Anchorage and back down to Anchor Point

July 20^th, Sunday

   Lin is unable to get the shocks finished, wrong size, so we have to wait til Monday am to get another set.  So we are walking gingerly in the RV as it is very unstable when the tires are off and we are up on just the stabilizers.  Feel like I’m on a boat!  Doing a few errands in town, looking for moose as we drive and some sight-seeing, but nothing too strenuous today.

Can't believe all the homeless that live on the streets in Anchorage!  They follow you when you come out of the grocery stores.  Had the manager tell this group to leave us alone when we were coming out of Fred Meyer Grocery.  They say they don't ask for money, but only for food.  But they are all sitting drinking beer and wine on the sidewalk.  Would have given them food from our groceries, but they didn't want what we had bought!   Wow.             

July 21^st Monday

   I’m excited today…it’s get my hair trimmed and highlighted day!!  I love it when someone else washes, highlights and does the fixings.  So spoiled.  Then off to get my nails done.  Beauty doesn’t rest because of vacations.  
 Here is the before and after!!

Lin is back at the RV finishing the shocks, so we can head out this week back to Homer. Got a little done on my quilt. 

July 22^nd, Tuesday

  Teaching classes for Maquet at Alaska Native Medical Center today.  What a beautiful hospital for the Natives here.  It is filled with their art on each floor.  There is a gift shop that you can buy some of the art.  Will try to take a few pics, but very busy doing the classes this week.

July 23^rd, Wednesday

   Early am class at Alaska Native Medical Center, back to the RV to pick it up and move on down the road closer to Anchor Point.  Yummy gluten free pizza for lunch, at the Moose’s Tooth.  What amazing pizza they make!! Love it!!

July 24th, Thursday

   Spent the night in the Soldotna area at the Wood Carvers parking lot.  He has wonderful work and we picked up a piece of this work.  It’s a burl knot that he made into a bowl.  I think that is how you pronounce and spell it.  It’s the burl knot off of a spruce tree.  We have several on the oak trees in our yard.  They take the knot off the tree, hollow it out, and make different types of bowls from it.  They are treated so you can use them for either decoration or putting food products in them.  Lin and I found one we really liked.  The owner had been out salmon fishing this past week and had extra and gave us a whole salmon!!  Wow!!  We cut it into 4 dinner sized pieces and are getting this chest freezer filled for the winter. 

    Drove up to Kenai to see some of the ocean, Cook Inlet area, hoping to spot a whale, beluga or just see the beauty.  Good thing we like the beauty as that is what I got pictures of.  A few sightseeing areas in Kenai, visitors center and then back to the RV to get on the road.

    

 On to Anchor Point this afternoon to meet up with friends there for a restful night and to bed early. Thank you Chevonne and Susan for having the best RV in Alaska!!                 Tomorrow is fishing for halibut.

July 25^th, Friday

   Lin heading out early, I would say, O-dark-early but that doesn’t happen here in summer Alaska.  Charter fishing for Halibut!  I want fish…I want fish…I want fish…maybe if I chant this today we will get enough to fill the chest freezer in here.  How many people do you know that go off in their RVs with a chest freezer in the LR?  The Barkleys!!

   Well they got at least 30 lbs of halibut today!! It is with the processor now.  It’s actually cheaper to let them gut, fillet and package than to try to do it ourselves.  Just hoping they don’t give me someone else’s fish.

  It's Paul Birdsong's Birthday, so we are toasting him in the RV shop this evening.  Meeting some wonderful people on this trip of a lifetime!! 

 Looking over our view tonight and hear a knock on the side of the RV.  The lady a few RVs over, saw the moose and I run outside with camera to get her pic.  She is running and didn’t bring her babies tonight, but I did get to watch her frolic around the marshy area for about ½ hour.  YEAH!!  She's frolicking in the fireweed flowers.  

  

July 26^th, Saturday

 A slight release on my headache that I have been struggling with the last 2 weeks.  Supposed to be sunny here today in Anchor Point, just a few miles north of Homer, AK.  Catching up on laundry and cleaning this am…whaaaa…at least I have time to get the blog caught up and post some pics on Facebook. 

