Heading Home

Greetings! 

After we left Homer we spent a few days in the Portage/Girdwood area. Mom and dad took a train ride to the Spencer Glacier.

The next day they took me with them as they visited the small town of Hope, not too much there except some great old buildings.

We were going to head to Valdez, but as mom and dad had been there before, they  decided it was time to leave Alaska for the long ride home. After some TERRIBLE road conditions giant potholes, ruts and gravel between the border of Alaska and Destruction Bay in the Yukon, I was so happy when we stopped for the night at the Cottonwood campground on the beautiful Klaune lake. Dad decided to go fishing on the shore and mom and I were surprised when he caught our dinner!!

A big five pound lake trout

We had so much fish that we invited a bicyclist from Germany to join us for dinner. After weeks of eating  soup and noodles, he was sure happy to have trout, grilled zucchini and risotto - and of course some wine!

I really had a good time at our next stop for 2 days  at Boya Lake Provincial Park.  Check out my photo op at the playground on Boya Lake - hope nobody gives me a push!

 We had a nice camping spot right on the lake.

One day we took a hike around the lake and saw some beaver dams, but no beavers. 

However, I did a double take when I saw this motorhome - check out the deck on top!

It was so hot I had to cool off in the lake.

The views around the lake were incredible. 

From there we headed down the Cassiar Highway, the alternate route home through British Columbia. Our primary reason for taking this route (other than it was a different route) was to go to Hyder, Alaska and see the bears! On the way we did see several young grizzly bears along the highway. I was wondering where their mother was and why she let them go out on the highway.

Hyder, Alaska is a very small town across  the border from Stewart, BC. It is so small and remote from the rest of Alaska that they stay on the BC time zone and use BC currency except at the US post office there.  There are two things to do in Hyder. One is to drive up a long, bumpy mountain road to see the Salmon Glacier.

But the real reason is to go to the bear viewing platform - a very long wooden deck built over a river full of salmon. The deck is staffed by National Forest rangers.While I got to see the glacier, I wasn't allowed to go on the bear viewing deck - so I had to rely on dad's pictures. I couldn't believe how many salmon were swimming up the river.

Look, the entire river is full of salmon swimming upstream.

Mom and dad waited for well over an hour before the bears decided it was time for dinner. Then a huge grizzly came out of the bushes

 heading for the river

You can see from his belly that he could afford to be selective in his fishing. He seemed to be searching for just the right one.

and then he caught it!

He headed back to shore so we could watch him eat it.

Delicious!

Think he wants more?

Yep - there he goes back for seconds

Mom and dad really had a good time watching the bears!

After Hyder, we just kept driving, stopping only to sleep each night . We got to the border in Sumas, Washington a few days later, and dad thought we would have an easy border crossing, as we did all of the other times - but mom was worried about the firewood dad insisted on bringing from Alaska. Guess who was right! 

It wasn't so simple as just turning the wood over and heading on our way. Instead mom and dad had to go inside the customs office, fill out a bunch of forms and wait until a custom officer had time to search the rv. I was inside by myself when the officer came in, luckily it was a lady so I didn't bark. She looked all over and left with 2 baking potatoes, 1 sweet potato and 1/2 an orange.   I wish mom had gotten a picture of dad as he had to carry the wood over the border to Canada, where a Canadian was only to happy to take it off his hands.

We were hoping to stay in the Seatlle area, but it was the week-end and we could find nowhere to stay - so we stopped north of Seattle at a casino for the night. 

Now we are in Portland for six nights. 

Adios,
Yuki

The Beautiful Kenai Peninsula

Hi-Yo Salmon, Away!!

We have spent over 2 weeks in the Kenai Peninsula, and the weather has been perfect! We spent a few days in Cooper Landing before moving on to five days in Soldotna, the salmon fishing capital - or otherwise known as combat fishing in July! Check out all the boats on the Kenai River!

and the fishermen side by side

We were here for Dad's 70th birthday so he could fish, however, his tennis elbow was so sore that he wasn't able to.  So instead we had a barbeque and feasted on fresh King Crab and filet mignon, yum!

Our next stop was Homer, at the tip of the Kenai peninsula. 

It was so beautiful here that we stayed for a week. We had a great view of the ocean from our RV. 

 I loved to sit and look out the window.

The best day was when I got to go with mom and dad on the ferry to Seldovia. I was so excited as this was my first trip on a boat. I even had my own seat!

Although I did get a bit worried when mom left me to go up on deck 

so I begged her to take me outside too

but that ocean scared me a bit and I was happiest  looking out the window at the great views.

We spent some time looking at all the birds on Gull Island.

I even saw an eagle!

But my favorite was the sea otters - I loved watching them float by me.

 Unlike other marine mammals, they don't have a layer of blubber to keep them warm. So they spend much of their time washing themselves in the ocean to help their fur remain waterproof and insulated against the cold water. 

 They even sleep floating on their back!

After about 2 hours we got off the boat in Seldovia.

We took a nice walk around the island, checking out all the sights.

Hey, no fair, give me some privacy please!

Seldovia is an old community, but only a few of the structures survived the 1964 earthquake.

Another day we drove to Ninilchik, an old Russian fishing community.

Mom and dad took an all day fishing charter boat to go fishing for halibut. They couldn't believe how much hard work and muscle it took to reel them in. They caught their limit, two each (actually dad caught three).While they were hoping for some 40+ pounders, they were happy that they only had to pull up these. This was the first time fishing for mom and most likely her last!

Homer, besides being famous for halibut fishing, is a beautiful town, nestled on the shore of a glistening bay, glaciers and mountains rimming the shoreline and active volcanoes looming in the distance.

The popular area of town is the Homer Spit, a 4.5 mile strip of sand and gravel brancing out from the mainland. Can you see it in the distance?

Homer has a protected deep water harbor for all the sea vessels. 

Mom and dad had fun walking on the boardwalks on the spit and eating great seafood.

Dad was wishing this was the fish he had caught!

All in all, a beautiful town...fantastic scenery through the lens of fireweed, the state flower. 

We enjoyed our stay in the Kenai Peninsula.

Adios, Yuki