Day 63

I went to watch the clamming today. There was an incredibly low tide, and the world and his wife were out on the beach digging and shoveling and boring and scratching for razor clams.

Bob and Brenda, our campsite owners were as busy as beavers, filling their quota for the day, so they have some food for the winter, to go with their 5 million pounds of salmon!!

The weather here today was naff, which for our non English audience, means it sucked the big one!!

Windy and chilly and no sun to speak of, I even put the heater on in the coach.

I have to mention the new arrivals at the campsite. We have been extremely lucky so far on our travels in that we have not had any noisy people, nor any unruly kids running around.

That all changed today when a coach, smaller than ours, pulled in, with 4 adults and 4 kids, . How they all fit in a place smaller than ours I dread to think. Bob says they are only going to stay tonight, which is a good thing, coz I won’t put up with kids chasing dogs around my coach. Feed ‘em to the moosses, I say!!

The fish and chip perfection search resumed today, at the Boardwalk café I have mentioned before, down the road a bit in the little village of Ninilchik.

Not as good as before, the halibut not as moist, and I had to request vinegar, never a good omen.

I was on the beach this morning and for the first time saw 2 bald eagles sitting in close proximity, so I have included a pic for your delight.

Nothing much else happened here today.

It would be nice if we got a little feedback from our worldwide audience, letting us know if we are still keeping a modicum of interest, or if we are boring the pants of y’all!!

Wildlife watch today was the eagles, and noisy kids.

Day 62

Marlipops has left and gone away!!

She took off on the big silver bird to stinky Houston, to take care of some stuff, leaving me alone here in paradise.

What am I going to do?

All those fish waiting to jump on my hook, all those bears and mooses waiting to be photographed.

I suppose I’ll have to suffer relaxing, reading, snoozing and other strenuous pastimes until she returns!

We actually saw some new wildlife today, mountain goats. They were perched on the rocky mountainside on the edge of the highway from Seward, nonchalantly eating the vegetation and fauna, jumping, leaping and prancing from rock to rock. Marlipops asked me why they don’t fall, and the answer is simple, they have four wheel drive.

It is a total of 180 miles from the campsite to Anchorage airport, and it took us 5 hours, with a stop for gas, on the way there, Marlipops in the driving department.

It took me 3 hours, with a gas filling up stop, on the way back.

The highway is well built, and when there is little traffic, my left foot gets heavy!!

Just before I got back to the campsite, I hit a full blown fog bank. It just appeared off the Inlet, more of a mega cloud really, and suddenly visibility was down from bright sunny to zippo. So, Captain by name, and Cautious by nature, I slowed down to the speed limit, and right then, Mr. Alaska State Trooper decided to take a look at the back of the car. So, thank you, cloud gods!!

Scenic View RV Park is not at present, it is 10.03 in the evening o’clock, and previously mentioned cloud bank is still out there, totally blocking the view.

So, I’ll have to watch a movie.

Helen P…….did you get the seeds?

Wildlife watch today was mountain goats and a bald eagle.

Day 61

We’re back!!

Scenic View RV Park, Ninilchik.

This is where we spent an idyllic week, and now we are back here, for at least 10 days.

We had an uneventful journey from Trail River, did a bit of shopping in Soldotna, and decided to see if we could book in here a day early.

We were welcomed back like long lost friends, and since the place is nearly empty, had the pick of the sites.

We both wanted the site at the bottom of the hill, on the left, next to the site we had previously stayed in, and we got it.

We have no other campers either side, and a perfect view over Cook Inlet. In the evening, Bob the owner built the usual campfire, Brenda the other owner brought out clams and nibbles, we contributed some of Marlipop’s halibut dip, others brought out marshmallows, and a wonderful evening was had by all. The sky tonight was a stunning mixture of colors and clouds, but all the mountains on the other side of the Inlet were clearly visible, and we could even see steam rising from some of the volcano vents. How exciting to be able to see several active volcanoes.

