AFTER DENALI

Lee & I at the Indian village.


Unbelievable that it has been a week since I posted last. Time does fly when you're having fun.

We left Cantwell and drove to Fairbanks. We liked Fairbanks a great deal...it was large enough that there were things to do, but not so large that it felt like you were in a big city.

While we were there we did a riverboat tour that really didn't deal with the river as much as the people around Fairbanks. Susan Butcher's (Iditarod champion, she passed away from leukemia in 2006) husband gave a talk about their kennels and a little about Susan. He gave a demonstration with the sled dogs. We also had a bush pilot take off and land right next to the riverboat. We then traveled down the river to an Indian village. Indians from several regions of the state gave informational talks about their dress, preparation of salmon, their houses (no, not igloos) and just about their lives. Very interesting and not commercialized at all.

The next day Lee, Burl and I went to the University of Alaska to the Museum of the North. Fantastic museum with a lot of information. Next we went to a automobile museum that probably had one of the most impressive collection of cars that we have ever seen.

We left Fairbanks behind and traveled to Whitehorse, where we stayed at a hot springs and lazed around for the afternoon and evening. Today we traveled to Watson Lake in the Yukon. Pretty little town of about 400 people but very busy as it is a major crossroads to Alaska and other parts of the Yukon and BC.

We are now meandering our way back home.

Denali

Incredible!



I don't know how else to describe Denali. It is mountains, it is water, it is trees it is tundra, it is animals, it is big. We took an eight hour bus ride into the park 66 miles and that was just a small portion of it. We saw eight grizzly bears,
two different moose, dall sheep and several caribou including a mother and baby.

Halibut Fishing

Hey, we finally got to go out fishing from Homer on Saturday. We had fourteen people on board and all filled their limit. The Swiger's from Oregon filled their limit last only so they could fish longer. Not large halibut but in the 20 to 30 lb. range. Very yummy!

We stayed and rested in Homer on Sunday. Took a long drive along the Kachemak Bay. We went to a beautiful alpine meadow with great views of glaciers across the bay and on the way back to town there was a moose hiding in the trees. The picture of the moose is not very good, but we did see him.

A unique find was a winery near Homer. This winery imports its juices from other areas then adds local berries to make fruit wines. Very good and unusual fruity wines. Maybe this would make a good wine run!

Be sure to check out Lorraine's blog as she posts beautiful pictures and different information than I do. The address http://lllbalaska.blogspot.com/

Good night all from Wasilla, Alaska!

Update on Halibut Fishing

Well, we didn't get to go halibut fishing in Seward. The waves were 12 to 15 feet and the wind was blowing 30 knots so the company canceled our trip. We rescheduled for a charter out of Homer, which is where we're at now. We fish tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be able to give you good news then.

Beautiful trip over here from Seward. The lake picture is of a small lake at the junction of the Seward and Sterling highways, lots of birds and mountains. The picture of the mountain in the distance is of Mt. Redoubt, an active volcano which last erupted January, 2009. Hope that it keeps quiet a little longer.

Fishermen need to rest so good night to all.

Wildlife Cruise

Had a spectacular day! We went on a five hour wildlife cruise in the Resurrection Bay and visited the Alaska Marine Life Center. We didn't take photos in the center but we sure did on the cruise. I'll post a couple of the more exciting sights.

The bottom photo is of two sea otters playing, the other is of a whale breeching, she had a youngster with her. We were able to watch them for at least 15 or 20 minutes, but it is very hard to get them to pose.

Tomorrow we off to catch halibut, if the weather will let us. Stay tuned for the pictures.

Anchorage

The photo was at the zoo yesterday ... you're free to make your own caption.

Nice city, but I am ready to get back to the wild side of Alaska....although we were at a botanical garden this morning and a moose walks by very casually. Tomorrow we leave for Seward where we have scheduled our halibut fishing trip on Thursday. We should be out about 12 hours 2.5 hours out/2.5 in and 7 hours of fishing. I can't wait.

The other photo is of Anchorage from Earthquake Park, a park that has sign boards about the 1964 Alaskan earthquake (9.2). Very little loss of life but immense damage to the area.

4th of July

We decided to stay in Anchorage for the 4th of July. As we were traveling down the Glenn Highway today it appeared that half of Anchorage was leaving town. We have three and half days here to explore and recuperate, not that we need to do this as this trip has had very little stress.

Have a wonderful 4th everyone!