Alaska 2009

Homer – Sunday, July 19, 2009

This morning, we worshipped with a friendly, outgoing body of believers at the Christian Community Church in town.  After lunch and chats with Burgoynes and Binghams, we headed out to see more of Homer.

It rained most of the night and the day, but it didn’t dampen our exploration.  We headed down to Homer Spit, parked, and walked on the beach to take in the fishing and the cloud-masked views.  We stopped to see the Seafarers’ Memorial to those who’ve lost their lives at sea and to view the Salty Dawg, a famous landmark/historic bar on the spit.

One of my desires for this trip was to see a bald eagle up close.  When we were in Alaska nine years ago, guides kept pointing them out, but they were always specks in the distance.  I wanted to see an eagle and know it was an eagle.  While we walked on the beach, a bald eagle landed on the sand, and I was able to get some fair pictures.  Then a couple of fishermen fed it a few small fish, so it posed for pictures. 

Eagle poses for fish

Eagle strolls on the beach

After our time on the spit, we drove down the East End Road to see the homes, farms, and views of the spit and mountains and glaciers across the bay.

Homer, Monday, July 20, 2009

Our last day in Homer, we visited the Pratt Museum, which has displays on the Exxon-Valdez disaster, local settlement and the usual local animals.  What made this stop extra special was Web cams they have set up of the bears feeding on salmon at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park and a seabird rookery on an island eight miles away in Kachemak Bay.

Homer –Seward, Tuesday, July 21, 2009

All but 30 miles of this journey was a repeat in reverse of part of the itinerary from Anchorage to Homer.  It is pretty with its fields of wildflowers, streams, lakes and ponds, but the surrounding mountains again remained shrouded in the rain and overcast weather.  Situated outside of Seward at Stony Creek RV Park, the rain and weather forecast caused us to extend to four nights here.  One of the things we really want to do is take a cruise around Resurrection Bay and the Kenai Fjords National Park (most of which is accessible only by water), and we are hoping the weather may improve some by Friday.

We took a drive into town.  We disembarked from a cruise here nine years ago, but didn’t see much – if any – of the town then.  We drove by the dock and terminal – no cruise ships in port – and stopped at the national park visitors’ information center.  We got our bearings, wandered through town, and had pizza out (even though Tom refuses to celebrate his birthday.) 

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

What do you do in Seward, Alaska on a cold, rainy summer day?  Laundry, of course.  We also shopped, discovering a 10 percent senior discount at Safeway on Wednesdays (and we both qualified).  We drove by the cruise dock again and discovered a Regent liner in port. 

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Finally a chance to get out and see Seward in the rain.  (No, it hasn’t let up, although there are rumors the cruises will go out of the bay tomorrow, so we have reservations for an 8½ hour cruise.)  This morning we visited Exit Glacier, the only portion  of Kenai Fjords National Park to which one can drive.  Three miles outside of Seward, Exit Glacier is so named because, while many of Alaska’s glaciers edge the ocean (tidewater glaciers), explorers of the Harding Icefield found an “exit” at Exit Glacier.  Despite the light, steady rain, Tom and I donned our rain gear and hiked the two miles or so to the edge of the glacier. 

After lunch eaten in the truck, we went to Alaska Sea Life Center, an aquarium and research center that specializes in sea life from the Bering Sea area.  We enjoyed watching the antics of the huge steller sea lions and the water fowl, especially the fun horned puffins.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Kenai Explorer - Our water chariot through Kenai Fjords National Park

Seward Harbor prior to our departure

Up early to head out on the Kenai Explorer.  Our decision to stay over an extra night in Seward paid off.  Today was the first day all week that park cruises made it out of the bay.  It was still drizzly – and at times icy cold – but we spent all day out exploring the fjords, glaciers, and wildlife of the Kenai Fjords National Park.  We found lots of playful sea otters, lazy steller sea lions, a few Dall porpoises, one shy humpback whale who didn’t want to show his tail, and lots of birds.  Puffins are the cutest things, and we have learned the difference in horned puffins and tufted puffins. 

Sea Otter	Horned Puffin
Puffin Colony	Steller Sea Lions

After a “healthy lunch” was served on board, we visited a tidewater glacier, the Aialik Glacier.  We hung around amid small floating icebergs and listened to the creaking noises it made as it moved slowly into the sea.  Although we witnessed a few small chunks “calving” off into the bay, we failed to see any larger portions fall off. 

Aialik Glacier

On the way back to the harbor in Seward we stopped for a buffet dinner on Fox Island, a small lodge.  It was an exhausted group that finally returned about 6:30 p.m. 

Leaving the Kenai Behind – Saturday, July 25, 2009

The weather improved somewhat as we traveled north back through Anchorage and on toward Glennallen – with a destination of Valdez on the Prince William Sound.  Valdez, another seaport, was the site of the massive 1989 Exxon oil spill. 

Past Anchorage, we found the mountains again.  Traveling along the Matanuska River, we had some good views of the Chugash Mountains.  We also passed the Matanuska Glacier, looking down on it from the mountain heights.  Shortly before stopping for the night, we took a mile nature hike at a recreation site that had pretty good views and information on the glacier. 

Tomorrow we head on to Valdez for a few days.