Here we are, on the road: Friends, sockeye and bears in Alaska

Sunday, July 19, 2009 Lorraine’s report

Here it is Sunday; time to write the blog, so here goes. This past week has been busy as usual, if it wasn’t, I don’t think I’d know what to do with myself. We’ve moved from Homer back to Soldotna on Wednesday.

Since last Sunday we’ve had the other group of three traveling friends visit us while we were in Homer, and now we are all closer together here in Soldotna. We’ve had dinners together, with all of us gals making dinner for each other; Dorothy made beef stew and dumplings and rhubarb pie, Norma made Sheppard’s pie with dessert, Sue had us all over and made chicken and sausage gumbo and home made brownies, and I did fresh Sockeye salmon, fried and barbequed, with ham for the non fish eaters, new baby reds boiled, watermelon and homemade rhubarb crisp. We have been eating extremely well.

The guys have been fishing and even limiting a couple of days. The gals and I have been shopping and visiting the local art galleries, with Norma finding new pieces of art for her newly remodeled home while Dorothy and I have been picking up souvenirs for family and friends.

We’ve celebrated Rob’s 60^th Birthday on Saturday, July 18^th with a dinner out to Louie’s in Kenai; what a wonderful dinner and fun time for all, with all ten of us together. We had the restaurant rocking.

It’s been busy; the weather has been great, with sunny days (temperatures in the high 60’s to low 70’s) and cooler nights, until later on last evening when it rained for the first time since the Yukon. The days are getting shorter, with it getting dark now around midnight.

A mother moose and her two calves ran through the RV park yesterday morning after Chuck and Rob left for fishing.

Happy Birthday to Crystal, Rob, Sandy and Richard, we hope you have a wonderful day.

Until next time, I hope this finds everyone well……Lorraine

July 19, 09 Chuck’s Report

Another good week here in Alaska. Sunday afternoon we visited the Pratt Museum. They have lots of information and history about Native Alaskans, wildlife, sea life and and old cabin moved to their site. They also have two cameras, one the visitors could operate, it was focused on Gull Island where all the birds are. We visited Gull Island last week on our short cruise. The other camera was operated by a Park Ranger and it was focused on the bears feeding on salmon on Brooks River, about 300 miles away. This museum was very nice and I learned a lot about Alaska wildlife here.

Monday we traveled out to Deep Creek and visited an old Russian Orthodox Church and graveyard. There is also a small village down the bluff from the church with lots of old buildings, a small stream and access to the beach. After exploring this area, we hopped our way home by stopping at different shops, fun for the gals but I don’t think the guys enjoyed it as much.

Tuesday was our last full day in Homer and we visited the Land and Sea Museum. They had a 45 minute presentation about glaciers, different types, how they are formed and how they formed this area when they receded. They also have a lot of information about how/why the Russians and early Americans raised fox on the islands around here for their fur. The fox and rats from ships were an unnatural addition to the area and had no predators so they pretty much took over and killed all the birds and other wildlife. It was a long process but most of the islands have been cleaned from the fox and rats and the birds are returning for nesting as before. Once again, I learned a lot about Alaska from their exhibits.

We moved from Homer to Soldotna on Wednesday, got settled in and met our son Rick at his lodge for instructions on how to fish for sockeye. I understand they don’t bite when they get into the river but instead are “snagged in the mouth”. Rick showed me how to use both a spinning reel and a fly rod. As luck would have it, he caught one on his first cast but we lost it when trying to hand the rod over to me. It took me a bit longer (~1/2 hour) to finally land one but it was fun. We stand in the river, cast upstream and let the current carry the hook and sinker downstream, retrieve and cast again until we hook a salmon.

Since then Rob and I have been trying our luck on the river almost everyday. We caught a couple on Thursday, got skunked on Friday, fished with Mark and Vicky and limited out on Saturday and got skunked again on Sunday. All in all, we’ve had a good time on the river although we wish the fish were running a bit more.

We’ve met up with our other traveling buddies, Mark/Sue and Bob/Vicky. They came over to our place on Thursday evening, we had a good time with them. We went over to their place for dinner on Friday, went out to dinner for Rob’s birthday on Saturday and they are coming over to our place for dinner tonight. I have to say we’ve eaten very well here, once Dorothy fixed dinner, once Norma fixed dinner, once Sue fixed dinner and Lorraine is fixing dinner tonight. Um, um good but I haven’t been watching my weight very well.

While we were fishing, the gals went shopping and Tom has been working on his computer and backing pies for us. Our plans are to leave here on Tuesday and head for Seward for a week where we plan going out to see the glaciers “calf”, maybe take a fishing trip out in the bay for Halibut and silver salmon and see the sites around that area. We will probably be there a week but that remains to be seen, last week we thought we were going to Seward but stopped off here instead. Tough life, not knowing where we are going or how long we will be there, ha.

So once again, I will add some pictures to close out the blog, hope you enjoy them. ‘till next time Chuck

Deep Creek area with the old Russian Church, remember this, Clay?

Picture from the mountain around Homer, that’s Homer spit on the right.

Rick teaching me how to fish for sockeye salmon, that’s him with one on in his first cast, me casting, fighting and showing off one from two different days. Fun time for me!!

Here’s Rob all dressed up and ready for some serious fishing, he and me fishing at Rick’s lodge.

Some of the fish from Saturday when Mark, Vicky, Rob and I all limited out, three apiece. Mark cleaned them all and Sue is going to can them for us.

Some good pictures that Lorraine took of eagles flying about. Great pictures, honey.

The old cabin at Pratt Museum, they had up to 13 people living in this cabin one time.

Momma mouse and two babies came through the campground but Lorraine was only able to get pictures of one of the little ones. All the dogs in campground went crazy while they were roaming around the sites.

The bears feeding on salmon on Brooks River. All I can say is WOW!

Rob’s birthday party with some of our friends helping him celebrate. I think everyone had a good time and the meal was excellent too. Thanks for being born, Rob!!

DSCN6912 Norma/Rob and Mark/Sue