Aialik glacier

We spent about half hour and saw lots of ice come down.

August 3, 2008

We left Homer on Thursday and ventured up to Sterling which is only about 150 miles so we got there pretty early. We picked Sterling as it has a population of over 4000 so we thought it would be a reasonable size town. NOT. Doesn't even have a grocery store. It has nothing!!! Hmmm so what do we do? Well it's supposed to be good fishing in Sterling on the Russian River so that day Mike messed around with his fishing gear getting it ready. I found the prettiest wild flowers so I made a bouquet , that's what we are doing at that picnic table. Anywho, Mike went fishing to no avail. Now on our way to Sterling we did see a mother moose and two babies. Two babies is unusual.

So on Friday we decided to take a "float" trip down the Kenai River. This trip begins in Cooper Landing about 40 miles from where we camped. We left about 8:00 and just made it by 9:00. We are joining another couple making the trip. They suit us up! Rubber boots, rubber pants, LIFE JACKET, Had to sign a paper, guy says to keep track of the bodies! I'm saying "FLOAT?" So all four of us get in the rubber raft and sit on the same seat. I'm thinking of Dora and Pat and how proud they would be to see me get on this RIDE! For the most part it was very nice. It was pretty cold as every one's feet got cold. Water was 40 degrees and those rubber rafts aren't that insulated. We went down some mild rapids, not even rated but big enough for me, then we went over rated 2 rapids which by the way is NOT on my bucket list. Yes we got a little wet. All along the river are fishermen and on one shore a brown bear, a big one or better known as a grizzly. Well he wasn't having much luck fishing either, so he decided to to take a swim, hmmm, we had to slow down so we wouldn't run into him. The fishermen on the banks were scattering as he swam by in the current. He went quite a ways till he made it to the opposite side of the river bank. Did I mention he was BIG!
Well we made it, got home, and was exhausted so we took a nap.

Took off from Sterling to Seward which is only about 125 miles. It is cold here in Seward. It didn't get up to 60 yesterday(Saturday). It's Sunday and is still cold. Long underwear day I think. We plan a boat trip to see calving Glaciers on Tuesday. That should be good. This town is a little pricey as it is a port town for cruises. Heavy sales tax. Did I tell you in Anchorage there is no sales tax on ANYTHING, NOTHING. This tax thing kind of bothers Mike, plus here they have a borough tax plus if you go out on a boat there is a fuel charge. We will be out of here on Wednesday.

We have some pictures but they are stuck in the camera. Seems Mike took out the card of the camera and left it in my puter so took pictures on the memory in the camera and doesn't have the right cord? But with patience I'm sure they will get on this blog.

I've been watching the weather and I know many of you are sweating! You know if it is over 60 here and you are an Alaskan, it is hot and many swim or wish they had worn there shorts! Ironic isn't it.

July 30, 2008

We left Anchorage on the 27Th. Docs appointment got me more drugs. Guess I was trying to get pneumonia. So I'm better and getting out more.

We made it all the way to Homer Alaska. I hope Mike shows you where it is on the map. This is a nice little town. Quite a lot of people live here. It's milder here in the winter I'm told as there is so much water in this town. It gets cold but not as much snow as other areas. Homer has what they call a spit! This is like a long skinny peninsular that stretches out into the bay. At the end of this spit are shops and many fishing boats. Check out the ocean buoys that Mike is standing in front of and in the same area are the weights that they hold these buoys in the water. One of those cement sinkers was 80,000 pounds. They were huge.

There are a lot of fishing charters for halibut down on the spit. So Mike went out today, from 6:00 am to 5:00 pm. The seas were very high, many people go sick on his boat. Seas were in the 7 ft variety. But he did come home with two halibut, which is the limit for the day for each person. One halibut was 35 pounds, and one was 18 pounds, out of that we got 22 pounds of edible fish. We are having them shipped and we will all have halibut this Christmas.

We took a ride off the beaten path here and saw a couple of glaciers. Glaciers are big up here. One of them is bigger that the state of Rhode Island. Any who, the scenery is beautiful. Speaking of big, i heard you can put 5 texas's in state of Alaska!

We saw sunshine today, it was really nice on shore. It got cold this evening. Homers is south so we have night time here. I is dark by 11 pm here.

Pat, I drove the truck today.

We are out of here tomorrow, but not sure where we are going. So till then..........