The weather today was brilliant, so warm that we had to put the AC on in the coach.

Marlipops has been fascinated by the riot of flowers in Alaska, and everywhere we go there is one particular variety called fireweed, which is all over the place, so we’ve included a picture, which does not really do it justice in terms of the richness of color, but we’ve done our best.

Wildlife today was River and Max, Bob and Brenda’s dogs, who are just delightful, and a new camper’s dog, but we don’t know it’s name yet.

We have told Bob and Brenda that we are going to dognap River, who is nearly two years old, and BIG.

….until tomorrow.

Day 60

Two months on the road!

It seems a lot longer than that, yet it was only at the beginning of June we were in Arizona, and we have been in Alaska, on and off, since the beginning of July. Time really does fly when you are having fun!

We had a lazy morning, watching the magpies fight in the trees, and taking care of household chores. Marlipops made a fantastic dip, using mayonnaise, left over halibut and other stuff, which was delish on Ritz crackers.

We wandered down to Seward, found the local library where WiFi access is available freely, and had a light lunch in a Bistro which had been featured in the Anchorage Daily Rag.

Do not believe all you read in newspapers!

The place was all polished wood, even the bench seats, the food was lukewarm, and the salad Marlipops ordered was missing half the ingredients, so we had to send it back. The service was mediocre, so we were not impressed. The waitress was probably not impressed with the tip we left either. We reckon the newspaper reporter was bribed, or drunk or something.

We then were drawn to the harbor, where there was a bunch of activity, fisherists and tourists and boatists all returning with, or without, their catch of the day. We saw a few big halibut, and a lot of salmon. This harbor is unlike a lot we have seen. All fish cleaning and filleting has to be done at a central area, where all the fish remains fall down into a big tank, probably 20 ft by 6 ft, which has netting all round it, to prevent seagulls, eagles and other scavengers of the sky from getting at the scraps. Supposebly, (remember the word from yesterday? Just keeping you on your toes) this prevents a big build up of birds, and more importantly, bird crap, which is highly corrosive, and can burn holes in your boat faster than the creature from Alien!

The scraps are then taken out to sea and dumped, where they are recycled by the denizens of the deep!

Makes you think, though, if the fish bits are eaten by other fish, which are then caught, and those fish are then recycled back to the sea, how many times is the same fish caught and recycled, and more importantly, how many times has the fillet that you keep been eaten??

One tale from yesterday, which I forgot to relate, is the rush hour traffic.

We were merrily driving down to our campsite from Anchorage, a pleasant journey along the winding coastal road, admiring the views, and around six o’clock, it was as though someone had turned on a tap and emptied the city. We were surrounded and overtaken by all sorts of trucks, cars, campers and trailers, all with local plates, rushing like crazy down to the Kenai Peninsula. They were taking huge risks with the overtaking, blowing their horns and waving to us as they passed. Of course, on several occasions, I waved back cheerily, using a minimum of fingers, just to acknowledge their presence, and to wish them a happy trip. It was as though everyone had finished work at 5pm on Friday, and had to get to their fishing spot as fast as possible, coz “The reds are running!!”

The red salmon are coming in to spawn, and the personal limit has been raised, so there must be a glut this year. Sounds good to us, salmon will be cheap all over the place.

Just as we left Seward, to head back to our campsite, the Alaska Railroad train was departing, going the same direction. Actually, it has no choice, there is only one direction by land out of the town. Marlipops was in charge of the driving department, so Captain Cautious threw all caution to the wind, opened the window, leaned out and started taking pix of the train as we drove alongside it.

Then, superhero that she is, Marlipops suggested we zoom up the road to Moose Pass, where there is a wonderful lake, and get pix of the train passing.

So we zoomed. And rushed to park the yellow peril, and ran down to the lakeshore, got a nice spot to sit, and waited. And waited and waited. The train took over half an hour to reach us, and when it finally came into view, it was going so slowly we could have walked up to it and got on without breaking a sweat.

