Anchorage.
After we said a sad farewell to Denali we headed down to Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska.
We managed to find somewhere to park the RV, Centennial Park at the junction of 9th and P streets.
In fact it was so nice there we stayed 2 nights and had free entertainment both nights too.
The first night, we watched a 6k and 12k run and the finish line was about 50 yards from the rig, and the second night there was a Philipine night, with their traditional music and food. Terry gave a man a set of golf clubs as he had managed t buy a new bag with a set of clubs included for $10 from a Thrift Store earlier in the day, and the man returned later with a selection of food from a food store, so another free meal was had.
Anchorage was a nice city, we both liked it, and the people were friendly and sociable.
We took a nice walk around the city and came across the local air-lake, so we stood and watched a few sea planes come and go.
We visited Cabellas, one of my favourite stores over here, where they were doing food tasters as you entered, including ice-cream. Another free lunch really.
It was also time to enquire about a fishing licence up here, so we went into a store and the guy was English so we had a long chat. I didn’t get a license but he did tell us to go to Ship Creek and watch the King Salmon run, which we did.
We couldn’t see the Salmon but there were plenty of people after them.
Gill and I, as you can see I’m putting a few pounds on…..
From Anchorage we headed down towards Homer stopping off on the way at Alyeska Resort for a free Blue-Grass Festival. And not far away a nice river, with some wildlife.
In a place called Ninilchek we managed to get a campsite using our Passport America membership giving us 50% off. We came here as we wanted to meet up with Chris and Charles. Chris is the lady that does our insurance on the RV & car. Chris got here on the Thursday and came over for a drink and a natter.
The following night, we had Chris, Charles, Albert (Chris’s brother) and 2 of Chris’s friends over Lynn and Mickey. Chris made us a Chilli and we spent a very nice evening together. It was fantastic to meet them and good to be able to say we have more friends here. We also went for breakfast with them down in Homer.
I also started chatting to a bloke called Mike, Mike used to live in the outback of Alaska, trapping and living off the land, a real nice interesting bloke. These two strolled through the RV park one evening too.
Homer was our destination and we made the small drive there to check out the area before moving the rig down there for a couple of days. It was very busy! On the way down to Homer we saw a few sights that were interesting….
This guy makes me smile everytime I look at this picture.
The Rv is on that spit of land down there!!
Across from us was this, the Harding Icefield, with Glaciers coming down.
We stayed on Homers spit for 3 nights while I got some serious fishing in, when I say serious I mean…the first day I fished from 1pm to 01.30, the second from about 11am until about 4.30am and the third day from 6am until 1pm. Gill? She just sat in the rig reading and occasionally (twice) bought me a coffee and doughnut and bacon roll down. I came away from there very tired but pleased to say I caught my first ever King Salmon.
We also met this Bald eagle fella….
Donna and Rich, who we met last year, recommended we stop off at Coopers Landing on the way out of Homer to eat. We did stop there after I had been “combat fishing” on the Russian river for Salmon. Alas, despite paying $11 for a 3 minute ferry trip, I came away empty handed in fish, but chuffed for the experience.
Seward was next on the list and we stopped off at Tern Lake for an overnight, stunning scenery.
Seward was a wonderful drive and stunning scenery. We stopped off and did a hike to “Exit Glacier”
Then had a drive around Seward and Gill spotted a whale out in the sea, so we stopped and tried to capture them on camera, not brilliant shots, but you can see there were two of them. Another one ticked off the list.
From there it was north and out of the “Kenai Peninsula” the end to a wonderful vacation period on this part of Alaska.
I didn’t think Cougars were a native of Alaska, no disrespect intended but there comes a time when you dress your age!!!
Until next time, love to you all
T&G
Terry, Gill & Kathryn in the US of A 