July 26, 2008

I know, it's been a while and as most of you know I have been sick. Really sick. We moved from Skagway and after a couple of days drive we found ourselves in a little town called Tok. We got there early so I figured this would be a good time to do some cleaning etc. As I did, and made some egg and tuna salads for our trips on the road. I felt fine, then by evening I had a sore throat and a chest cough. Told Mike I thought I was getting a cold. Next day my head felt like it was going to blow up. We were going to go to Valdez but I asked for a day of reprieve. Next day head was worse stay in bed couldn't sleep blah blah blah. So went to the only clinic in Tok. Had to wait an hour in sheer pain. Got a PA. Didn't care, just fix me. Gave me an antibiotic . Next day still had the head ache from hell. Finally the sinuses began to drain, but the antibiotic made me sick to my stomach. We took off to Valdez. That was 230 miles of agony with an upset stomach. I made however. I stayed in bed for the next 4 days but Mike got to fish and he caught some salmon!!!! I was so excited for him. It really kept him busy. I went out for a ride once to see the town but back to bed I went. So then we took the trek to Anchorage, about 325 miles. We have been here for 3 days. Got one more day on the antibiotic and am still not perfect which the Doctor told me to see someone if I wasn't completely well by the end of the medicine. So will probably get checked out on Monday. I am really much better and hope to be well soon.

We have been out in Anchorage a bit. It's a pretty large city. I would say most of the states population live here. All the modern conveniences here. Paved roads, stores of many varieties, traffic, nice restaurants. Guess I'm not the country type.
It's very beautiful here. It certainly is untouched and I'm glad to see it, but I don't think I could live here unless it was here in Anchorage.

So we hope to go to Kenai next. Salmon are running down there. That is about 220 miles from here. Sorry don't have too much Alaska news for you. I can tell you though the flowers that are grown here are really something. They are much more brilliant in color than ours at home. I was told because of the long days.
I met a man who races in the Iditarod. He was most interesting. He has been racing for a while now. He's a physics PhD! Trying to raise money for the race. Not a young man probably in his 60's. We'll have to keep an eye on him in March when the race takes place.

So that's my boring blog, hope I will have more interesting stuff in the future.

July 16,2008

I know you are wondering why it takes me so long between posts. It's all about the Internet availability! So here we go will catch you up again.

As I said we were on our way to Skagway. We made it and spent 4 days there. Skagway is a little town with a lot of history. It used to be a start for thousands of people on a trek to the Yukon for a gold rush in Dawson City. There was no gold in Skagway but there is a port in which many came in by steamer from Seattle, Washington. This was in 1898. Well there was this character who also went to Skagway, his name was Joseph Smith. He was a con man and moved to Skagway when he heard about the gold rush as that is what he did, conned all the prospectors and many lost all their money before they even started out on there trek to Dawson. One of his cons was selling soap with money strapped around it. Two of his men would go up and find money in there soap, $5.00 oh I got $50.00! Then everyone would rush up and buy his soap. His men who posed as buyers would return him the money. He became quite wealthy and opened a saloon. This is why he was called Soapy Smith! Any way he did many types of swindles and robbed many of the miners. The towns people got tired of this and wanted to run Soapy out of town. Not on your life Soapy said, this is my town. Well he got shot in the heart and he shot his killer in the groin and he died 12 days later. This is a true story and there more to it but it is one of the highlights of this town. We went to a play which was about this character, it was quite cute and comical. Before you go into the play you gamble with money they give you when you come in. You get $1000.00. You can play black jack, roulette or a game call 4 5 6. The actors are the dealers. Well we played roulette, I lost Mike won. We payed black jack, I lost Mike won. We played 4 5 6 and I won some and Mike won more. He won the most of anyone in the room and got a poster with kisses on it. Very cute.

The stampede it was called in 1898 of people coming to mine for gold in Dawson. Thousands came in that year and a few years after. Pretty serious at first as these fellows walked over mountain passes carrying hundreds of pounds of supplies to last them the trip. Many died, one pass they took pack horses. The pass was so bad 3000 horses perished in one year. The trip to Dawson was 1500 miles from Skagway. Walk and raft down the Yukon river to get there.

Skagway is also a port town. Which means cruise ships come in everyday, at least two at a time and as much as 4 when we were there. So with the exception of a few places it is fine jewelry, furs, carvings etc. typical cruise port.

