Trips by Adventure: August 2013

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Trip to Alaska and West Coast

August 30, 2013 – Up and off for a shower. The sun is out and you can see the mountains. A Royal Caribbean cruise ship is in the harbor. We had lunch in Seward at Subway. They are everywhere. Seward has a large harbor surrounded by mountains and glaciers. It was a very important harbor in the 1900 gold rush days. Many a gold seeker came here to start their search for gold in northern Alaska and the Klondike of Canada. College football has started with Alabama and Tennessee both playing tomorrow. The forecast is for rain tomorrow so football will be watched. This time zone thing makes ESPN game day come on at 5 am and Alabama on at 1:30 pm. We will have football for breakfast.

Downtown Seward looks different without rain

Large harbor coming into Seward.

Lots of RVs on bay and cruise ship down the way

Glacier along bay

Port area of Seward

Royal Caribbean in port

Along port area in Seward

Friday, August 30, 2013

Trip to Alaska and West Coast

August 29, 2013 -- Rain , Rain, 52 F . It looks like we will have rain all day. That’s ok -its football season. We are watching – North Carolina vs South Carolina and later Vandy vs Old Miss. We fired up the oven and cooked biscuits and added eggs and bacon. Looks like a potholder may get made today. This afternoon it stopped raining and we drove around town.

Downtown Seward on a rainy day

Downtown Seward, AK

Main Building of Seward Military Resort

RV site at Seward Military Resort

Trip to Alaska and West Coast

August 28, 2013 – We are now in Seward, AK. We departed Homer, AK about 11:15 am and arrived Seward 5:00 pm. The Seward Military Resort has an RV park (water and electric at each sites and dump on grounds) cabins, condos, cable TV, and wifi. The RV park is just a parking lot be has everything you need. Resort fees are based on rank. We, also, have phone service. It has started raining. We just finished setting up the trailer. It was great timing.

Trip to Alaska and West Coast

August 27, 2013 -- Up and looking forward to touring Homer, AK. Where is by coffee cup. What a beautiful town. It is surrounded by mountains, water, glaciers, and volcanoes. However, it does get snow (50 inches) and cold in the 20’s and below. Oh, well you can’t have sunny white beaches and emerald blue water everywhere. We have decided to move to Seward, AK tomorrow. It is about 115 miles away. There is a military FamCamp/ resort there. We had Mexican food for lunch. It was great; however, I was hoping for Halibut Tacos but they were not on the menu. As in many places in Alaska the food and gas are expensive here. Homer is a tourist town for Halibut fishing.

Nice boat if had new plywood

A fixer upper just needs some new plywood

View of bay at Homer, AK

Just a small marina to fish for Halibut

Waterfront businesses in Homer, AK

Tide is out in Homer, AK

Tide is out

Trip to Alaska and West Coast

August 26, 2013 – We departed Anchorage about 11:30 am and arrived in Homer, AK at 6 pm. What a beautiful drive along Cook’s Bay with mountains surrounding the bay and several glaciers on the mountains. Our campground in Homer- Oceanview RV Park- sits on the bay and has a great view. You can go to the beach if you like cold water and black sand. They can have tides up to 39 feet. Today, it is only going to be 14 feet with 2 lows and 2 highs. There are warning signs along the beach to not walk to for out on the beach because some places are like quicksand and the tide comes in ever 6 hours.

View from highway from Anchorage to Homer.

Fireweed- is all over Alaska. It is bright red/pink. As a winter predictor it starts to
turns to what looks like cotton. A lot looked like cotton near Homer

Oceanview RV Park, Homer, AK

Trip to Alaska and West Coast

August 25, 2013 – Sunny and 45 F. I am looking forward to a great day. Jo Ann feels better than yesterday. We need to go to the BX, use internet, and purchase a way to backup our pictures and blog entries. Also, purchase some birthday cards for our September children. We went to Anchorage and walked around. It is a pretty city setting on Cook’s bay. It has hanging flower baskets on each light pole up and down their main street (4th Ave) and in their parks. We took a trolley ride (about 1 hr.) around town. It was a great overview of the town. We briefly got to see the top Mt McKinley. It had a pink glow from the sun. It was a very pretty sight. Tomorrow, we plan to go to Homer, AK. We will be coming back to Anchorage in about 8 days.

