Saturday, August 31, 2012

We have spent the last 3 days traveling from Alaska through British Columbia.  We have not had cell phone service until today so was glad as I was able to talk to children, grandchildren, and siblings to celebrate my birthday.  We have not taken many pictures but did see a grizzly and black bear along the highway.

Am glad this grizzly didn't want to visit us.

This black took to the shrubs as soon as I took out my camera.

Gerry made a nice campfire as he cooked burgers.

As we get closer to the lower 48 it nice to be able to buy a newspaper.  I guess we are so spoiled as we take it for granted that a newspaper is delivered to your door each day.  Papers are flown in, so if a place does get a paper, it doesn't get there until about 3 in the afternoon.  Most places have none.  I find it interesting that you can buy an espresso everywhere but no paper.  And of course with tv not available in most areas, no newspapers, and just occasional internet, I really miss what is happening in the world. Gerry likes to give me a bad time, but hey I am a news junkie. What can I say??  

We are working our way to Washington, Oregon, and northern California.  We are looking forward to the coastline, the Sequoias and the Redwoods, and of course the wine area.  In San Francisco we are hoping to connect with nephew Sean and his girlfriend, Monica.  Gerry says we are stopping in Reno.  Maybe he wants to win back some of the money this trip has cost. HA

Great day. Good birthday.  Love Gerry and Kathy

An update. As I was trying to send the blog I did tonight it didn't appear that it was sent properly so will try again.  Hope it works. Kathy

Tuesday, August 28, 2012  Day 21

Gerry viewing an iceberg in Columbia Bay

We have now left Alaska and are about an hour into Canada along the Alaskan highway.  We have the bad roads again with all the frost heaves so we travel about 40 miles an hour.  We have another 100 miles on the rough roads tomorrow and then the roads should be a lot better.  We arrived in Valdez on Sunday evening in thick fog and rain.  You couldn't see the mountains from the campground.  It was also rainy on Mon. morning but we decided to take the glacier cruise anyway, and once again we were fortunate as the weather cleared, the sun came out, and we were closer to the glaciers than the ship had ever been.  We were able to see calving (ice breaking from the glacier) and hear the thunder of the glacier.

The Columbia Glacier

As we were cruising some Dall's porpoises came near and kept swimming along side and in front of our cruise ship.  They look like a small orca whale.  They kept swimming, diving, and traveled with us for quite awhile.  It was really fun to watch.  

The Steller sea lions were basking in the sun.  They have a loud boisterous bellowing sound.

This cute bunny was by our cruise ship as we were getting ready to depart.   Just had to snap a picture.

Valdez receives so much snow in the winter (about 25 to 26 ft.) that they need to put up these pole markers for the snow plows to find the road.  

It has been fun receiving e-mails from so many of you.  Keeps away the homesickness that I (Kathy) get from time to time.  We are now heading for some time in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and northern California.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Friday we left Homer.  On our way to Seward we stopped at the Russian River, Cooper Landing.  We walked down to an area where there were hundreds of red salmon.  The water had a red glow.

                              Red salmon at the Russian River.

 Seward is a beautiful town nestled in the mountains on Resurrection Bay.   In fact it is probably the most beautiful place we have stayed at in Alaska.  We are camping at Seward Military Resort.  It was a former military base that has been turned into a campground with all the luxuries.  Today, Saturday, we drove out to Exit Glacier.  We hiked out to the edge of the glacier. There were warning signs about black and brown bears. We didn't have our bear spray with us.  Others did as well as their bells.

At the top of our hike which was the edge of Exit Glacier.

The hiking trail was marked with signs that gave the year where the glacier had been.  It shows how much the glacier has receded over the years.

We spent some time at the Alaska Sea Life Center.  Gerry is watching the sea lions.

A view of Seward.  Lots of shopping and good eating places.

If you look closely you will see the path that endurance runners ascend each 4th of July.  It is grueling and the fastest time to go up and down is 43 minutes.  A fellow we talked to said the medics wait at the bottom as the runners come down hurt and bloodied.  One runner was never found from this last summer.  Certainly was not on our list of things to do.

