Here we are, on the road: Back to Anchorage

Sunday, August 2, 2009 Lorraine’s report

Whew-the weeks are flying by so fast. Since last week we moved to Anchorage to the Golden Nugget RV Park. While in Seward, the television news reporter said it rained 6.8 inches of rain during the week we were there. After we left, there was flooding and the road to Exit Glacier was washed out, closing the road until this coming week. I knew a ton of rain was falling.

Sunday we took the day off, staying in until later on in the day. It was raining hard and we didn’t feel like going anywhere. Then we got a call from some friends we met in Red Bay, AL in 2008. Wayne and Marynell from Texas were in Seward with a caravan. They wanted to get together, so we went over after dinner and had a nice visit.

Monday it rained all day again, so I did some cleaning. I went through my closet, then Chuck helped me rearrange all the food cupboards. It was good to see what I had. While doing that, Rob and Norma came over to see what we were up to. I said we should watch some of the new movies I have, so we did just that. Chuck made up a bunch of popcorn and we watched a double header.

Tuesday was the day we choose to go out on a tour of the Kenai Fjords; we were told the weather was suppose to be clear-ha. We left the house at 8:30 and got home after 7 pm. We were on the MV Tanaina, all 97 of us plus the crew. The captain came over the loud speaker, talking about the bay, the animals, the scenery etc we were seeing. The swell was about 4 foot, but not much wind, even though it rained. I was happy I didn’t get seasick.

We went out to Aialik Glacier, which is part of the Harding Ice Field. On the way there and during the trip, we saw a Humpback whale, a pod of Killer whales, seals, sea lions, dolphins and many kinds of birds. Part of the cruise was a box lunch and included for dinner a buffet of Prime Rib and fresh salmon; for a few dollars more, you could get one pound of King Crab at Fox Lodge on Fox Island. It was great food!

We saw the glacier and while there, we witnessed a bunch of calving of the ice. The glacier makes noises that sound like groaning and then it makes a sound like a bunch of whales squealing. The captain said that even though we didn’t have a clear day, we were able to see calving and a bunch of wild animals. It was a wonderful cruise, well worth the price we paid.

When we got home, Mark/Sue and Bob/Vicki were waiting for us. They plan on coming to Anchorage later this month to spend time with one of their friends coming up to Alaska to take some pictures. We may not see them before they head for home next month. It was fun to visit with everyone, and I know I will miss seeing them, even though we haven’t been together for most of a month now. We sure enjoyed their company.

Wednesday was moving day. I must admit I was looking forward to leaving all that rain behind. We came on into Anchorage, and the group split up. Tom and Dorothy went back to the Elks Lodge in Palmer, while Rob/Norma and we came to the Golden Nugget RV Park. It was about ten degrees warmer here and not as windy and no rain.

Thursday we went shopping to restock the rig. There’s a Wal Mart, Fred Meyer, Costco and a whole bunch of other stores. I loved being on the Kenai Peninsula, but I missed some of the conveniences of being in a larger town.

Friday was a day spent touring the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. We were there over five hours drinking in the wonderful past that is Alaska’s history. It was a really fine museum and well worth the time to go there.

Saturday the gals and I spent the day shopping, visiting art galleries, we went to the Saturday market downtown, saw the movie on the Good Friday Earthquake. All of us had a wonderful time and saw lots of stuff, enjoying the beautiful day and each other’s company.

So that was the week. I’d like to wish my sister, Thelma a very “Happy Birthday”. Hope you have a great day; I wish we could be together.

Until next time…be well…….Lorraine

8/2/09 Chuck’s report

We are currently in Anchorage, moved up here on Wednesday. Boy did it rain while we were in Seward, over 8” the week we were there and the day we left. In fact, the day we left there was lots of flooding in town, we escaped just in time I guess. On the way up here, the temperature went from 45F to 72F, what a difference and much appreciated.

Last Sunday evening we were able to meet up with another couple of friends of our, Wayne/Marynell from Texas who are traveling with a caravan up here. We were only to meet with them for a hour but it was good to see them once again.

On Monday it rained hard all day, a good day to stay home and work inside. In the morning, Lorraine wanted to rearrange her side of the closet and most of the food cupboards. That took most of the morning and just before we finished, Rob and Norma came over and we decided to have a movie afternoon. Lorraine finished up with the cupboards, I made a couple batches of popcorn and we watched two movies and ate popcorn. Dorothy had made a run into town and Tom was worked on his computer so they didn’t partake with us.