City Trolley

Seaplane Marina

Main Street Anchorage 4th Ave in front of Visitor's Center

General aviation airport and seaplane lake

5th Ave Downtown Anchorage

Engine No 1 Alaska Railroad

Trip to Alaska and West Coast

August 24, 2013 – 7 a.m. - Coffee is making. It is overcast and 52 F. It is forecast to be sunny and in the 60’s F. Jo Ann has a sinus headache so she is staying in bed. I went to the BX and used the internet. I got our e-mails and balanced our checkbook. Also, I purchased us an oven thermostat and food strainer. This afternoon I walked Prissy around the campground. She had a great time smelling, looking and eating grass. Jo Ann, this evening, is feeling better after some meds. Tonight I got to watch a great TV program about the banjo. I have a long way to go to get good at playing my banjo. My potholder making has been slow – like none. Jo Ann is still knitting and reading through the Bible in a year. Hopefully, tomorrow she will feel better and we can go to downtown Anchorage.

Trip to Alaska and West Coast

August 23, 2013 – We are up at 8 am having coffee with 53 F and no rain. We have come down out of the mountains so it is warmer. Anchorage is surrounded by mountains which makes it very pretty. Today, we will look around the base and see if we can find a map of the base and Anchorage. We need to wash clothes again and shop for a few groceries. We have about 10 TV channels and no wifi. It looks like phone service is available. You can hear the airplanes again today but they do not fly directly over the FamCamp. They have F-15s and F-22s here. While we were in Denali we put pillows in our overhead vents. It has made a real difference in the warmest of the trailer. Also, we covered some of the trailer upholstery with clear packing tape to keep Prissy from scratching on it. As we were pulling out of our campground on the way to the store we had a moose walk cross the road in front of us. You do not need to go on a wildlife tour to see wildlife. We got the clothes washed and shopped at the commissary. Also, we found a UPS store on base that we could have Peggy and Alan send our meds from Pensacola Hospital. $3.94 a gallon for gas is the lowest price we have had since entering into Canada July 20^th. What a beautiful sunny day. We sat out on a bench in the sun while washing and drying our clothes. However, this evening it is raining again. The forecast is for sun all weekend. Maybe we will be able to see Denali (Mount McKinley) 125 miles north from Anchorage airport tomorrow.

Moose by Famcamp

The Fly Agaric is dangerously poisonous and should NEVER be tasted.

Growing next to our camp site

Our Famcamp site

Trip to Alaska and West Coast

August 22, 2013 – 47 F fog and clouds. Today, we move to the big city of Anchorage, AK (pop 290,000). We will try to stay in the Elmendorf AFB FamCamp. I have not called them yet to see if they have space. We drove from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm to get to Elmendorf FamCamp. There was road construction and rain most of the way. It is $24.00 a day for power and water. There is a dump station on site. We paid to stay to Monday but we could stay 30 days if we wanted. It is usually a 14 day limit but we are late in the season. There are lots of empty sites. Had grill cheese sandwiches, chicken noodle soup, and cold slew for dinner. We were in bed by 9:00 pm.

Trip to Alaska and West Coast

August 21, 2013 – Rain and 44 F. Slept in and went to see the Park's Visitor Information Center and Dog Sled Demo. It was great fun and the dogs were the stars of the show. You could pet the dogs, visit their pups and watch them pull a sled. Each dog can pull about 150 pounds. The dogs in winter are used to patrol the park, move supplies for work projects and supply tourist here to sled, cross country ski, climb the mountain or just visit. The temperature may get down to -50 F during winter. I am reading Jack London’s book “Call of the Wild” so it was great fun to see the sled dogs.

Inside Visitor's Center

Display in Visitors Center

Even Sled dogs like their ears scratched

Pups - Jo Ann is scratching mom above

I'm ready to go

Dogs pulling sled demo

Sled used in demo. It has wheels on it

Home sweet home year around

All I need is some snow and dogs. Jo Ann did not get dogs in picture

Moose along road as we were driving back to our camp site

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Trip to Alaska and West Coast

Bull Moose having dinner near road

August 20, 2013 -- Rain, Rain go away. 49 F. Today, we go on a 54 mile bus ride into Denali Park to see wild life. I hope there is some to see. The bus ride was long, muddy and foggy but we did manage to see some wild life. Grizzly Bears, Moose, Caribou and Ptarmigan were all spotted. We got home late and to bed we went. It was snowing on the upper levels of the mountains. Our campground closes September 15^th. The snow starts here around September 15^th many years.