A view of the harbor.  Lots of beautiful boats.
Tomorrow we leave for Valdez. Plan to take a cruise among the glaciers.  All is well.  We plan to be in Alaska for 3 days and then will begin our journey to California.  Gerry and Kathy

Thursday, August 23,2012

Well, it was a spectacular day.  It rained during the night and was quite windy this morning, but we had scheduled our fishing trip so we had to go.  We left at 7  this morning. Our first spot to fish was in the Kachemak Bay at Homer, Alaska.  The sun came out and our adventure began.  We went out into the waters and we had our limit by 10:00t   I (Kathy) caught the largest, weighing 18 pounds. It was beautiful in the mountains and such fun as the salmon kept hitting and we kept reeling them in.  We were with a couple from Colorado and two guys from Montana. Our guide Dave and his helper Jane were fantastic. Jane was here from Chicago for the summer and she had never fished before until she started working as a deck hand. She now knew what to do and made it such fun.

Getting aboard the Grand Aleutian.

A King Salmon.

Jane is holding the halibut that I had caught. She was such fun.  She could easily be another one of our beautiful daughters.

 

Out captain, Dave, holding the halibut Gerry just reeled in. It was a lot of fun when they were brought aboard.

This is our fishing group.  Gerry, Kathy, John, Gail (from Colorado) and Scott and Jerry from Montana.  We had more fish than this but they only could hang these.

 We are having 56 pounds of halibut and king salmonm sent to Bismarck.
Wow, what a day!!!  Only 1 person out of our trip got motion sickness.  I do know him very well.. We did have 10 foot swells in the ocean on our way out to the Aleutian Islands in the Cook Inlet, so he was excused.  I read that one should drink ginger ale and eat soda crackers, which I did, and I do believe that helped.  I also stayed on deck rather than go below.  I felt that if I saw land I may fare better and I did.  It was great fun and one we would do again in a heartbeat.

Tuesday August 21,2012

Okay, this is how we spend some nights.  We do watch movies and have popcorn. We did have our dvd player poop out so we had to buy a new one.  We have now settled into Homer,Alaska.  It is very beautiful and an area we are very glad to be in.  We spent 3 days in Anchorage, and that was nice but it certainly is not as scenic like it is here in Homer.  We had drinks at the Salty Dawg and then went to eat fresh seafood.

 

Now, this is a beautiful place to camp.  We are going to shop tomorrow and go halibut/salmon fishing on Thursday.  The entire day today was very scenic.  It certainly is fun to visit with other travelers along the way. Gerry bought a fishing rod so he can do some fishing from our campsite.  We are enjoying the camper  and find it  very convenient at night as we don't have to carry anything into the hotel.  

 The fireweed is prevalent all over Alaska. In the background is a Mount that erupted in the previous 5 years and the ash was seen in Anchorage. 

Big Horn Sheep

A moose along the highway.

All is well. Gerry and Kathy

Saturday, August 18, 2012

We started our day on Friday visiting the town of  North Pole Alaska.  It is a fun community to visit.  Everything is of course geered toward Christmas.  We even had our picture taken with Santa.

Santa was very friendly and gave us all the information we needed to see the area.  We put in our Christmas wish for the new year.

At the North Pole we visited an area where they broadcast a radio gospel station called  the  KJNP (King Jesus North Pole).  The homes have sod roofs.  Cool.

 

All of the street lights looked light candy canes.

We enjoyed walking in downtown Fairbanks.  This arch was made of moose horns.  We have not seen any moose yet but hope to before we are through.  Today (Saturday) we are in Anchorage. Plan to go to a market and festival tomorrow morning.  Over 250 booths so hope we see some new and unusual crafts.  It rained on and off today and was our coolest day thus far. High was probably around 60.   We spent some time at Denali State Park but were unable to see the top of Mount McKinley because of the weather.  There is a nice sighting from Anchorage so hope to see it as we are spending three days here.  We did drive through Wasilla (Sarah Palin's home).  It is a beautiful town nestled in the mountains.  Not a Palin fan but was fun to see her home town.  Tomorrow is Gerry's birthday so have some carmel  rolls rising and will have that for breakfast.  No need for a cake. 

Touring Fairbanks

Thursday, August 16, 2012

     Today was a relaxing day.  We enjoyed going around  the Fairbanks area. The morning was spent

at the University of Alaska  museum.  It was very interesting and offered three 30 min. movies

that we enjoyed about winter in Fairbanks and the Aurora Borealis.  We both enjoy museums, however, Gerry is more detailed in his viewing of exhibits than I am.  It was cool in the museum and raining outside.  I was chilled so we returned to the camper for some warm soup, umbrellas, and a jacket.  By the time we finished our soup, the sun was out. It turned out to be another beautiful day in the 70's.  We have had great weather and feel fortunate about that.  We spent the rest of the afternoon at Pioneer Park which offered 5 museums, shops, and some fun.  We ate at the Salmon Bake where you could have all the fresh salmon, cod, and prime rib you want.  Delicious.  Tomorrow we are continuing our exploration of the area with some time spent at the North Pole to eat at Pagodas, which is a restaurant featured on the tv show Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. There is an art show and of course some fun shopping for the grand kids. Hope all is well in ND. 

