Homer Spit Ride

Today we took a ride on the Homer Spit Trail, once the fog lifted. We started with a visit to the Oceans and Islands Museum. It was definitely worth the time. 

As we left the museum to return to our bike a day camp group stopped us to ask questions about the tandem we ride. The kids thought it was pretty cool! The adults with them asked where we were riding and I told them the spit. 

They told us to stop for pizza at Finn's Pizza. Said it was special. Now I am trying not to talk about food too much on this blog. I have mentioned a few of our pub meals and the great salmon Don made for us in Kenai. But I have to talk about the pizza at Finn's. It was a wood fire grilled Margarita style pizza with Italian ham. It was terrific and the view from the restaurant of the beach was so soothing and calm. 

Mike has decided that we are definitely returning to Homer. Next time we will fish for halibut and visit Halibut Cove. 

Homer

Today we drove to the end of the Kenai Peninsula to Homer. Homer is beautiful. 

We went to the end of the Homer Spit. The Spit is pretty funky. It reminded us a bit of Alki in Seattle, especially the traffic. 

We stopped at the Salty Dawg - which does not allow dogs, by the way. It was exactly as we thought it would be. Had a nice beer there. 

Lots of money on the walls. 

We took a walk through the boating area and then stopped at the Farmers Market for some nice vegetables to have with dinner. 

Tomorrow we plan on riding to the Spit on our tandem. We may even do a bit of shopping. We saw some things we liked today. 

Kenai Visit with Don and Barb

We had a great visit with my high school classmate Don Soderstrom and his wife Barb today! They treated us to a grilled salmon lunch - with cookies. We had a lovely chat and walked on the beach at the end of the road at Captain Cook State Park. 

Don and Barb have a nice place and were surprised that we hadn't encountered any wildlife while out today. Mike and I were backing out of their driveway and what did we see? A caribou was directly behind us. 

Don is a terrific artist and gave me a piece of his art, an etching of fireweed. Mike coveted one of his wildlife etchings and came away with one of a moose. 

Thank you two so much for your hospitality. What a fantastic way to spend a beautiful day in Kenai! 

Kenai

We made another visit to Safelite this morning. The glass repair did not take long. Our drive to Kenai was slow because we stopped often to admire the scenery. 

The road is also pretty slow because of the traffic. We saw Dall sheep on one of our stops. They were pretty far up the hill.  What was visible though were the many signs with bullet holes in them, including the signs for No Target Shooting. 

Once we got to the Kenai River we started seeing fishermen on the river. Trying to take a photo was difficult because of the paucity of places to stop in view of the river. 

Tonight we are staying near Kenai. We took a quick trip into town to check it out. But we did not walk around because it is raining pretty hard. It is very wet out there! We did drive by the Russian Orthodox Church though. 

Tomorrow I hope to meet up with a high school classmate, Don and his wife Barb. That should be nice. 

Anchorage's Coastal Bike Trail

This morning we stopped at Humpy's for breakfast - the pub was recommended by our friend Carmen. They make a lovely breakfast, plus Sunday mornings are Make Your Own Bloody Mary. We did not have one, but did have a glass of tomato juice - kind of a virgin version. 

On our way to the restaurant we saw the skywriting advertising the local air show being held at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. 

Later in the afternoon we saw the Thunderbirds as they headed down to land. But since we were on our bikes and the camera was in the saddlebags we missed the shot. 

We rode the Coastal Bike Trail from downtown past Earthquake Park and the airport. The weather was fine and we had gorgeous views all along the trail. 

Tomorrow we head to Kenai - after we get another stone chip repaired on our windshield. Alaska is tough on windshields! 

Anchorage and the Mountain Again

Today we continued our drive to Anchorage. Denali came out to join us and we took some more photos.

We found a camp site at JB Elmendorf-Richardson tonight. They don't accept reservations so we were lucky to get it. 

Then we went downtown and found a quilt shop I wanted to visit.

We walked around a bit and then decided to try another brew pub, this time the Glacier Brewing one. Great food again. What is it with these pubs? They are not supposed to be great, but the last two have been. I am including a photo of Mike enjoying his beer. He got his hair cut before we left Ft. Wainwright and it is WAY too short. I won't approve a cut like that again. Not that I have anything to say about it, I suppose. 

Tomorrow we plan to ride the Coastal Trail. That should be fun! 

Talkeetna and the Mountain

Today we drove south from Fairbanks. There was a break in the clouds as we passed Cantwell and suddenly we saw something we had not yet glimpsed. There was Denali (or Mt. McKinley) - your preference. I managed a couple of fairly good shots with my new camera and one bad one with my phone. Trust me though, the mountain was visible. Not for long, but it was there. 

By the time we arrived at Talkeetna the mountain had totally disappeared again. The rv campground we planned on staying in was full, so we found the local city no frills campground and are staying there tonight. We don't have any hookups, but with our solar capacity that is not an issue.

We walked into downtown via a pretty muddy path and had dinner at the restaurant associated with the local brewery, Denali Brewing. I have tried not to talk about food much, but our dinner was outstanding! Mike had sockeye salmon with chard and kale and I had reindeer meatloaf. This was the best dinner we have had in Alaska that we did not cook ourselves. 

Talkeetna has an historic district that is authentic. We stopped at the farmers market and picked up some greens and eggs to take with us. The local grocery store and deli has been around for almost a hundred years and looks like it has not changed much during that time.