Our last day there which was Monday, we took a boat trip from Skagway to Juneau. This is an 80 mile trip. We went on a boat with about 40 other people who were also there as RVers. It was a lot of fun. The captain pointed all all kinds of wild life. We saw sea lions, harbor seals, humpback whales, many Bald Eagles, Dall porpoise, dolphins. The trip is all in a Fjord so the sea was very calm. Mountains on both side the whole way. We saw fishermen fishing for salmon. That was something too. It took about 3 hours to get to Juneau. A bus waiting for us, took us into the city where we had lunch at this place called "The Hanger" which is right on the water. Well in front of this restaurant is about 4 sea planes. They left and came back twice while we were having lunch. Just taking people out for a ride. Each plane held about 10 people. Chaching!!!! Anyway for lunch we walked around the city a bit as we only had about 1.5 hours (not nearly enough time for me) to shop. Then we met the bus and it took us to a glacier. This glacier was kind of interesting as we could see the burgs it dropped in the water. I learned that all these glaciers we are seeing are from a mini ice age we had 3000 years ago. So that old ice and of coarse it is shrinking, one however is advancing. Got back on the boat and came back to Skagway seeing more wildlife on the way. It was a great way to end our visit in Skagway.

One more thing, that train you see Mike standing in front of is a train snow blower!!! It clears the tracks in the winter. Saw a short film on it, the snow was as tall as the train.

The last two days have been travel days, nothing exciting not stories there. We are in a town called Tok. This town was named after a dog. The Alaskan Highway was built during WW2.

Tomorrow we are heading to Valdez. Sound familiar? It's about 250 miles from here. So stay in touch, haven't heard so much from ya'll.

July 10,2008

We are still driving every day for the last 6 days, I think, and we have about 100 more miles to get to Skagway, Alaska. Tonight we are in the Yukon in what town I cannot tell you. The campground is call Yukon Campground!!!! So for any of you old timers that can remember "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon" on tv, I'm there!!!! It's on a beautiful lake. Campsites are nothing to write home about but it's ok for an overnight.

Today was a tough drive as we were on the Cassiar Highway, which we have been on for 3 or 4 days now. The first part of the highway was paved but the part we drove on today, about 150 miles, was dirt road with some paved areas in between. Then to top it off, it rained and that dirt road is all over our camper and truck. Was a mess. So it was a slow go today.

When we first got on the Cassiar Highway we went to our first Alaska town which is on the south eastern part of Alaska and the western part of BC. It's a tiny little town, with one road in and the same road out. Hyder Alaska, population 69(that is what the book we have says.). Well it looked like a few more than that lived there. Not a paved road in the place. I felt like I was in Northern Exposure. We took this road that went up into the mountains and saw an enormous glacier, called Salmon Glacier. We also saw a couple of black bears as well. On this same road there is a place where state, (not sure if its Canada or America as you cross the line a couple of times on this road) built a large viewing area over a stream where the salmon run. When they are running the bears come and catch them and you can watch them in safely. The salmon just began to run day before we got there so there weren't any bears. We could see only 2 pairs of salmon making their nests but the ranger told us in a month or two there would be 100,000 salmon spawning in this location. As we went down the mountain we saw numerous waterfalls. It was really beautiful. As we drive through these mountain areas we see so many waterfalls which we never get tired of. Also many streams, rapids, rivers, lakes just fantastic.

The town you must go through to get to Hyder is called Stewart which is in British Columbia. On our way into Stewart we saw another very large glacier. This one was called Bear Glacier. You can see the blue in the ice. I was told by a ranger that the blue is cause by minerals in the ice.
Anyway so it's time to head out and Mike says, nah, lets not get gas here, we'll get it on the highway. Hmmmmmmmm
Well he figured wrong, he didn't want to pay $1.49 in Stewart cause he thought it would be cheaper once on the highway. Well the next gas was about 110 miles down the road. We made it with 30 miles to spare and we paid $1.60 per liter for it and gladly. Canada is very expensive for gas people we have talked to say it's better once we get into Alaska.

The rest of the trip has been kind of uneventful except for the MOOSE we saw. Or maybe I should say hit!!!! Yep she jumped right out in front of us but fortunately she kept moving across. We have seen 2 more since that one but they disappear before we can get a picture. We have seen only female ones so far. Man they have long legs.

The Goob is getting quite acclimated to travel now. When Mike starts to mess with the outside of the camper he jumps up on the bed and buries himself under the covers but as soon as we stop in the evening he is up and out. This traveling stuff is not so bad after all.

July 6, 2008

This is our first day back with Internet since we last talked to you on the 28th of June. And I must first address Kristi's message on this blog. I was very sad to hear Uncle Lou died. He had been quite ill for a while now and I'm sure he must have been tired of fighting. He was a very nice man, we enjoyed seeing him each Christmas for the last few years. Best wishes to Althea I sure she feels the loss the most.