Driving around Homer, Norman Lowell Gallery

July 16^th, Wednesday

   Decided to spend the day driving the roads in Homer area, just kept going on the East End road till we couldn’t go any further. The road was dirt, winding lots of potholes, but well traveled with gravel trucks and local cars. 

   Still no Moose or bear!!  I think they know we are coming and hide behind the trees?  The views from here of the Homer Spit and mountains beyond are again amazing!!  I need another word to describe them, maybe I will just post the pics and let you decide on the view?

   On the way back, decided to stop at the local Farmers Market, lady was buying beets with the tops and we asked how she cooked up the tops.  Said she didn’t and couldn’t eat all of them, so she pulled off the tops and handed them to us!  We love them, taste like spinach without all the grit and washing you have to do with spinach.  As we were leaving, Lin says the lady at the front, selling a children’s book, looks like the lady of the Discovery Channel show, “Alaska, the last Frontier”.  We watch it all the time and love the family and their trials.  She is Charlotte Kilcher, Otto’s wife and they live the homestead life.   Didn’t realize they live in Homer?  We asked if anyone told her looks like the lady on the show and she says,

That’s because I’m that lady!!” lol  

Had a good time talking to her, enjoyed looking at her children’s book that she illustrated and had to get one and have her autograph it.  Then she told us we had driven right by her place when we took that East End road to the end!!  Didn’t seem that far out of town, but I’m assuming in the winter, it would be quite the trek. Of course, after seeing this Igloo on the road, not sure how far out they are?  

  

July 17^th, Thursday

   The plan today is an art gallery, Norman Lowell Gallery just down the street from the RV park.

  He has painted for 50 years the landscapes of Alaska.  92 years old and still painting, his wife, Libby, by his side.  Wanted to see if we liked his paintings and maybe see if we could get at least one.  Had a wonderful time talking with him and his wife.  I loved his style of painting.  The originals are out of our price range, small ones go for over $20,000, but they are amazing.  We did get 2 of the Giclee Prints, which are reprinted and numbered on canvas like the originals, so when displayed, they look like an original.  We decided on a winter scene with the Aurora Borealis behind and a spring/summer scene with the Alaska state flowers, forget me nots in the foreground.  Both have cabins in them, Lin and I loved them both.  Now to find a place to hang them in the house!!

  He and Libby came to Alaska to paint the “wild North Country” as he calls it.  But the land captured him and inspired all these years.  They came in 1958 and homesteaded the area, painting and raising 5 children.  I loved going thru the gallery, talking to them and then walking thru their old homestead that is still standing and right beside the now log home they live in.

  Back at the RV, I got a few hours of sewing in, finished up a quilt top that was almost done, needed only the borders to be finished and started another one that I brought with us, already cut out.  18 blocks done before dinner! Had a wonderful view out my window again tonight. 

July 18^th, Friday

   Well, our time in Anchor Point is ending, time to get on the road again back to Anchorage.  Have classes to teach this upcoming week and want to get back to do copies for the classes (and get my hair done!! You know how important that is!!) 

 

  The road to Anchorage is long, crowded and windy (does that sound like a song?) with no animals in sight.  Good thing as with all the traffic, we couldn’t have pulled off to take pics.  So the elusive Moose is still out there.  Decided to head back to the same military base RV park at Fort Richardson to see if they are full.  Got hooked up, then headed out for pizza.  Moose Pass has the best according to Lin, the gluten free pizza is great.  Bought 2 so we have some for the freezer. 

 

July 19^th, Saturday

   Back in Anchorage today, woke up to the soft patter of rain on the roof.  Nothing sounds better than that, til you wake up and realize is vacation!! So a day to spend in the RV, catching up with the blog, computer work, bills (Yuck, they don’t go away cause you’re on vaca), and finally sewing (Yeah!!)  I do all the work first and savor the sewing part.  At least I can turn the music on while sewing and enjoy the time. Lin is working on the RV shocks, seems like the Canada and Alaskan roads take their toll on shocks. 