Still we got some lovely train, lake, floatplane and mountain pix.

Today the weather was absolutely brill, around 75 degrees, no wind, and of course no stinkin’ humidity!!

It might not have been mentioned before, and if it has I apologize, but we have to put on record how warm and friendly everyone in Alaska has been. This is not just people we talk to in the street, or other tourists, it is everyone, even the minimum wage youngsters working the boats and the fast food establishments. What is also very refreshing is their politeness and good manners.

We really have fallen in love with Alaska, and who knows, we may never leave!!

Wildlife watch today was lots of birds in Seward, and a picture of a moose.

Day 59

Coffee.

Alaska and Anchorage in particular loves coffee. There are drive through espresso huts everywhere. It is estimated by the local rag, The Anchorage Daily News, that there is one espresso/ coffee hut for about every 100 residents of the city, and that doesn’t count all the Starbuckses, and wannabe Starbuckses, that appear seemingly overnight at locations where there weren’t even locations before!

Move over McDonalds, here come The Espresso Men!!

Of course, we have not lowered ourselves to go to a drive through coffee place, ……….only because they are all the size of construction toilets, and if I hit one even gently with the coach, it would vanish in a puff of coffee beans and frothy milk!

Today we spent a happy two hours getting the oil changed in the coach, ……24 quarts!!

Then off to the free dump and carwash.

The exciting morning was topped off with a trip to the auto parts store for replacement bulbs.

We hitched up the yellow peril, all sparkly clean, and headed south again.

After only half an hour of driving, down the Seward Highway, along Turnagain Arm, we had to stop, several times, coz the bore was running.

There is an occasional tidal bore, on the incoming tide, and it moves faster than a man can run sometimes, and twice a month the bore is over 6 feet high, and is quite spectacular. We were not so lucky to see a big bore today, but we watched in fascination as the two foot bore rushed headlong up the Arm, sweeping everything aside.

Turnagain Arm is best described as a big river mouth, longer rather than wider, and was named by Captain Cooke. He was looking for the fabled Northwest Passage through Alaska to the Arctic Ocean, or Pacific, or Houston Ship Channel, or somewhere. Anyway, he tried several times to get through, but when he finally realized that his dirty great big ship would not go over snow covered mountains, he supposebly said, “ Oh S…, we’ve got to turn again” And that, dear readers, is where the name came from.

Now, you will all have proof read thus far, and noticed the word supposebly. Our old landlady in Florida, Shelly, bless her heart, used the word, and it has stuck. I propose that it be entered into the English language as a proper word, so y’all can speak like wot I do.

We finally ended up at Trail River campground, which is one we stayed at last week, surrounded by green mountains, a rushing river and eagle sized skeeters. Marlipops reckons she saw a skeeter swoop down and pick up a horse, but I told her not to exaggerate, it was a dog.

Halibut.

For a change, to keep your attention, we are occasionally going to offer a new feature. Today’s new feature is a recipe for halibut.

Go to Alaska, catch some halibut. Have it filleted. Then:

Mix together some mayonnaise, some lemon juice and some herbs of your choice.

Spread it all over the halibut fillets.

Cook on high on the outdoor grille, for twenty minutes, while fighting off the skeeters with gallons of Off.

Fish is cooked when you slide your outdoor stainless steel spatula from Academy under it, and it lifts easily and gently from the skin.

Serve with roast potatoes, onions and brussell sprouts, ( or anything else, really) and a flagon of beer.

Get the other half to do the dishes, coz it takes hours to scrape the cooked fish skin off the platter!!

Today’s wildlife watch was nothing, sorry.

Day 58

Today was big brother Brian’s last day in Alaska, and so we took him to Houston. We went north out of Anchorage to the little town of Palmer, where we had breakfast in the Noisy Goose café, with a view back over the Knik Arm inlet, and the surrounding mountains. What a backdrop for eggs benedict and hash browns, washed down with copious amounts of coffee!

