From our daily log..........................................
June 20
We arrived in Anchorage around 3:00 p.m. Bob, Mary, Dick and Jean were here to greet us. The travel from Glenallen was uneventful, beautiful though as we pass by Matnuska Glacier. It is receding rapidly.
We are parked in the back yard at Dicks. The camper and trailer fit perfectly. The dogs are loving being able to run in the back yard. Had the cats on their leash, not liking it, but if they want out, they have to be on the leash.
June 21
I did 9 loads of wash at the Laundromat today. Cortney and Bruce washed the truck, camper and trailer….they were so dirty, I wasn’t sure they were ours. It is cooler today…and kinda tried to rain.
June 22
We spent most of the day cleaning the inside of the camper and then doing nothing except enjoying each others company and visiting. Cammie is suppose to come in at 11:45 p.m. however, her flight is delayed by two hours. Cortney and I will be up late.
June 23
Cortney and I picked up Cammie at 1:45 a.m. I managed to have two naps today. We really didn’t do much today.
June 24
The girls, (Jean, Mary, Cammie and Cortney) and I went shopping today at the Dimond Mall. Had a good time. We stopped at Sam’s and bought a couple of broasted chickens and had them for dinner.
June 25
We went bbq hunting today and bagged one at Walmart. We managed to stuff it in the back of Bruce’s Mercedes SUV. It rained off and on all day.
June 26, 2006
Cortney, Cammie and I did another 5 loads of laundry today at the Laundromat, then to Costco to get supplies for the trailer at the river. Had a roast pork for dinner. It has been cold and rainy off and on all day.
June 27
Today we came down to the river. “The River” is the Kenai River, just out of Sterling. This is where our trailer is located…right on the river, 130 steps up…it is definitely a HIGH BANK site. I drove Bruce’s motorhome with Jean, Mary, Cortney and Cammie..or the “girlmobile”. The guys (Al and Bob) drove the truck and camper with all of our "male" animals...the "boymobile". Dick was planning on coming, but he has been having several episodes with his heart on a daily basis and his pacemaker has had to bring him back into sinus rhythm so his doctor didn't want him to come down to the river and be that far away from the hospital.
The trip down was beautiful, as only Alaska can be. The weather was perfect…sunny and not to hot. We got here around 5:30 p.m. and everyone pitched in to help unload the cargo trailer. Now, the dilemma was where to put things in the trailer. I will be hunting for things for the rest of the summer, and then some. At some point in the near future, Cammie and Cortney are going to do an inventory for me! We finally got things put away and had sandwiches for dinner and all of us fell into bed. Bob, Mary and Jean are staying in the motorhome and it is parked right next to us. The cats have already explored every inch of this trailer and I think they are glad to have a little more room to roam!
The owner of this park is in the hospital and not doing well. His son helps him here and he stopped by to help us get the hot water heater going and to check and make sure everything was okay. We will have to re-level the trailer at some point in time. And to my delight we have wild Iris blooming behind the trailer!!
June 28
Last night was COLD. And the beds that Al and I slept in were as hard as a rock! So today we were off to Fred Meyers for mattress toppers and other supplies for the trailer. We spent the majority of the day in Soldotna. Sterling is a smaller town, with not much in the way of stores, having only a small “mom and pop” grocery store (matter-of-fact, that is the name of it) and a few fishing tackle stores and a furniture store. Soldotna is 17 miles from us and is a larger town, and has Fred Meyers, Safeway and a small mall with Penneys and Sears.
After we got back from town we all collapsed for a few minutes. We got the mattress toppers on the beds and put all the supplies away and then we down to my nephew, Bruce, trailer for steaks. Bruce’s trailer is 5 spaces down from us.
The girls discovered Bruce’s collection of DVD’s and we borrowed several. We don't have any TV reception here yet. and we haven't made up our mind if we want to go satellite or just put up and antenna. Also, we have no Internet here and can't get wifi either. We are trying to decide what to do about that, whether we put a phone in just for internet, or go to town once in a while to do email. Fortunately, the cell phone works...some of the time!
June 29, 2006
Do you know what ‘glacier flour” is? We do! Today we took a 4 ½ hour wild life boat tour on Resurrection Bay out of Seward. Seward is about 90 miles from where the trailer is. We boarded at 12:30 p.m. on the “Star of the Northwest”, a 100 foot vessel booked through Majormarine…a good tour company.
Glacier flour is what is in the water and it comes from the glaciers crushing the rock to a fine powder as the glacier moves. When the glacier melts, this “flour” mixes with the melt and flows into the bay/stream, etc. It is an ugly gray color. At the beginning of our tour, the water in the bay was this ugly gray, however, after getting away from where the glacier melt is the water turned a beautiful blue/green.
We saw a lot of wildlife, eagles, puffins, jelly fish, Stellar Sea Lions and a humpback whale that came right up to the boat and put on a real show. The ranger on board the boat said she had never seen a whale stick around as long or put on a show like this one did. It passed under the boat several times, surfacing and blowing, rolling over, etc. and stayed around for over 30 minutes. Everyone got shots of it. And have you ever smelled the water from a spewing whale? Not very pleasant! However, all in all was wonderful experience and we all enjoyed it.
Mary and Cammie decided to get a little sick while on board. They just had queasy stomachs for a while we were out on open water, but once we got back to the bay and the water was calmer they were fine.
The meal on board was so good….copper river salmon and prime rib, plus all the trimmings. The prime rib was some of the best we have ever had!
We got home around 7:30 and bbq’d hamburgers for everyone and just sat around and visited and talked about our day. Did you know that Alaska has about 25 earthquakes a day! Most of them are too minor to feel, and Alaska has over 50% of the US earthquakes! The reason for this is the Pacific plate is slipping under the North American plate, dragging the front edge of the North American plate with it. Now you have had your science lesson for the day!
The Kenai River is so beautiful…and blue green color that I can’t even describe. I will try to send pictures later of it. The Sockeye salmon first run on the river is over, and everyone is waiting for the second run (the best run) to start, which should be in a couple of days. That is when true “combat” fishing will begin! And this park will fill up with all the people who own trailers here and come once a year for 10-14 days to fish. Right now in the park there are just 3 trailers occupied, but that will all change in about a week. This place will be busy, busy, busy and so will all the stores, etc around. The Kenai peninsula will fill up with more people than one can believe! Kind of like Tucson in January. J
June 30 – Happy 13th Birthday Lori!
Can’t believe our youngest grandchild is 13! Where does the time go?
It is raining today, a nice, Seattle type rain. Locals say this summer will be a true Alaska summer, wet, rainy, cloudy and buggy! So far they aren’t too wrong, especially about the bugs! Mosquito’s out number the people a million to one! And over half of them have bitten me! My mosquito bites have mosquito bites! I have tried everything and nothing seems to do much good….Muskol is the best so far -- the rest of the stuff the mosquitoes just gargle!
Bob, Mary, Jean are on their way back to Anchorage in the motorhome. Bruce is taking them back and he will stay in Anchorage until they leave. We will probably go to Anchorage on Monday and stay until they leave on the 5th and then come back here.
I think the girls are getting a little bored, however, they have plenty of DVD’s to watch and books to read.
THE WROAMIN' WRASPIRS
AL, JO, DOGS, CATS AND
CORTNEY AND CAMMIE
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