Kenai Peninsula

July 11, Friday Heading around Seward AK.

    Drizzling rain today, so driving around the town of Seward.  

It’s the city of murals…16 total on sides of buildings…so we searched out the murals.  

 Seward, Statehood mural, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Seward's statehood.

Our flag flys in Washington

This ones easy, the Iditarod Trail

  Ode to the commercial fisherman...

 This one was too cute, Senior Prom

 lots of wildflowers...It's acutally called the Wildflower Quilt

A photoshop memory of lots of times in Seward

  

 these 2 were near the Sea Life Aquarium that we did the next day.

 View up the mountain by the Sea Life Aquarium.  I love the way the fog is covering the mountain.

 These are the Fog Woman, with Raven releases the Sun and Moon.

 these are illustrating how Aviation has affected Alaska.

 and the last one was about the sea life surrounding the area.  It was the hardest to find, we went around the block at least 3 times looking for it.

Walked the strip, quilt and Yarn shops for sure. Tried a Nature store and found a great new gluten-free flour.  Home to the RV to try it out on biscuits!  Will let you know how that turns out.

July 12, Saturday

    Sea Life Aquarium today, lots of Puffins, Sea Lions, fish and a few lectures on the area and how they reacquaint the sealife back into their environment when they have been beached, infected or the young abandoned. 

 This is the view out toward the mountains in Seward.

 Our new home for a few days in Seward Military Base Resort.  This has been one of the most beautiful parks we have stayed at.

July 13, Sunday-Leaving Seward, heading to Soldotna

   Not a long drive today, trying to get toward Soldotna to get the wheel bearings looked at, the only RV repair place on the Kenai Peninsula.  It’s only a short 60 miles, so we are thinking to just find a place to stay the night on the side of the road.

  Alas, that idea didn’t work, the road was under construction when we got close to Soldotna, so stayed in an RV fishing park for the night.  Decided this am to go ahead and head to Homer area instead, this RV place seems a bit “shady”, so we think it will be better when we get back into Anchorage. 

    

July 14, Monday-Soldotna to Homer this am.

    Its’ raining again this morning, a very light drizzle…I can tell that if I lived where it rained so much, I would need to learn new raining terms…drizzle, heavy downpour, cloudy with rain, sun with rain. Yuck!!  I am missing the SUN!!!

   Driving the road from Soldotna to Homer, trees on both sides of the road, glimpses of lakes, rivers and small steams on both sides, but no moose!!  I want wildlife!!  Stopped for a few minutes at a Wood Carvers site.  He does an amazing job, Scott Hanson, moved from Minnesota to Alaska years ago and has his own shop here now.  Only takes orders for bears, moose carvings and some he sells in his shop.  I love his work, we may stop back on the way home for a small carving to put at my front door. 

   Found a spot in Anchor Point, 15 miles north of Homer, to settle down for a few days.  What a peaceful and quilt place.  Met another couple here from San Antonio, they are on the way back to the lower 48 (see I’m turning into an Alaskan now) in a few weeks.  He has been fishing here and got several Halibut this last week.  Lin is thinking about a trip out on the Inlet for Halibut.  Can’t decide whether to go catch some or just buy it here from the fish processing plants.  Drove to Homer and down the Spit to sit and watch the fisher-people, the shops coming in, but the crowds here are crazy!!  Stopped for dinner at Captain Pattie’s, the scallops and halibut were amazing.  Decided to head back to our RV as the crowds are too much after so much peace and quiet.  Nice time sitting outside with other RVers’ and just enjoy watching out for moose this evening. 

 

 July 15, Tuesday-Anchor Point AK

   What a view out our back windows this am!!  We backed up on the Cook Inlet, great area of plains grass between the Inlet and us, where the moose and the caribou play…except as I sit here typing, no moose in our back yard this am.  I do love all the windows open and the surrounding view though.  I can see the ships on the water, and Mt Redoubt across the Inlet is clear and covered in snow.