Day 29 & 30 July 21 & July 22 Seward and Palmer

Sunrise 5:15  Sunset 10:53

This morning we skipped the  pancake breakfast our Ambassadors made for all of us, Gary and I wanted to take the dog sled tours, the only tour available was the 10-11:30 at Mitch Seaveys Dog Sled Adventure.  After a talk about Mitch Seavey - a 3 time Iditarod Champion, and also the oldest at 57 to win in 2017, his son has won 4 times.  Now it's time to mush!  All during the talk we could hear the dogs barking in their kennels, all ready to run.  The sleds are metal with wheels, we had 9 (3 kids) on our sled, one young lady got to stand in the back with Grayson, our musher.  The lead dogs Crisp and Jingo followed by 12 more, were more than ready to go.  Our 2 mile ride took about 30 minutes, with 3 rest stops for the dogs to cool off, through the woods and along a creek.  Grayson is Mitch's dog trainer, the dogs pulling our sled were on the winning 2017 team. After the race we got to "love" on 4 - 10 week old puppies, then a talk on how the Iditarod sleds are packed.  They weigh about 500 pounds, about what the metal ones weigh with some people.  If you're ever in Seward we highly recommend the dog sledding.

I have a Luci story, she has a BFF on the Caravan, Honnah, Laurie and Steve's black lab/border collie mix, about the same age and size as Luci.   Steve, Honna's "papa" throws the ball for the girls, he must have walked by, Gary and I were in the back and Luci started "screaming"!  I told her to "wait" while I picked up her leash from outside, the minute I opened the door she was off like a shot across the park to the grassy area by the creek.  She was a very bad girl but it made me chuckle how fast and determined she was to play.  You'd have thought her tail was on fire.  

At 4 a bus from Kenai Fjords tour picked us up at the park for a dinner cruise to Fox Island.  A beautiful evening, the mountains were out in full force.  The cruise to the island took about 30 minutes where we had a buffet of prime rib and salmon with all the trimmings, we got back on the boat for a tour around shorelines looking for sea lions, puffins, eagles etc. 

The next morning we drove back up the Kenai Peninsula to Palmer for 2 night, only 167 miles but it took about 5 hours.

That's it for tonight, enjoy the pic's,

TFN,

Gary and Pam 

Talk about Iditarod race

The kennels

Metal sled on wheels

The team behind us

Creek running alongside trail

The puppy

Boat Harbor

 

 

Our team

 

 

breathtaking at every turn

Little beach by boat dock

Fox Island Lodge

beautful  rock sculpture

Young sea lions

Back to the dock about 9

 

Day 27 & 28 July 19 & 20 - Homer and Seward Alaska

Sunrise 5:30 - Sunset 10:55  We're losing daylight hours fast.  I've enjoyed the long days, I feel so much more energetic in the evenings.  

Seward, Alaska, population 2,787, (not counting the thousands that arrive on cruise ships) elevation sea level then it goes straight up, set in an inlet on the Kenai Peninsula.  167 miles from Homer also on the Kenai, 67 miles as the crow flies but no roads connect the two.

We left Homer about 9:45 - a beautiful blue sky, windless day, we all hated to leave.  We pulled into Stoney Creek RV park about 2, very wooded area with a "stoney" creek rushing on the border of the property.  A little disappointing considering what we had just left.  We had to take the road toward Anchorage out of Homer, shortly before the Seward Highway cut-off we drove past a Pepsi-Cola semi truck that slid into the ditch, landing on it's side.  That could have been any of us with the narrow roads we've had to travel.  The tow trucks were there, I think they were scratching their heads on the best way to pull the truck out of there.  We were lucky traffic was not affected by the accident.  Later that evening we watched a bald eagle glide by the tree tops.   

 After breakfast we drove to Exit Glacier, only about 10 miles from the park, an accessible glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park.  I hiked the 1 mile round trip trail to view the Glacier and Resurrection River (I think that was  the name of the river), Gary went on up to the upper view.   

After lunch the Caravan group went to Alaska Sea Life, we all got to view the aquarium then were treated to a talk on Puffins.  The aviary specialist brought in 3 varieties of Puffin, one of which we forgot the name and I couldn't find the name in any research.  Oh well!  The Horned Puffin and the Tufted  Puffin were so cute, they had a special bond with her.  Puffins are stocky, short-winged and short-tailed birds, with black upper parts and white underparts.  The head has a black cap, the face is mainly white and the feet are orange-red.  The bill is partially orange,  they are diving birds, they beat their wings up to 400 times a minute in flight but also use their wings diving to help them go deeper.  They only weigh about 13 oz. 

After we left the aquarium we walked through Old Town, the prices are high because of the cruise patrons.  I did stop in the quilt store and picked up a free pattern.  We had dinner at Seward Brewing, Kim and Dennis joined us, they live in Florida and are taking a 10 month trip across the country. 

That's it for tonight enjoy the pic's,

TTFN,

Gary and Pam 

Exit Glacier

River running out from under glacier

Statue in front of Alaska Sea Life

Seal in one of the tanks

View from Alaska Sea Life across Resurrection Bay and mountains

Horned puffin in habitat exhibit

Forgot the name of this little guy ,with Aviary expert

Horned puffin this gives you the idea of it's size

Horned puffin

3 month old sea otter that had been rescued

 

Days 25 & 26 Homer, Alaska July 17 & 18

Sunrise 5:04  Sunset11:04

It actually got "dark" last night.

Tonight I'm just going to post photos with captions.

TTFN,

Gary and Pam

Odd looking - perhaps a barge  It's hasn't moved since we've been here

Part of our group, beach front - great park even 50 amp

Boat harbor, Stacy said sea otters hang out here but we never saw one

Motor home parked along walkway by boat harbor  Cute!

