her for this long, and knowing I am so far away from her in time and miles is a little frightening sometimes too.  So having her and her friends here for a week was truly wonderful.

And then there’s the weather…..they say this is one of the wettest and coolest summers in recent memory around here.  It has pretty much rained almost every day for weeks now.  Every once in a while we get a day or two of no rain.  We’re not looking for sunshine – even a day of overcast is nice as long as it’s dry!  You may remember from my last post that Steve and Bill set up a tent site for Samantha and her friends at the RV park in Portage.  We thought they would enjoy a space of their own and having a campfire.  Never quit raining long enough to have a campfire!  No smores!

We didn’t let the rain stop us from having fun.  I took them out for a day of kayaking in Prince William Sound, in Whittier (wet, cold, beautiful, fun!), while Steve stayed home with Gerry.  We got in a couple of really nice hikes, too.  We did about 4 miles total at Crow Pass and about 3 miles at Byron Glacier.  Samantha was determined to do everything in spite of her leg and constant pain and she did fantastic.

There’s something about being up in the mountains, away from everything but the big sky, clouds and nature that just is inspiring.  And, on our way to Crow Pass, where the trailhead is at the end of a several mile long dirt road, we saw a bear!  This is how you want to see a bear – from the car, but still up close enough to really see him.  Gerry started barking when he realized the bear was there – I was afraid the bear would charge the car, but he was too busy eating berries.

We took the kids to Seward for a day, hoping we may drive out of the rain, but alas, the rain followed us.  But they visited the Sea Life Center there, we did some tourist shopping for gifts and had lunch.  The Blueberry Festival was in Girdwood while the kids were here and we actually got several hours of no rain that day so the kids could go enjoy the festival.

The RV was cozy with all 5 of us and Gerry, but it actually is very comfortable.  Having 1 1/2 baths really helps when we have company, and the kids didn’t seem to mind the sofa bed and air mattress.  We ate lots of seafood, and everyone got to try crab legs for the first time (yes, even Samantha took a bite, with Josh’s help!)

We didn’t have the “big” camera out during Samantha’s visit, too much rain.  So I just have cell phone pictures to share with you below, plus a couple of videos.

Experiencing the mountains, glaciers and the vastness of Alaska is an experience all in itself, and I think they were pretty amazed.  Josh and Ryan, thank you for being such good friends to Samantha and for coming to visit us!

Samantha, you are beautiful and an incredibly special young lady.  We love you with all our hearts and are so glad you were here to share a little of this amazing journey with us! 🙂

Kayaking video:  https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkgJo7zlDmlhsO7oe

Byron Glacier hike video:  https://1drv.ms/a/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkgG2c-CapN8GEvnK

 

 

Howdy everyone!  I know I’ve been slow in providing updates, I’m sorry.  It’s been a whirlwind of visitors which is great.  We dropped my sister Laura off at the airport and literally drove around the airport to the arriving level and picked up our friend Bill.  We coordinated the departure and arrival flights to make the driving back and forth to Anchorage as efficient as possible.  Timing worked out great.

We moved back to the Portage Valley area on Laura’s last day, and we stayed there all during Bill’s visit and Samantha’s visit (post on Samantha’s visit coming soon!)  We really enjoy the Portage area, it’s beautiful and there’s lots of good hiking near by, not to mention the great Alpine Bakery and the ice cream store in Girdwood I told you about before!  Girdwood is only about 12 miles from the Portage Valley RV park we stayed in.

We had rain for the first 3 days of Bill’s visit…we drove to Seward one day and found sunshine!  We hiked Mt. Marathon again that day, we really enjoyed doing that hike again, it is so beautiful there.  We then had a couple of nicer days in Portage and hiked Portage Pass again.  These two hikes are some of our favorites anywhere so far.  It was so nice to be able to share them with Bill – I think we have become a little immune to the beauty that surrounds us, until we share it with someone like Bill who is experiencing it for the first time.  It helps us remember how spectacular our surroundings are and to not take this experience for granted!

Steve and Bill found a gym in Anchorage and went to work out a couple of times.  I know Steve was glad to have his work out buddy again!  We ate tons of great seafood and the guys took advantage of the sauna at the RV park too.  It’s a really cool sauna, rustic and heated by a wood fired stove.  It smells great inside and feels fantastic after a long hike.

We rented a tent campsite right by our RV for Samantha and her friends – Bill helped Steve set up the tent which was a much longer process than expected – they said something about the instructions not being very good….but I suspect it may have been the blind leading the blind…. 🙂

Good friend, good food and good hiking….what more can we ask for?  Thanks Bill for making the time and effort to come out to visit – we loved having you!

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