We then toured Palmer, a tourist trap for the unwary, weary travelers from Fairbanks and Glennallen, both towns many miles away.

But we were not to be fooled, and we didn’t buy anything!

Brian said he wanted to explore one particular side road, down to a place called Goose Bay, a side trip of about 12 miles says he, so of we went, and after 20 miles of pretty much nothing we came to…….nothing. The road just stopped at a sign which said “End”, and there was a gravel path down to a wide gravel strip with a forlorn looking weather sock, and nothing else, no other signs or roads or buildings, nothing. This, we worked out was Goose Bay airport. But there was no Goose, no Bay, no anyone.

So, after suitably chastising Brian verbally we journeyed further north, through Wasilla, which is as bad as its name suggests, and ended up in Houston, Alaska.

This place had one cop car, one store and one RV park, and the tourist center was closed!

There were four huge coaches full of passengers from some cruise line or another, and they were all standing in line at the counter for ice cream. We three mooskerteers, not being on any sort of schedule, waited our turn patiently, for some delish ice cream. I had berry cheesecake, Brian had some mint thing and Marlipops had vanilla and peanut butter, which she could not finish, so I got seconds!

Apparently, there is an annual Duck Race in Houston, where rubber ducks are hurled into the local river, and the winner gets the keys to the city or something, which we may catch on August 18^th.

We saw a car on the side of the road and were tempted to trade the yellow peril for it, but didn’t.

This evening we went to the Airport Grille, had a relaxing dinner watching the floatplanes take off and land, then put Brian on the big silver bird and waved farewell, until next time.

Wildlife watch today was a Mrs Moose with Mooselet.

Day 57

Anchorage Air Museum was our first port of call today, a small but well put together place ( bit like me) showing the history of flight in Alaska. Some very interesting stories and people, especially the fact that so many of the pioneer pilots were women. Looking at some of the planes here, with their flimsy construction, and knowing the extreme weather conditions that are an integral part of Alaska, the early pilots, who often flew with no maps or weather forecasts, were braver than your own Captain Cautious.

Anchorage has the world’s largest float plane port, with over 800 take offs and landings daily, so we had to go for a flight in one.

For half an hour we wandered at an altitude of about 2000 ft, over west Anchorage, then over Knik Arm to the undeveloped east side of the waterway, where there are forests, mountains, marshes and farms. Yes, farms.

There was a pilot scheme some years ago to develop all this nearby wilderness into dairy farms, and for various reasons, most of the initial start up farms went belly up within a couple of years, their farms grabbed by bigger organizations, and lots of political scandal abounded.

Today the farmers raise bison, elk, cattle and vegetables that are hardy enough for the area, but it was fascinating to fly over tundra and swamp, and then come across some big farms.

The flight itself was uneventful, the pilot, whom we christened Mr. Personality, was more boringer than a tape recording.

Afterwards we had a surprisingly good fish and chip lunch ( yes, again) at a Red Robin establishment, and went to a Wednesday Market. This, according to the brochure we had found, was supposed to be a happening event with lots of fantastic booths, and stuff to buy. There were 10 booths, all selling organic foods, and 1 booth selling jewelry. So we stood around for a bit, watching the planes land at the local airport, and then left.

In the evening, we had dinner at The Glacier Brewhouse, a downtown brewery and eatery. You will be glad to know that your intrepid Captain’s quest for the perfect beer has only been on hold for a few days, and it kicked back into gear with a vengeance when I was forced to try The Sampler, 5 ales brewed right there. The quality was good to fair on all the ales, but the value for money was excellent, the five samples being nearly ½ pint each, and the total cost was $ 4.50.

We then walked, at around 11.30, to Captain Cooke’s monument, where we watched the most glorious sunset, across The Knik Arm, and the sky was so clear we could just see the tip of Mount McKinley in the far distance, 131 miles away.

A very pleasant, relaxing day.

Wildlife watch today was elk, bison, moose, all from the plane, and noisy magpies on the coach roof at 5 in the morning!!