Let me see if I can catch you up to the present. It's not going to be easy. We were in Montana, drove to the Canadian boarder and sat. Wow what a long wait. They are really being careful. It took us over an hour to get through. The line wasn't that long, they just asked each car a gazillion questions. Anyway we got through and we are now in Alberta Canada. Well I have to tell you it wasn't that exciting. Alberta to up the Canadian Rockies is huge farmland(guess they call them prairies) Farm after farm but miles apart. This was a travel day and not much excitement. We went quite a ways that day, camped, next day we drove about 100 more miles to a town call Cranmore which is about 40 miles away from Banff. We spent the 30th and 1st if July here and left on the 2nd. This was a lovely little town. Lot of building going on there so it must be pretty successful. We we there for Canada Day which is the 1st. It's like our 4th. Parades, fireworks!!!!! We drove around the mountains in the area and I did manage to get Mike to stop at one store other than the grocery. This was a good stop to get caught up on our laundry and all those kind of things. We got to Banff pretty early on the 2nd. You know Banff is in a Canadian National Park and you pay to enter by the day! So just to stay the 4 days we had to pay $20.00 per day to start. Then when we got to the campground, which is a "state" campground we had to pay there as well. The campground was nice, very large, and the showers were free!!!! (bonus) $3.50 a shower in Yellowstone! OK so now we are settled and we are going to check out the town. Well it was very nice. It is not a huge town but very pretty surrounded by the Canadian Rockies. A very popular town, busy with tourists. Anyway being our anniversary we decided to eat out. We ate at a pretty nice place but were both kind of disappointed in the quality. The shops we wonderful. There were some very artsy shops with museum quality things for sale. With, I might add, museum prices. But beautiful one of a kind pieces. BUT when I found and acrylic bead bracelet that was made with that stretchy elastic bands was $35.00 I figure everything was very very inflated. So guess you can guess, we didn't buy a thing. Oh sorry did buy one thing and you will experience at Christmas. Nope not telling.

The next day we went to Lake Louise. We took the longer way in hopes to see some animals. (We didn't) Anyway got to the lake. Very very beautiful. Lake Louise was created by glaciers. As a matter o fact, some of the glacier can still be seen at the end of the lake. The color is a turquoise and of coarse there is reason for this. The glacier moves and grinds the rock down to a powder, it is called "rock flour". It washes into the water, the water absorbs all the light except blue which is the reason why it is this color. Not only is Lake Louise this color but many many lakes and streams and rivers are this color. At the other end of the lake is a big beautiful hotel. Lake Louise Hotel, unique eh? Anyway it is quite posh, but we had lunch there anyway. Best lunch I have had on this trip yet. We ate outside and the day was warm and the view beautiful. There is a trail that goes along the lakeside and Mike and I took it for about 1.5 miles then turned back, almost to the end. The old guys knees were bothering him.

So the next couple of days we would drive around a new mountain or stream and would usually end up downtown with me having to see all the shops. The day before we left we went to the Banff Hotel which is very very beautiful. It's nestled in the mountains amongst pine trees. The view isn't as pretty a Lake Louise but the hotel is most beautiful. The shops in this hotel were expensive and elaborate, fun to look at!! These hotels are both owned by the same people who also own the Hotel Frontenac in Quebec. Cannot remember the name and Mike is sleeping so you're on you own on this one.

We left Banff this morning and road all day. (about 280 miles) Everything is in kilograms, kilometers, liters,and centimeters here so we have to figure it out when we stop. On the drive today we stopped by the Colombian Ice Fields. This is a glacier that has been around for a long time. The ice is as deep as the Empire State Building is tall. We thought about taking the tour out on the ice but decided not to as it was a 2 plus hour tour. From that point we saw many glaciers. Pretty amazing. We figured we would also see a lot more glaciers in Alaska. This area is in Jasper National Park, yep, another fee! However, it was a beautiful drive and also bear country. We got a few pictures and we spotted 3 separate bears. Saw lots of waterfalls as well. One of these pictures is called the "Weeping Wall". One of these falls is called "Bridal Veil Falls, can you tell which one it is? We are now in a little town called McBride Canada. Which is in the middle of nowhere. We were out of milk so we went into town. Oh my goodness.......it's Sunday so the town was empty but the market was open. You wouldn't believe the prices of things in this store. I don't know how this little town can afford to live here. I don't see any industry ,a few small farms, mostly cow type farms. A very small bag of snow peas was $10.00. Amazing. As you can imagine gas is expensive here as well. It is sold by the liter but is well over $5.00 per gallon. Have no idea how it is in the states now but it is expensive here.

We are on the long drive now to Alaska so I don't anticipate any great experiences but if I have any I will let you know. I don't know when I will have Internet again either so wish me luck.

Yes it gets cold at night, in the 60's in the day. I'm waiting for snow.