Saturday, July 11, 09 Lorraine’s Report
My-oh- my, do the days ever fly by so quickly for us. It’s been another busy week for us.
Last Sunday, Rich, our son took our friends, Rob/Norma and Dorothy/Tom out for a boat ride on the Kenai River so they could experience a part of what it’s like to fish on the Kenai. They had a wonderful tour with him.
Rich came back to the coach for a home cooked birthday dinner of fried chicken and macaroni and cheese, and all the fixings. We had another great visit, then he had to head out again.
Monday, we went into Soldotna, ran some errands and stopped by the processing plant where Rob/Norma bought the case of canned King Salmon for $75.00 a case. They had a special going on, clearing out last year’s catch, making room for this year’s supply of fresh fish. What a great deal!
That evening, I had our traveling buddies over for barbeque salmon. I did three different kinds of seasonings for the salmon on the grill, and made wild rice to go with it. Norma brought fresh corn on the cob, while Tom/Dorothy made chocolate cake and a fresh rhubarb pie. The fresh caught salmon was delicious, and I think everyone enjoyed the catch. We had to hurry dinner, so the 2 gals could play bingo at the American Legion.
Tuesday Chuck and Rich were back out fishing on the Kenai at 6 am; I went out about 10:30 am with them. We had only one bite all day; we saw little activity and very few nets bringing in fish; a very slow day fishing. I think that the warm weather and the moon changing contributed to the slow day.
Wednesday, the group left Kenai around 9 am and headed to Homer, Alaska. It was a quick drive only two hours or so. The drive was very pretty, with lots of wild flowers including blue lupine everywhere along the road.
We arrived to find the Kachemack Bay covered with lots of haze from all the wild fires that are burning all over up here. The tall mountains looked like giants in the distance, the glaciers so hazy.
The guys set up the rigs, we unpacked and then the gals were off to the spit here in Homer for shopping. There just aren’t a lot of touristy places to shop in Kenai. Chuck helped everyone set up the boxes so we could get TV, our first good TV since we left BC.
We got back and Tom had a fire and Dorothy and I provided hot dogs and smores, cooked over the fire for all of us for dinner.
Thursday we went down to the spit and went out on a cruise to Gull Island. We enjoyed the boat ride immensely. We saw seals, tons of birds, including the Puffin. The fresh salty air and water, the wildlife, and the mountains, were all spectacular.
After the boat ride, we went to the famous Salty Dog Tavern. We all ordered drinks and we each put up our dollar bill on the wall. Then it was off to the Elk’s lodge for drinks, we stayed for dinner. At the Elk’s lodge we saw 2 whale’s water spouts. The Elk’s have a great view and a very nice lodge.
Friday, we all piled into our car with Chuck as the driver and toured the East end of town to the end of the road. Along the way, we saw 3 moose. There is a small Russian community at the end, with a school, a church and a lot of homes, all facing the beautiful Kachemak Bay, mountains, and many glaciers.
Rich called just as we were getting back into town, to let us know he had driven over to Homer from Kenai. He had just gotten his newly repaired SUV back after having it repaired from winter’s damage, and wanted to test it out. He came to the rig, we visited, then headed out to tour the spit. We went to Land’s End Restaurant for snacks, then looked at other shops. He showed us good places to eat, the museums and art galleries to visit.
Back at the coach, Rich received a call; he and Chuck would be going halibut fishing with his friend, Zach on Zack’s boat with a couple of other guys. They left at 9, had strong winds and waves. They caught a small halibut and several skate. It was a late night for both of them, with Rich driving back to Kenai.
Saturday we got up and went with the group to the Farmer’s Market down the street. It was crowded with many people out getting their veggies and such. Then, the gals and I went shopping to the art galleries. It was another great day for all of us.
Our friends Mark/Sue, Vicky/Bob and Joe/Loretta are coming over from Kenai for a visit. It should be fun. I have to say the weather has been beautiful. It’s getting dark out now around 12:30 am.