Day 56

Today was a taking care of stuff day, but we did find out that Anchorage is not just a mundane city, it has some neat areas, and some neat places.

We did the laundry thing, the grocery thing and the Sam’s club thing, then went for lunch at Salmon and Seaforts Restaurant, with a table overlooking Cooke Inlet. On the other side of the inlet is a mountain known as Sleeping Woman, coz it resembles……………yes, you guessed, a sleeping woman! Only thing is we didn’t take any pix coz it was too cloudy, and raining.

We then wandered around some of downtown Anchorage, with our local friend/guide, who showed us some of the out of the touristy way places, which were quite cool.

We went to the Chocolate Factory, which has a 20’ high liquid chocolate fountain cascading down through various copper pots and things, which looks neat, but when you think about how many times it has been recycled, you would not want to eat any of the choccy!!

There is a building with three flags at the top, the Alaska flag, the U.S. flag and the Union Jack of Great Britain.

The building is the Captain Cooke, the greatest explorer of all time, who discovered all the world, apparently, hence the three flags.

We have new shirts, check out the pix.

Wildlife watch today was nothing.

Day 55

Today was a wildlife day.

After failing miserably in an attempt to persuade the local Moose Pass float plane pilot to take us up in his magnificent flying machine, his pathetic excuse being bad weather, we decided to move on to Anchorage.

On the way, we stopped at The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.

This non profit organization is where abandoned, orphaned and injured wildlife is brought, and healed.

We make no apologies for having spent a lot of time and money here, it is an extremely worthwhile cause, not like a zoo, and does a tremendous amount of wonderful conservation and research work, and helps cure suffering creatures, that would otherwise die. There are plenty of animals dying anyway, so it’s good to help conserve and save a few.

And, where else can you get 5 feet away from frolicking grizzlies, without being in danger?

The claws on these things are awesome. You really don’t want to be on the wrong end of them!

We saw black bears, grizzlies, reindeer, musk ox, elk, caribou, red fox, and mooses.

Moose are so big! They are just gentle giants, munching along, (just like Treebeard in Lord of the Rings) and so harmless. How people can go out and hunt these is beyond me.

I think I am going to bring out a new version of the John Lennon classic, “Give Peace a Chance”, re titled as “Give Moose a Gun.”

We then went to Anchorage, with Brian driving the yellow peril behind, and at one point we saw some Dall sheep on the hillside, so Marlipops phoned Brian, who was oblivious, and instructed him to turn round and get some pix. We pulled over a couple of miles up the road to wait for Brian, who went flying past several minute later, still oblivious!! “ I was concentrating on the road” was his lame excuse for not seeing us.

We have parked the coach outside the home of a friend right near downtown Anchorage, and from here we can explore further the delights and delicacies of the city. We have heard that there are micro breweries we have not been to…………yet!

Wildlife watch today is worth repeating.

Mooses, Black and Grizzly Bears, Elk, Reindeer, Caribou, Musk Ox, Red Fox, Bald Eagles, and Dall Sheep.

Day 54

We found out something else that Alaskans do bigger and better than the lower 48.

Traffic jams!

Today it rained, and it rained and it rained, all day.

We went down to Seward to send E mails and do grocery shopping. The whole place was wet, and the clouds were hovering around the tops of the mountains, so no sun, no warmth and just a miserable day weatherwise.

We had a look at a river weir, where salmon were leaping, and it was one of the most difficult subjects to photograph. So, we have no pix. In fact, we have no pix today of anything, coz we didn’t see anything!

We decided to look at other campsites just for something to do. We drove down a 15 mile long dirt road, gravel and mud, to Cooper Lake, where we had been told there was a campsite and bears.

They lied. There were no bears. There was no campsite. There were no anythings. Not even a dead fish.

On the way back, on the main road, we hit a 15 mile traffic jam, due to a sinkhole appearing in the only road to anywhere, so we turned round, and spent a very pleasant 2 hours in the first restaurant we found, drinking Kodiak Amber, Captain and Coke

( Marlipops of course) and had a good meal.

