Homer, AK

May 27, 2007

Spent the day in Soldetna. We went to a museum that had some of the original log cabins and Doug and I are both repeatedly surprised that things are not that old, we have actually used so many of the items they have on display. Then we realized that most of these towns were established around 1947, right after the war. Veterans were given a really good homestead plan that made it easy for them to establish themselves. Most people had to build a home and live in it for three years and cultivate 1/10 of the property. The veterans has live in their home for 7 months and did not have to cultivate any of the land.

We have learned so much about the wildlife and sea life. Doug keeps saying “if only I had come up here when I was younger!”

May 28, 2007

It is Memorial Day and we are just going to do some local roads and maybe try to find a stream to do some panning in!!! It is sunny and clear this morning, 43 degrees!

On our way out for the day we stopped to watch the fishing boats go out. Doug is fascinated by the operation. It is so cold, we can only imagine what it is like out on the water. These people have got to have got to have a real passion for fishing. Curtis, have you been fishing up here?

The eagles were lined up along a creek near the beach. It is unbelievable how many bald eagles there are around here.



May 29 & 30, 2007

Yesterday, Tuesday, was a miserable rainy old day. We spent it doing choirs. Doug fixed the cable on the TV and other minor projects and I did laundry and cleaned house!! We also spent a lot of time on the internet doing more research on gold panning. Not a totally wasted day!

Wed., the 30th we headed back toward Anchorage. Stopped at Cooper Landing, about 90 miles south of Anchorage. We found a federal park right along a stream and decided to stay. This has got to be my favorite site on this trip. We are dry camping, for those of you that don’t camp, it means we have no facilities!!! The site overlooks the creek and is surrounded by woods.

Doug was in his glory building a fire, Nicholas, you can relate to that!!! It was drizzling and cold, but we were so excited about the site it really didn’t bother us. We have been concentrating so much on being able to get the internet that we have not even looked for state parks. This is the kind of camping we did for years and always loved. Back then however, we didn’t have our own bathroom!!!

Spent a good bit of the afternoon panning the material we scooped out of the stream. We still do111n’t know what we are looking at and will take our samples to someone that does ,if we can find that person!! I think we might stay the weekend here. Our only concern is if we have enough propane. If we run out, I will just cook over the fire!!!! We are using every blanket we brought and Doug has gotten himself a sleeping bag, so we are cozy at night!!! The girls are actually sleeping under our covers!!! I am sure that will gross out those of you that don’t have animals!!!!

We were having so much fun we actually didn’t get to bed until abound midnight – by-the-way, it was still VERY light out!!!

May 31, 2007

Had a good night, we both slept until 9AM!!!!!! Don’t remember the last time I did that!!! We are headed to Portage today to an animal sanctuary. The sun looks like it might come out. We were asking God earlier to give us some nice weather, but then I took it back and asked to have it nice next week when Chip is here!!!!

The sun was out when we left camp,, but by the time we got to Portage it was pouring and very windy. The animal sanctuary was a bit of a disappointment. However, the ride over, even with the rain was just beautiful. Doug and I have decided that Switzerland has nothing on Alaska so far as beautiful mountains go!!

We stopped at the Visitors Center in Portage and were so impressed. Some of these Visitor Centers are better than many museums. They had a film about glaciers that we were so impressed with we bought the DVD. There was part of a glacier right out the window. The ranger said they get pieces of Portage Glacier frequently and they get stuck at the center. This was by design, and the built the center right over the water and after the movie ends they raise the screen and open the curtain . The scene is magnificent as it looks out on the water and the piece of glacier sits right in front of you..

On the way back to camp we took the side road to Hope. We had seen a few brochure about hope, mainly that it was the first mining town in Alaska. However, the only thing Hope has now is scenery!! Worth the ride today, as it was only 16 miles out of our way, but we had been thinking about taking a day and coming up here, about a 60 mile trip!!! Not worth that!! But, the sun is out now and we are really enjoying the view. There are some fantastic waterfalls along here also.

Well, we lost our wonderful campsite!! We had been back at camp about a half hour and another RV drove in and said they had a reservation for the site for 11 days. We had already paid for 5 nights. We moved to another site, but decided that we did not want stay here if we did not have our original site, it was the best in the park.

June 1, 2007

We saw the park host and got our money back and are moving closer to Anchorage. Weather is so unpredictable!!! Looked overcast a few minutes ago and now it appears the sun is trying to shine!!! The saying they have in FL about the weather is about the same for Alaska, “If you don’t like the weather wait 15 min.”!!!

Have really enjoyed dry camping in the woods and will do again. We need to stay at a regular park tonight to fill-up on necessities, (water, propane, etc.) and get on the internet. I think the rest of our trip we will be doing more of this.

Doug was talking with someone this morning and he was told that it was 90 degrees in Fairbanks yesterday!!! Maybe we will get out of our winter clothes soon!!! It still amazes us how big this state is. We are thinking of flying to Nome from Anchorage, the flight is 3 hours!!! It is 1500 miles in the same state!!!