June 22, 2010

It has been a wonderful second week here in Alaska. There's been no opportunity for posting as we've been faraway from the internet. We are currently waiting to board our flight home at Anchorage airport.

Some highlights of our week: (I'll have to post photos later.)

1. Visited Denali National Park. We rode a green school bus into the park for 66 miles one way. We then upgraded and went on into the park for about another 20 miles to Wonder Lake. It was such a clear and beautiful day. The big mountain (McKinley) was visible the entire time which is very unusual. The mountain can only be seen for about 25% of the time. We saw some of all the wildlife in the park except for the lynx. (It is the only cat in the park.) There were a lot of bear sightings, wolves, mooses, snowshoe hares, golden ealges, caribou, dall sheep, and many types of birds.

Someone said the statebird is the mosquito. (It really is the Ptarmagin.)

There is a story about the city of Chicken, Alaska. They wanted to name their town after the state bird, the Ptarmagin (the p is silent). No one knew how to spell it, so they named their town "Chicken."

2. We took a nine hour boat cruise out of Seward Alaksa with Kenai Fjords Tours. We saw a lot of sealife and we stopped and ate a meal of salmon and prime rib at Fox Island. It was a memorable day.

3. We really enjoyed visiting the Alaska Heritage Center here in Anchorage. The tour we went on taught us how the natives survived in this cold climate and we were able to go into some sample homes that had been built on site. It would be a great place for a school field trip. Very educational for all.

We've enjoyed staying in some very rustic places, some with no hookups. This is truly the last frontier and a rugged land of majestic and beautiful mountains.

Today we came to Talkeetna which is north of Wascilla. This is a very old village that is still active. Many are just ghosttowns. This is where many leave from to go to climb Denali. The Roadhouse here has some really good food. It's been here for decades.

(Note- Mt. McKinley and Denali are really the same. Mt. McK. is the mountain peak and Denali is the park. The locals call the mountain Denali instead of Mt. Mck. We heard a story that all of this is really political. President McKinley never came to see the mountain that was named after him, so the locals do not acknowledge that name. A senator from here was trying to get favor with the president, which seems to be the reason for the naming.)


In the little village of Seldovia, they have a chainsaw contest for creating art. Below is a sea otter. Each piece that we saw was very impress.

The artisian well that has a pump on it. The water is constantly coming out of it and it is soooo good! This was in our campground near Skilak Lake in the Kenai.

This is our rental home for 2 weeks.

At the Sealife Center in Homer overlooking Resurrection Bay.

Getting ready to board the ferry behind us that will take us to Seldovia.

(Sat. June 12) we stayed in a remote campground on Skilak Lake not for from Cooper's Landing. This was on our way up from Homer. It was a dry camp. (In otherwords, no water, sewage, etc.). There was an artisian well with a pump on it. The water from it was absolutely wonderful. We filled a couple of 2 liter bottles with water and put in the frig.

Today we saw a couple of bears and mooses on the sides of the road. They were too quick for me to be able to get their photo.

We came on through Anchorage today. We are now in north Wascilla.

Some facts about Alaska:

-It has 1/5 the land mass of the entire continental U.S. 586,000 sq. miles

-More area than the 26 smallest states

-33,000 miles of coastline

-19 mountain peaks over 14,000 ft.

-3 million lakes larger than 20 acres

-Alaska has more than half the world's glaciers

-Has Mt. McKinley (Denali) 20,320 ft. highest mountain in the US

About the Alaska's Oil Pipeline:

-48 inch pipe, 789 miles long, crosses 3 mountain ranges & 70 rivers or streams

-12 pumping stations

-21 construction camps

-3 years in construction

(I think Al Gore is wrong about global warming...................)

Until next time........

Fishing Trip

David had a wonderful day halibut fishing. They caught their limit of 2 each by 9:30. Then they spent the rest of the day trying for the "big" catch. The mates on the boat saved two of theirs to try and get a bigger fish, but they failed. It was a windy and blustery day.

Here is a photo of the fish the group caught. There were four fishing plus the captain and mate, and then Stella, the little girl in the photo. There are 12 fish in the cart. We never used the other 2 since we didn't get the big catch.

Here's one of David's catch. It weighed about 25 to 30 lbs.

Alaska Adventure

June 11 (By the way, I'm new at this blogging. I'm being encouraged by my media specialist daughter to venture into this territory. Please be patient with my mistakes.)

We arrived in Anchorage, Alaska on Monday evening, June 7th after fairly smooth flights. The one from ATL to Portland was a little bumpy because of bad weather. We picked up our almost new motorhome that we had reserved for 2 weeks. This will be our home away from home. It is just right for the 2 of us.

On Tuesdays we headed toward Seward. We stopped by and visited Hope, Alaska. It is an ole gold-mining village on the way to Seward. It has a lot of interesting old buildings (logs) and there is a rich history from the gold mining days.

Wednesday morning, we went to the SeaLife Center in Seward where they do research on sea life and they also help rescue those that are hurt or in trouble (among the many other jobs they do). It is also a museum. We took a "behind the scenes" tour that let us look at the workings of the place. We saw one office where they just sit and document what different animals are doing. Eating, sleeping, birthing, mating, etc. This is done 20 hours a day. They have cameras on site where the animals live and 3 young ladies were recording data of what they observed. Our guide for the "behind the scenes tour" is a student from Missouri studying animal science. He wants to be a vet. During the tour, we saw where they do surgery on fish. I know that is forfetched for us southeners who just eat fish and our concept of surgery is to clean them with no guts or scales remaining. It was most educational and an enjoyable morning.

We then headed to Homer, "The Halibut Capital of the World." (Everywhere you go in Alaska is a long ways.) On Thursday, we took a ferry over to Seldovia, which is accessed only by ferry. From Homer to Seldovia is 16 miles across the Kachemak Bay. It is a small village. They have a big 4th of July celebration and next weekend they have a music festival. It is a place people just go and visit and they have several resturants where you can eat. You can also stay overnight or even longer.

The girl who took our ticket on the ferry grew up on the island. She had just graduated from high school in a class of 5. She said there were only 12 in the high school. It is a PreK-12 school. Oh, the little village does have a dentist, but only a clinic for medical care. It was quite an experience.

Until next time........blessings to all.
(I tried to post a couple of pictures, but my older computer did not cooperate with me. I'll try again later.)
David is out halibut fishing today on a charter. Perhaps I can share some pictures in a day or two.