We sat in the traffic again, but it wasn’t too bad this time.

There is not much else to report today, just not a lot done.

Wildlife watch today was a red squirrel and some magpies.

Day 53

Another of those days that make this trip so worthwhile and so special.

We left our very quiet campsite early, and drove 60 miles to the little village of Whittier.

This place was created in 1942 when the US Army/Navy needed a second ice free port to transport materials to the interior of Alaska. They picked Whittier, but didn’t realize that there was a bloody great mountain in the way of the route to the interior, so undeterred, they bored a tunnel, 2 ½ miles long and threw a few train tracks down, and bingo, a route in!!

However, it was only in the year 2000 that the tunnel was converted to road traffic as well, and now you get to drive through the tunnel, on the train tracks, one way only.

Yes, you wait at the entrance to the tunnel, after first paying the toll, and can wait up to an hour to go through, coz you have to wait for the traffic coming from the other side, and the train, to clear.

It is all done with traffic lights, hand signals, prayers and mirrors, I think.

Still, it’s exciting!

We had an excellent breakfast of salmon omelette, wandered around the village a bit, looking at the 14 story high brick and concrete monstrosity, left over from the second world war, where 90% of the population live.

On to the good ship Emerald Sea, and off into Prince William Sound.

After an hour of watching water go by, listening to a really boring Forest Ranger talk about all the things we might see, but didn’t, and eating a surprisingly pleasant lunch of prime rib, salmon, salad and wild rice, we eventually rounded a corner and got to see tidewater glaciers. The two we saw were Beloit and Blackstone Glaciers and are the ones that reach down into the sea, and have chunks break off, small, big and megahumungous,

We have all seen National Geographic, and other nature programs, showing this happening, but to see it up close and personal, was just amazing. What you don’t get on TV is the atmosphere, the size and majesty of these things. The cracking and creaking of the ice, wondering which piece is going to break off next, and go plunging hundreds of feet into the ocean, creating a mini tsunami.

Also, the wind whipping off the glaciers is pretty cold. The captain of the ship was knowledgeable, and told us where to watch for a possible calving of growlers.

See how I remember the language!

Growlers are what the small icebergish size lumps of ice are called, and calving is the breaking off and the crashing to the sea.

We stopped for at least half an hour at each glacier, and finally, after a lot of teasing, Beloit Glacier delivered, sending trillions of tons of ice into the Sound, and scaring the crap out of the idiots in kayaks who were paddling around, too near in our opinion, but what do we know?

After another boring talk, mostly the same stuff regurgitated in different words, from the Ranger, we got back to Whittier around 6.15, in enough time to catch the 7o’clock tunnel opening. So, we sat there until 7.30, waiting for the two trains to go through, and then all the tour and cruise line coaches were let through first, because of their timetables. Good job we are patient, and didn’t sit there cursing and swearing, and complaining about those damn tourists. Not us!! We are not on a schedule.

We then drove to the peninsula town of Hope, had dinner at a place called Bearcreek Lodge, which was very cute, very Disneyish, and full of skeeters!

Afterwards, we drove down to the village itself.

It is a tiny little place, all the streets are dirt roads, and the local RV park by the creek flowing into Turnagain Arm, the main inlet near Anchorage, was heaving with tents, campers, trailers and RVs. When we asked why, everyone told us “ The salmon are running”

The silver salmon finally started their spawning runs, and there were fisherists all over the place, pulling them in left, right and center.

We went into the local bar, The Seaview, had a few brewskies, while listening to a local blues band…..Swamp Mamas from Baton Rouge, Louisiana!!

So, we finally got back to the coach at 1 in the morning, way too late for us oldies!!

We apologize for the pix, there were only 400 today to choose from!

We cannot get enough of this place and the scenery, and so we are snap happy!

Wildlife watch today was sea otter, bald eagles, seals, and icebergs!