Tuesday the six of us headed out for our 8/5 hour cruise on one of the Kenai Fjords Tour boat. We had made a pretty good deal, all of us had a two for one coupon and we were able to upgrade to a dinner cruise for another $10 each and the campground gave us a coupon for 1# of free King Crab. I really enjoyed this cruise, we saw two types of whales, humpback and killer, dolphins, lots of seals, otters and sea lions, and hundreds of birds. We were only able to get within 100 yards from the whales so the pictures aren’t that great but they were playing, jumping and fluting.

But the real highlight of the cruise was the Aialik Glacier calving. We were able to get about 1/2 mile from it, shut down the engine , watch and listen to it. The glacier did lots of groaning, popping and banging. Some of the bangs were as loud as gunshots and we were 1/2 mile away! The calving was spectacular, first time I’ve seen it in real life and it’s much better than on TV or in the movies. The captain said we had a better than average day for calving and we were able to get some pictures too. After leaving the glacier, we headed to Fox Island for our buffet of Salmon and Prime Rib, plus the King Crab.

After we got off the boat, we were pleasantly surprised with a visit from Mark/Sue and Bob/Vicky. They were staying in Cooper Landing and drove down to spend what may be the last evening with us in Alaska. We are heading North for awhile, they will be staying down here before heading back to the lower 48. It’s still possible we may see them before we leave Alaska but it was sure a nice jester for them to come over and see us. We had a good visit, some played cards and Mark told jokes and lied about fishing. Good to see ya’ll, as Mark says.

On Wednesday we left Seward for Anchorage. Once again we didn’t make reservations but checked out a few campgrounds before we settled in here at Golden Nugget. This is a nice park, we have full hookup, about 5 miles from downtown Anchorage and all it’s sites. Tom/Dorothy made a decision to return to Palmer instead of staying at this campground but we will still get together when we see the sights. We are planning on heading up there on Sunday and getting back together once again. After we got settled in, we made a quick trip into town just to drive around and see a bit of the area. I’m sure glad we have our GPS, it makes things easier to find although I admit I rely on it too much sometimes.

Thursday was a resupply day, it’s been over a month since we were able to go to Wal-Mart and Costco. We also had to find a small freezer to keep our salmon frozen. The small fridge Rob had wasn’t able to keep all of it frozen, but in hindsight, we had covered the air intake with too much fish so it couldn’t work too well. Anyway, Rob and I found a small freezer, transferred the salmon over to the freezer and plugged it in. Success, the fish is now staying frozen and all is well.

Friday, Tom/Dorothy came down to meet with us and we all went to the Alaska History Museum. This was one of the best museum that we have been to while up there. They had displays and information that went from prehistoric times, to Russian rule over Alaska, to the US purchase for $7.2 million, the gold rush, building the Alcan Highway during WW ll, statehood, discovery of oil, building of the Alaska pipeline, Exxon Valdez oil spill and much more. Boy Alaska has had a bunch of boom/bust periods. They had some very nice displays with lots of items donated to or bought by the museum. We spent about 5 hours here and could have spent more but we wanted to see more in town.

After the museum, we drove around town where checked out different neighborhoods, drove through downtown where the gals did a bit of shopping and went to Earthquake park. Downtown is not like other towns, half was destroyed during the 1964 earthquake and rebuilt. So part of the town has lots of older buildings and history while the side nearest the water is much newer, very interesting.

Saturday Rob and I planned to go fishing in Ship Creek, a good size creek here in town. The silvers are running pretty heavy, we watched at least 20 being caught in about 1/2 hour on Friday afternoon. But Rob wasn’t feeling too well in the morning so we postponed our fishing until another day. He was able to rest most of the day, I caught up on some chores I had been putting off. Dorothy came into town, picked up Lorraine and Norma, they spent the day in town at the Farmer’s market and shopping. (They said they had a good time, I’m just glad I didn’t have to spend all day shopping with them!!)

Today we plan on moving to Palmer Elk’s lodge once again. We stayed there for a few days before and after we flew back to Washington for our friend’s’ wedding back in late June. We will probably stay there for 2 or 3 days and then head up North to Denali National Park.

Denali is the Indian (and most of the locals’) name for Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in North America. I hear it is so big that it develops it’s own weather system.There are lots of activities that we would like to do while there, a bus trip through the park, maybe a plane or helicopter ride up to the mountain and maybe even to land on a glacier. There are lots of fires up there and I hear the smoke is pretty heavy, hope it doesn’t keep us from seeing or doing our sightseeing. After Denali, we plan to go on to Fairbanks for a few days too. I think most people try to do this loop before they head down to the Kenai Peninsula where we have been since early July. We still have to go to Valdez after going to Fairbanks, we are looking forward to that too.

And now for some pictures of our week.

Our cruise to the glacier.

The boat we were on.