Week 152 - The Kenai, Alaska - 07-12-2009

Comments from The Kenai,

This week the three of us visited the Kenai Peninsula, known by the locals as The Kenai. Oh, yeah, we first picked up Pete's sister Donnalee at the Anchorage airport, to make us three. The major cities on The Kenai are Seward, Soldotna, Homer and Kenai. We visited each of them.

Like the rest of Alaska The Kenai is filled with trees, lakes, rivers, mountains and is mostly unreachable by vehicles. But it is also flush with mountains with a good number of them extending right down to the ocean.

Anchorage, the largest Alaskan city, is a typical American community with all the normal businesses, stores and restaurants. Notice that it is 75 degrees at 9:00 pm when we drove to the airport to pick up Donnalee.

Here is Donnalee waiting for her Great Alaskan Adventure to begin.

Now it is 9:30 pm and we headed off to the Potter Marsh. This marsh was man-made when the Alaskan railroad was built on an elevated causeway that separated a meadow from the ocean. The causeway trapped the water which is now home to hundreds of species of wildlife.

1) A 1,550 foot boardwalk allows for close viewing without damage to the marsh. Some of the birds that make a home here are bald eagles, northern harriers, yellowlegs, arctic terns, pintails, Canada geese, red-necked grebes and Pacific loons. Moose, muskrats and an occasional bear frequent the area.

2) By 11:00 pm we stopped at Seward Highway milepost 100 for the night. In the morning, our friends Dave and Sandy, who had just returned from bear viewing at Brooks Falls, spotted us and stopped for a chat. Dave got some great bear photos that he has allowed us to share with you! Sorry, that will be next week .

Off to The Kenai; first stop Seward.

The mountains and lakes on the way to Seward, one of many Kenai seaports.

Every mile is a picture postcard. Yes, you get so used to it that you don't say WOW each mile, but very often.

The Salmon were predicted to start running on Saturday. This fellow hoped to get a head start on Tuesday.

Seward is at the head of Resurrection Bay, so named by the Russian explorer who landed here on Easter Sunday. 1) This cruise ship photo was taken at 4:36 am. The haze in the Kenai photos was due to fires both on the peninsula and others in the Alaskan Interior. 2) One of the churches in Seward.

There are a few hundred Kenai City RV sites right on the bay. Dry camping or hookups are available.

1) Donnalee befriends the wildlife. 2) There are numerous tours of the Kenai Fjords National Park that originate from Seward.

Donnalee graciously sponsored us for an 8-hour cruise to the Fjords and glaciers.

This cute little otter is nearly five feet long. Little?

The beautiful water color comes from a blend of ocean water and melting glacier ice.

Our tour included a visit to the Holgate glacier. The small boat in the left foreground is about 30 feet long. The glacier is several hundred feet tall. Glaciers calf, that is, chunks of ice break off. While we did not get to see a huge piece break, even what looked like tiny pieces made crackling sounds like thunder. Very fun!

The tour allowed us to see a number of birds and mammals. Gulls, puffins, seals, humpback whales, otters, bald eagles and some very elusive transient orcas were all on display.

Honest, there really are bodies connected to these tails.

From Seward we traveled to Soldotna. Our SOWERS friends are busy there at Solid Rock Bible Camp working the July project.

We dry camped along the Sterling Highway just south of Soldotna. There were moose moseying along the road in the evening.

On Friday we headed to Homer, "Halibut Fishing Capital of the World". We were checking out the town in preparation for our own halibut fishing charter. These lupines frame the hazy photo of the Kachemak Bay. We look forward to returning when it is clear.

Even with the fire haze, this view from the deck of the Land's End Restaurant is lovely. Land's End is at the very tip of the Homer Spit where all the fishing originates.

The famous Salty Dawg Saloon started as a cabin in 1897. Over the years it was used as a post office, grocery store, railroad station, coal mining office, school house, Standard Oil office and now a saloon.

A tradition of pinning signed One Dollars bills to the walls has created a very unique retirement plan for owner John Warren.

On Saturday we joined Captain Sean, of North Country charters, for halibut fishing. We shot a few photos on the trip out. But once fishing started we were so involved that we forgot to take any pics.

Probably all 16 aboard the charter caught their limit of two. 1) The three of us caught 17, but released 11 to bring home our six. Ours varied from 10 to 17 pounds which netted 38 pounds of fillets. 2) Our new friend Scott, from Texas, showed how the big boys do it. His single catch was a 95 pounder, around 5 feet in length. Sean's young lady deck hands, Amy and Skya, did a tremendous job of baiting our hooks, giving us tips, bringing in the catch and filleting them on the way back to port. Many thanks to Sean and his crew.

While we get 8 mpg, it was even cheaper to get a free 150 mile ride from Soldotna to Anchorage. After trying to unload the Mothership, we asked our driver Nick to get it on the ground.

We had a great week with Donnalee and we pray that your time was blessed as well. See you next week from Anchorage.

Love, Pete and Ellen

Photos from Jul 2009