Alaska

I go to nature to be soothed and healed,

and to have my senses put in order. ~ John Burroughs

Welcome to Alaska -- or at least, the small corner of it we visited!

I'd like to share a few photos of the many wonderful things we experienced. We spent two weeks on the Kenai Peninsula, southwest of Anchorage. As previously mentioned, the weather was, for the most part, cloudy, rainy and overcast - so the photos tend to be gray, which is unfortunate. Please double click on any of them for closer details.

This is Surprise Glacier on Prince William Sound. Amazing - and it's incredibly blue. One of the crewmen said we were actually lucky to see it in such gloomy weather because in bright sunlight, it doesn't look so blue. How's that for a positive attitude? :-)

Yep, it was this cold and this rainy! Brrr!

But not all views were gloomy. Look at this gorgeous fjord...

And we did see greenery on our hikes, like this beautiful field of autumn colors...

My favorite part of the whole trip was the wildlife we saw. Here are seals in Kenai Fjords National Park. These creatures are disappearing at an alarming rate, and no one knows for sure why it's happening.

Everywhere we'd go, we'd keep an eye open for moose. You just never know when you're going to spy one having lunch along the roadside...




There were magnificent bald eagles everywhere we went. Imagine getting to the point of thinking, "Ho hum - another bald eagle!"

The greatest treat of our trip was seeing caribou. We thought we were too far south and too early in the season. When we asked about wildlife viewing, the nice folks at the Kenai Visitors Center suggested we drive out past the airport because the caribou sometimes come out onto the tundra there. We headed straight there, in the middle of the afternoon, and drove for miles seeing nothing. Disappointed, we left and went on about our day. At dusk, I suggested we drive back out there and try one more time. We were richly rewarded! Again, I'm only sorry that the photos aren't brighter. It was amazing to see these glorious creatures so close...

After they grazed to our right side, we watched them cross the road in front of us to graze on the other side. Here is the huge male that led the small herd. He was incredible!

Another surprise waited for us as we rounded a corner by the house we rented in Homer. There, standing by the mail box on a neighboring yard, were two Sandhill Cranes. We stopped and watched them, and were lucky enough to see them "dancing" with one another. They bowed and jumped and flapped their wings. I guess they got tired of having an audience of two, because they just slowly walked away, disappearing over the hill.

One more shot of my beloved puffins, this time at the Alaska Sea Life Center in Seward...

Our one wildlife disappointment is that we didn't see bears. We had the same experience a few years ago in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Everywhere we'd go, people would say, "Oh, two bears were just here!" But we never saw a one. However, we had to take a picture of this warning sign at the foot of the hiking trail to Exit Glacier. Read what it instructs you to do if a brown bear attacks (again, double click on it to enlarge.) I'm sure it wouldn't be funny if I were in that situation, but the sign made us laugh!

We stayed in some pretty special places. Here are two spots I'd like to share. The first is the bedroom of the house we rented in Homer. It was called The Nest, and it sat on a cliff over looking Kachemak Bay. The view from the rooms and the deck was outstanding! And there were quilts on every bed...

The house was decorated with lots of dark green (my favorite color!) But what really convinced me that I'd found a kindred spirit in the home's owner was a wall we discovered by the washer and dryer...

It was filled with little framed quotes! Quilts, green decor, and a wall of quotes - what more could I ask for? Oh - and a view to die for!

Here's where we stayed in the town of Kenai... the Harborside Cottages, over-looking the area where the Kenai River meets Cook Inlet...

The view from our cottage at night...

Look what I found in Homer! Pehaps there's a new career is waiting for me?

There is a famous bar in Homer called The Salty Dawg Saloon. It's kind of a hole-in-the-wall place we just had to see! The walls and ceiling are covered with dollar bills. The legend is that the trappers would come in for a drink and leave money behind to pay for drinks for the trappers they knew would be passing through in a week or so. They'd write their name on the money and put it on the wall, where their friends would find it.

Nice story, eh? But check this out... this bill was tacked up right over my head:

Now, I'm not a Mormon but I am from Utah. Funny that I'd sit right under this one, don't 'cha think? :-)


What would a trip to Alaska be without fishing? Here's hubby throwing in his first line the second day of our trip...

He didn't have a lot of luck fishing the lakes and streams, but he had fun trying. As he always says, "The fishing's great: the catching, not so good!"

But he did have luck on a halibut charter out of Homer...

He shipped home 35 pounds of halibut fillets, which just arrived today. YUM!

I couldn't resist taking a photo of this funny sign at the halibut ("butt") processing place (click for details)...

Now, you may be wondering what I did why hubby fished for halibut (fishing's not my thing.) I treated myself to a massage - a loooong massage, with an herbal body wrap... in a small, heated yurt on the shores of Kachemak Bay. I could hear the waves and the gulls as I lay there, experiencing something very close to nirvana! Here's the view...

Ah, it was such a wonderful trip! Hubby and I are both from states where the snow flies each winter, but we now live in southern California. So it was such a treat for both of us to once again experience autumn in all it's glory. Those are the images I'll keep in my heart -- not the clouds and the rain.

How incredibly lucky we are to have been able to go to Alaska! Thanks for letting me share some of my memories with you.

And many thanks to Mary and Jill, for teaching me how to post more than five photos at a time on Blogger. It appears that this old dog can learn new tricks!

Until next time...