So till next time-hope this finds everyone well………….Lorraine
Saturday July 11, 09 Chuck’s report
We are now in Homer, the Halibut Capital of the World. There is a ~ 4 mile spit just out of town that has all the touristy things to do plus the harbor and docks are there also. We are about 1/2 mile from the spit, close to a seaplane base on a lake but it isn’t too noisy.
Last Sunday, our son Rick was able to take Tom/Dorothy and Rob/Norma out on a cruise on the Kenai River in his boat. They all said they had a good time and enjoyed it. As his boat only seats 5 comfortably and we had already been out a few times, we didn’t go with them. We did some exploring of the area, went to Soldotna and checked out fishing areas for later in the month.
Monday evening Lorraine fixed some salmon for everyone. She prepared it three different ways for them to try and we cooked it on the bar-b-q. Everyone brought something and we had a very good meal (I had steak because I don’t like fish).
Tuesday was the last day of our King Salmon fishing license so Rick was able to get us on the water almost all day. We fished spots up and down the river but never hooked into a keeper in spite of Rick’s best efforts but still had a very nice day. This was the third full day plus one 1/2 day we had been on the river and we only kept the two fish shown in last week’s blog.
Wednesday we finished packing up, hooked up the car and drove to Homer, about 2 hours away. We are staying at a RV Park Tom managed to find for us with full hookups. Once we got set up, the gals went down to the spit, I think they were having shopping withdrawal pains or something. The park has cable TV and we had to figure out how to hook up each coach, they all are wired differently but we do have TV for the first time in awhile.
On Thursday we headed down to the spit where we booked a 3 hour cruise (sounds like Gilligan’s Island, doesn’t it?) to explore the bay. There were only 8 of us on board the boat and we were able to see otters, eagles, and lots of other birds. We stopped at a place called Gull Island where we even were able to see and photograph some Puffins,
After the cruise we stopped at a local watering hole called “Salty Dog”, supposedly the only building left standing on the Homer Spit after the big earthquake in 1964. They have most of the walls and ceiling covered with souvenir dollar bills people sign and pin up. Of course, we had to put ours up too, I wonder how long they will stay there. Afterwards we went to the Elks lodge for dinner, what a view from there overlooking the bay with the mountains and glaciers in the background.
Friday, the six of us got in our car and went exploring. We traveled to the end of the bay, then down a gravel road where we found a little village that has lots of Russian influence. We didn’t find anyone to talk with but we did manage to get a few pictures of the area.
Once we got back to town, we were surprised with a visit from our son Rick. He wanted to spend some time with us so told Rob/Norma and Tom/Dorothy we would se them later and headed out with him in his new (to us anyway) car. We stopped for a quick snack, picked up some smoked scallops and basically hung out for the afternoon. Once we got back to the coach, he got a phone call from his friend who invited him and me out on his boat to go halibut fishing that night. We quickly agreed to go and left the coach at 9 pm and got back at 2:30 in the morning. Rick caught the only halibut, a small one we didn’t even keep, Zack and I both caught large skates but they aren’t any good so we came back empty handed. Looks like my fishing skills aren’t too good, skunked on our last day on the Kenai and skunked on our Halibut trip, bummer.
Saturday we headed over to the farmer’s market, not too much there yet but nice people all around. Then the gals wanted to go explore the local area (I call it shopping but what do I know?) while Rob and I took our dogs, Toby and Misty, to get groomed. We also went down to watch people launch and retrieve their boats down at the launch on the spit.
We are currently planning on leaving Homer on Wednesday, heading to Seward to check out that area. Not sure how long we will stay there but the information from the brochures says there is a lot to do while we are there.
And now for our week in review via pictures. Thanks Chuck
1 comment:
Looks like you're having a blast! Give Rick a hello for me! You took some beautiful pictures! We enjoyed them greatly! Missed you while you were in town but we'll catch you when we can!
Mandy and Kimmie
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