Not quite as cute!  People live on this old scow

Laurie messing around with a grizzly at Pratt Museum

Who knew?  Quilts in a historic museum

Infamous Salty Dawk Saloon, ceiling covered with $$$$

Mama came home with dinner while we watched, baby seems almost as bit

Not pretty yet, in that awkward stage

 

Day 24 July 16 Anchorage, Alaska to Homer, Alaska

Sunrise:  5:17  Sunset:  11:07

My gosh, day 24 already!  We are at the halfway point of our Caravan today,  sometime it seems like times has flown and other days I think, "Is that all"  

First things first!  We now have all 50 states covered on our map on the coach slide, just less than 5 years to accomplish that feat!  On satellite radio 60's on 6 Phlash Phelps did all 50 in the year he turned 50.  Overachiever!

We left Anchorage in rain this morning about 9:00, immediately turned the wrong direction even though the trip log tells us exactly which way to turn.  It worked out fine, Miss Sally got us on the Seward Highway with no trouble. About 20 miles out we stopped at Beluga Point, a beautiful viewpoint and Beluga whales are known to hang out there.  No whales today, but we did spot an American Eagle.  Across the street a "tourist" train was heading toward Anchorage. the train reminded us a little of Orient Express.  The scenery was beautiful, we saw several glaciers including the Portage Glacier, the skies were overcast, I can only imagine how gorgeous it would be on a clear day.  It seems I'm using the word "beautiful" a lot, oh well it works.

Just north of Homer, we stopped at the Overlook of Homer Spit, we disconnected the car there and took time for a quick photo op.  We are at Heritage RV park right on the spit, our front windshield faces Kachemak  Bay.  Tonight we saw an eagle swooping around looking for dinner.  Gary discovered a nesting pair with babies perched a top a construction crane, I suppose all work stopped.  The weather feels like the Oregon Coast!  Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
I've hunkered down tonight, tomorrow it's supposed to be in the low 60's, we're planning to take the ferry over to Seldovia.  I'll have to dig out my long johns!  

That's all for tonight, we have a few pictures,

TTFN,

Gary and Pam

Yes!  All 50 states

We ran into 2 couples from our Caravan at Beluga Point

Beluga Point

Tourist train heading north

We had to wait in line for this picture, a charter bus pulled in ahead of us but one of the  occupants took our picture

Our first view of Homer

Amazing birds

Can't see the babies

Day 22 & 23 Denali, Wasilla & Anchorage

July 14 & 15

Sunrise 4:53  Sunset 11:17

We were the last ones out of camp on Saturday except for our TailGunner , we finally got on the road about 10:15 for our 245 mile drive to Anchorage.  We notified Wayne, (tailgunner) that we planned to stop in Wasilla for a while.  

We were stuck twice in construction zones both sites were using pilot cars which takes longer.  Then as we pulled out of Wasilla traffic was backed up several miles, that was ok, the road seemed better the rest of the way to Anchorage (40 miles)  

We stopped in Wasilla to see see Sylvia, a high school classmate of Gary's AND she owns a wonderful quilt store.  We talked (and I shopped) until closing.  I was starving. we hadn't eaten since breakfast, asked her about a close burger joint, the only one was located in McDonald's in WalMart(where we were parked) I walked over , placed my order, then Gary called, Sylvia came over and wanted to know if we'd like to have dinner with her. I brought my order back to the coach and  stuffed it in the refrigerator.  We went to dinner at the Trout House a couple of miles from her shop. Yummmmmm!  Of course at that point sawdust would have tasted good.  

We finally got to Golden Nugget RV Park after 8.  We tried to get our (analogy) Size 9 foot into a Size 6 shoe.  At least it wasn't dark and raining.  

Sunday morning the group was scheduled to visit Alaska Native Center, I skipped out.  (You can only see so many museums in my book) Gary enjoyed the museum and village.  He took me to lunch (where else) to 49th State Brewhouse, we just had app's, our pizza party here in the park was scheduled for 5:30.  After lunch we walked down to the Farmers Market, very tempted to buy souvenir from local artists - nothing jumped out as us,.

We walked down a coastal trail, the tide was out, Anchorage has the second highest difference in tides in the world--around 60 feet.  Locals tell us the the gray muck  left after tide goes out is just like quicksand, people have been caught in the muck only to die during rescue.  We visited  the Captain James Cook memorial overlooking Cook Inlet, while  Cook was searching for the Northwest Passage  in the spring of 1778 he discovered what is now known as the Cook Inlet.  Cook sent crews exploring in small boats which led to the naming of Turnagain Arm  so named because it was disappointing  having to turn again.  

Good Friday, 1964, the area suffered a 9.2 magnitude earthquake, the strongest ever to hit North America.  An area known as Earthquake Park was left the same except they tore down the buildings  to show how the earth slipped that day.  Noteworthy:  if you go to Earthquake park take insect repellent, the area is heavily wooded with wetlands surrounding.  

Our pizza party here at the park at 5:30, was Costco pizza (Pretty good!)  They must have ordered 30 pies.  Lots of leftovers.  
Dessert was ice cream treats.  After dinner, we played a fun game, you had to try to open up duct taped and postal packing taped boxes with oversize leather gloves.  

That's it for tonight, enjoy the pic's.

TTFN,

Gary and Pam 

Gary and Sylvia in Sylvia's Quilt Depot

Sunrise 3:30 am at Denali

Reflection

Veterans Memorial State Park on Hwy 3

Entrance to Alaska Heritage Center

Local native girl gave a talk about learning from her Elkdes

Example of housing, small opening in front was entrance

Musical group entertained at Farmers Market a little tough on your ears

Captain James Cook Memorial overlooking Cook Inlet

Jack and John trying to open  taped box