 

The town is known as the starting place for expeditions to the mountain and is also a great place for rafting, boat trips and flights to the mountain glaciers. 

After dinner we walked back to the campground and Mike proceeded to best me at cribbage. 

Riverboat Discovery

Today we took a real tourist-type trip. We went on the Sternwheeler Riverboat Discovery this morning with all the bused in groups from the cruise ships and other tours. They all had their name tags. I almost felt like I needed to get one. 

The tour was well scripted and very entertaining, partly because of how well it was done! The announcer - and I call him that because he also does radio and sounded like it - told good stories and nice family friendly jokes. The one about static electricity was as racy as he got. 

The young people at the simulated Native village were friendly and had their parts down so well that if you walked between presentations too quickly you heard exactly the same sentences. All of them had Alaska Native backgrounds, which helped to make them credible. 

This is not to say that it was a bad experience. It wasn't, but it definitely was not real Alaska. The gift shop at the entrance was the largest one I have seen so far in Alaska. I saw one of everything there. I even bought something - as was expected. 

Flying to Barrow

We left this morning to go to the Arctic Ocean and the city of Barrow. We arrived at Barrow by noon and took a tour with a native of the town, whose English name is Sam. I did not find out his Inupiaq name, but he was a great guide telling us about the town and the ways of his people. He was especially knowledgable about the subsistence whaling that his people still do in their villages. While he said he was too old to do it anymore himself, he had done it in his youth, starting when he was under 10 years of age. 

You can't tell by how he is dressed, but there was a windchill that made the temperature feel like it was in the 20s.  And he was describing it as a fine summer day. 

We managed to find the Arctic Ocean and it was definitely cold! Ice cold!

We flew in an eight passenger Piper Navajo. 

The flight stopped in Settles, with its historic lodge. 

Unfortunately, it was pretty cloudy all the way, although we managed to see the ocean and the edge of the ice as we flew into Barrow. 

Mike and I now have a certificate that states that we crossed the Arctic Circle. We can take that off the bucket list. 

Museum of the North

Today we made a visit to the University of Alaska to visit its terrific museum! We could easily have spent the whole day in the collection. Part of the museum is divided by geographic region with many historical artifacts and exhibits. Another part contains some terrific art, both for practical use and as statements by the artists. Mike and I had our photo taken with Otto, the 8'9" bear welcoming people to the exhibit. I took photos of some of the artwork, too. The most interesting piece is an outhouse that you can sit in and peruse the objects the artist has included. 

Since we are heading to Barrow tomorrow we cooked an early dinner. We brought some sunfish from Minnesota that Mike and my brother-in-law Gene caught. The fish had been in our freezer while we traveled. Mike fried it in our cast iron skillet on the grill. What a treat! 

Creamer's Field

Today was a day to do laundry, grocery shop and visit a couple more quilt shops. After all this we visited Creamer's Field, where Sandhill cranes stop on their migratory path. We saw quite a few, but they were pretty far away-something we are beginning to recognize as the norm. I took a few photos with my new telephoto lens, but an iPhone will not work for distance, so I am posting a photo of one behind glass in the visitor center. I have a photo of the fields they frequent, too, but you won't see any cranes in that photo. A couple of them flew over my head, but I did not have a camera ready. 

Professional photographers must be very patient! 

Fairbanks Again

We stopped at the Kubat house today when we returned from Denali and took the family to Pioneer Park for the salmon bake. We also played a bit before we ate. This is a family that loves to ride, no matter what the animal might be. Tomorrow it is laundry and visit quilt shops and Creamers Field.   

Denali Rain

The last couple of days have been mostly rainy. So today (Saturday) we took the bus back to the visitor center and took in a ranger program on animal families in the park. We also took in a concert that was pretty unique! I am still not sure I loved it as it was definitely out of my normal comfort zone. They included good educational content during the concert. Later tonight there will be a full orchestra concert. 

We attempted to attend another ranger program tonight, but the rain was too much. 

Denali Trails

Today we decided to watch the working dogs one more time and then take one of the many trails in the park. We drove to the Savage River turnaround and took the Savage River loop. It was a good, although somewhat wet walk, as the rain moved in. But it was worth it as we came upon a large bull caribou along side the river. We watched him for quite awhile, as neither our presence nor the presence of other hikers seemed to bother his feeding. He was definitely worth getting wet! 

Denali Working Dogs

On Thursday we took the park bus back to the visitor center to get a sense of the park. We took a short hike and went to see a program on the sled dogs they use in the park. During the winter, when none of the roads are plowed, the only methods of transportation are cross country skiing, snowshoeing and sled dogs. The dogs in the park are bred specifically for strength and endurance rather than speed. They are also bred for human compatibility-these dogs are friendly! My favorites were Nuna and Prusik. Prusik is a black and white 2 year old and Nuna is one of the most petable and a great lead dog. 

Denali to the End of the Road

Today is Wednesday and we are taking a park bus to the end of the road, all 90+ miles. It does not look good for seeing the mountain, but we should see wildlife and flowers. Part way in we saw a bull moose. Got some photos of it on my new camera. I did get a couple of caribou       on the iPhone so should be able to post one later. We also saw bear, but mostly from afar. We stopped along the way where the best views of the mountain should have been, but saw clouds instead. 

Denali

We are heading to Denali National Park today - after we get the windshield repaired. The repair shop did it quickly and we are on our way. Lots of rain and low ceilings so no photo opportunities. This week is supposed to stay rainy - we may not see the mountains at all. We will be in Denali for the next 5 days.