A few hodge-podge pics

Here's a few miscellaneous pictures for ya.

Day Twelve

Just to let you all know, the vacation (and the blog) has reached it's final day. It's Wednesday and we are at the Anchorage Airport awaiting our flight back home. It will be Thursday morning 5:00 am when we arrive Detroit Slum City. Thanks to all of you who followed our blog, and all who sent comments and e-mails. Congratulations to Bob & Lindsey & girls on the addition of Eli to the family! Thank you Jessie & Zarah & kids for taking care of Homer while we were gone. See you all soon. Tony, Angie, Hunter, & Maggie

Day Eleven

Today we sadly had to turn our RV in. We then walked all over town(Anchorage), did some shopping, had some meals. We had halibut and salmon chowder and a big ol' Elk Burger. Good eats. We rented some bikes in the evening and took a ten mile coastal rail trail. We're pretty whipped now and just chillin' at a hotel. Got a great view of the Chugach Mountains from here, will be sad to leave tomorrow night. ~T

Day Ten

I'll keep this short, Angie needs the computer. We headed North this morning to Portage. We took a boat tour out to get up closr to the glacier. The lake we were out on was actually created from the melting glacier. It was pretty cool but Al Gore would have had a fit with all the global warming. Later we headed back up to Anchorage and north to Palmer for dinner, camping in a pretty secluded spot by another glacier-fed river. Tony

Day Nine

We decided to stay another day at Kenai Lake. We finally got a rainy day. It was okay though as we needed some rest. We did some laundry, talked to some locals, and took a late evening hike trying to find some more wildlife, didn't see much though, just more fish. Heading uptoward Anchorage tomorrow.

Day Eight

Well we made our way back to Cooper Landing, AK and found a beautiful spot to camp on the Kenai Lake & Quartz Creek. The sockeye salmon were so thick I actually reached down and grabbed one. There were rainbow trout darting around too. Lots of privacy at this campsite. Unfortunately no bears seen here, although the host said there were a lot of problem bears this summer at the campground. Have met some very nice and/or interesting people here. Angie's giving me a hard time because I just keep talking to everybody I see. Good way to find out info. Tony

Day Seven

I think yesterday was day 7 but who knows? Well we stuck around Homer all day. We walked around the shops for a while and I decided to take a half-day halibut boat out. The half day ones just go out to a "chicken hole" (they call the smaller halibut chickens), but it still took 1 1/2 hrs each way. We fished for 3 hrs. I caught 4 but released two, as two is the limit. Halibut sells for $15 lb here, not sure what it would be in MI. Today we're not sure where we'll go. Hoping and praying the weather hold out a few more days. It's been nothing but sun the last few days. Not looking forward to leaving next week but trying not to think about it. I don't think I'll post tomorrow as we're probably staying in a more remote area tonight. God Bless, Tony

Day Five (& maybe 6)

No bear pics means no bear. Seriously I saw one black bear on my fly out bear viewing, and that was not even worth the picture. I must admit I was disappointed about it but I had to look at the bright side. I had the most scenic plane ride ever, saw four moose during the flight (one was a big bull standing in a creek). Also have met some friendly people. Took some video of the mountains and ocean inlet, Mt Redoubt, and salmon so thick you could walk on them. We made our way to Homer afterwards (Thursday), saw a moose close to the road in a creek. Homer's a great little place for tourists. We are at the very end of the Homer Spit, a 3.5 mile long man-made stretch of land extending into the Cook Inlet. Great views of the sunset as we are right on the beach. Today we will probably just walk the Spit and do some shopping. We're staying here again tonight. Enjoy the pics! ~T

Day Four

We reluctantly left Seward this morning, backtracking north then west through Moose Pass and Cooper Landing. We stopped several times to take in the views, truly God's country. We tried taking a 22 mile "alternate" route known for it's high density of brown bear and moose but after just four miles we decided we better turn around as the rented RV sounded like it would fall apart on the rough dirt road. Our agreement says we must keep it on pavement, but these roads keep calling me. We eventually found our way to Soldotna and found a spot to camp at the next city, Kenai. We are at Beluga Lookout RV Park. It's on a bluff over looking the Cook Inlet to the west. The sun is about to set and it is an amazing view. We haven't seen any wales but have seen a lot of harbor seals up by the beach. The weather was sunny all day and in the mid 60's. Hoping for good weather tomorrow, my big day. Chow, ~T