      

                                                Viewing some of the Alaskan pipeline.

                                                 Ride 'em cowboy on  the big salmon.  Yeah!!

                                         
                                        I do believe I could use one of these benches at home. Ha

                                                  

                                                             Mush Mush

Fairbanks Alaska

Day 8 August 15, 2012

We arrived in Fairbanks this afternoon.  It has been quite a journey.  We have had some great scenery but also some rough roads.  Due to their harsh winters the roads, even though they are paved, have a lot of frost heaves. So up and down you go.  Whee.  It is hard on the vehicle and camper.  Have a nice big rock chip in the windshield which now has a nice crack going across the glass.  The plug for our water was chipped off  but we are hooked to water so will go get a new one tomorrow.  Luckily, as I do not want to go that rustic.  With no tv, internet, or newspapers one really has time for reflection.  We also need to get used to the  3 hour time change and that we have daylight til the wee hours of the  morning.  Hard to go to sleep when it is so light out.  We did find the dvd remote.  Had gotten into the slide out.  We are also learning what needs to be removed from the counters, as yesterday our coffee pot, toaster, and some food were thrown all over the camper.  Nothing was breakable so that was good.  We will spend several days in and around the Fairbanks area.  We were to a town called the North Pole.  Street lights are candy canes and everything is Christmas.  We will return there on Friday as they are having an art show and we want to get some cool Christmas things for the grand kids.  We have not seen bears yet but have seen a few other friends on the highway like this young caribou.  We look forward to doing some halibut fishing soon and a cruise among the glaciers.

 A young caribou that wandered onto the highway.

                                                                  WE MADE IT!!!!!

A forest of over 70,000 signs in Watson Lake, Yukon.  We have to catch all the scenic things in the area.  HA.  

Gerry and I spent one night in a very lonely campground.  We were the only campers until late in the evening. With no tv, newspapers, internet, or others around it really did give us some time to reflect on life.

Where is everyone?????

Good night for today.  Will post again in a few days.

Traveling the Alaskan Highway

Sunday, August 12, 2012

                                             Getting ready to canoe on Bow Lake, Banff AB

                                                 Our tour guide on the canoe trip - voyager

Cook in the great outdoors

One of Gerry's things to do on his bucket list.

                                                                     Moraine Lake  


We are now traveling the Alaskan Highway. We left today from Grand Cache AB.  At Dawson Creek we began our journey on the Alaskan Highway. It begins at mile marker 0.  Tonight we are at mile post 325.  I was so excited to have internet and tv again.  Well our cord for the connection to the tv is only 6 feet long and we needed about a 25 foot cord, sooo no tv.   We also lost the remote for the dvd player. Luckily we can operate by pushing buttons. We think it fell into the garbage and was thrown out.  Grrr.  So glad it was not the tv remote.  I will hang onto that. We have seen such gorgeous scenery.  Our drive on the Ice Fields Parkway from Lake Louise to Jasper AB was breathtaking.  We have listened to two books on tape and I have already found time to read 1 book.  We are tired by 10 at night so retire early.  I am always up very early and really enjoy my quiet time drinking a cup of tea in the morning.  The pines smell so great.  We are excited each day to see and learn more about this beautiful country.  Gerry and Kathy

Day 2

I am trying my skills with writing on this blog this morning.  It was a comfortable night sleeping once we were settled in.  Learning what windows to open, how they open, what to close with the wind blowing etc will take a little while to get used to.  I am up early enjoying a cup of coffee and toast.  Having the bedroom at the other end of the camper will work well for us.  Also, being able to watch some of the Today show is an added plus.  They have nice shower facilities here so will use that instead of the one in the camper.  I feel like the vacation really starts today.  From here on in the scenery is soon to be spectacular.  I will try my skills with picture taking and importing them today.  Hope all is well with everyone.
 Kathy

Preparing camper for Alaska

These pictures are of our camper as we prepare our home for the next six weeks!

                         
                                          Our new chairs so we can relax in comfort.