Day Three

Tuesday was another awesome day in Alaska. Woke up to dark clouds but God blew them out of the way and we had plenty of sun off and on. We decided to spend the day around Seward, a major port town. We stayed at the same campground as the previous night. No bears thru the campsite today but we took a hike to Exit Glacier (the blue ice b/w the mountains in the picture)which is about 10 miles from here. We saw lots of moose tracks (no not the ice cream) and a big old pile of moose turds. Turns out I should have gathered them because every gift shop we stop at sells them! Later we went to downtown and walked some more, poor kids. Went to the Seward Sea Life Exhibit. Funny, that commercial says, "When's the last time you took your daughter to the aquarium... on a Tuesday?" Huh, right there Buddy! Anyway we walked along the shore later and saw salmon jumping out of the water, a loon catch and swallow a fish, and an awesome sea otter floating on his back chowin' down on a clam or something. We sat outside a coffee shop sippin' coffee and taking in the awesome back drop. I told Angie,"Yeah, I think I could do this every day." Probably wouldn't say that when there's 8 ft of snow on the ground. Angie took some pics of an old building she wants to buy (keep dreaming !!$$!!) and turn into a coffee house/bookstore/antique shop/scrapbook store. She couldn't decide, just wants to live here. Wednesday we'll head towards the town of Soldotna. Still praying God will supply us a moose, or two. No sure if I'll post the next day or so, depends on wi-fi. So far our stinkin' Verizon won't pick up a signal, guess they didn't send their people here. Til next time, Riding the wave, Tony

Day Two

Alright peeps, can it get any better than this? Not in this lifetime. We woke thismorning to steady rain. I checked the forecast and it said more rain. We prayed for sun and sun is what we got. We picked up our motorhome, filled up on groceries, and drove a few hours, stopping several times to take in the beautiful scenery. It is simply breathtaking, better than I ever imagined. It was plenty clear to see all the mountains and lakes. We stopped at a reserve where they keep injured animals just in case we didn't see any wild ones. It was pretty neat but nothing compared to what we witnessed this evening. We got a campsite in front of a mountain stream. We were here about an hour. I was outside messin' round when I saw two girls running up the bank screaming, "Mom, bear bear!!!" I thought they were just playing around and laughed it off, til I saw the thing coming my way. I ran to the motorhome and told Angie,"camera, bear, camera, bear!!" I ran back out and got a couple shots until the thing wouldn't stop advancing so I came back in until it veered off the other way. Some old guy with a camera tried folllowing it like a moron. It was a decent-sized brown male but probably just a few years old, as the head was kind of narrow and ears forward. He was all of 500+ lbs though. Everyone at the campground was yelling and screaming so obviously this was pretty a pretty rare opportunity. Wow, not bad for only being in Alaska for 24 hrs. If I died tomorrow I'd be happy just witnessing today. Thank you God. We are truly blessed. ~T.

Day One

Whew! We made it! We're in Alaska. It's been one cazy long day. God has been good though. We stayed in Novi last night and got off to an early start thismorning for Detroit metro. We went to a parking place and the shuttle driver had never heard of Alaskan Airlines. He took us to the right terminal but some lady in charge said it was at the other terminal. So we took a shuttle to the other teminal. But no, it's at the original terminal, or is it ? Who knows? Apparently we are the only people who have ever taken this Airline. Anyway after we find it I realize during the confusion I lost my backpack which has EVERYTHING we need, maps, directions, reservations, laptop, even our car keys. After running full speed retracing my steps a worker tells me it's in the elevator and that they called the cops to report a suspicious abandoned bag. Amazingly it was still there some 20 minutes after I left it, in Detroit mind you. Funny thing is... if it was dangerous, why didn't they block off the elevator and area? We ran all the way to our gate and just made the final boarding call. About 5000 miles later, we're a little whipped, but excited none the less. Tomorrow we'll go get our motorhome and hit the pavement. I'll try to add some pics as we get them. Tony