Day 37 (7-7-12 - Moving to Seward)

                                                          Clam Chowder Mississippi Style

It's Saturday and time to wash clothes and clean the camper.  We moved to Seward, (130 miles). We had pretty scenery on the drive here with off and on rain.  We stopped at the Walmart near Sodotna and stocked up. 

Lauren lowered the other bed in the camper and put Ferny in it last night.  She was happy to hide up there.  It was like a new play ground for her.  She jumped in and out of the bed all night, shaking the whole camper.  We raised the bed back to the roof this morning and she meowed until we lowered it for her to jump back in.  She likes having her own personal space.
We heard a bang on the side of the camper this morning before we left Captain Cook State Park. A bird that was flying by, flew into the camper, fell to the ground,  and flopped around.  I hope he made it.  I wonder if it is the same bird that has been walking on top of our camper every morning.
We are staying at Bear Creek Campground.  It is the first campground that we have stayed at in 11 days that has any type of hookups, (this one has full hookups).  We don't have to ration the water and the battery power tonight. We have cable TV, this is very rare.  We found the Lawrence Welk Show.  I guess it takes a long time for TV to make it to Alaska.  We don't have the view of the beach, although, we  can see some mountains.
Ferny is enjoying drinking running water from the faucet. Ferny thinks that she is supposed to drink out of the faucet, not a bowl. She only gets a trickle of water from the faucet when we are don't have water hookups.   She is definitely not a conservatist.
We had fantastic razor clam chowder tonight that we made.  We found a recipe on the Diamond M Campground blog. We added Tony Chachere's to the recipe. YUMMIE!!!!  Lauren may have to go back clamming.  I hope we find some more good clam spotters if he goes again.  The clam chowder was worth all the work, at least it was for me, I just watched.

We saw two moose today, (momma and a baby) on the ride here.

                                         Last night, no tv to watch, so Ferny was in the box

pics: https://goo.gl/photos/seu3dCbAyLadQkfDA

Day 36 (7-6-12 - Captain Cook SRA)

As bad as we hated to leave Ninilchik, it was time to move on.  We moved about 70 miles north to the end of the road, we are staying at the Discovery Campground at Captain Cook Recreation Area.  We are camped on a bluff overlooking the Cook Inlet.  We have another gorgeous view.

As usual, before leaving Ninilchik, we woke up to the sound of rain on the roof of the camper.  When we arrived here it was mostly sunny.  It has clouded up again but is a lot warmer in the trees at this campground than it was on the beach at Ninilchik. 

For the last two mornings at Ninilchik, we have had a bird walk on the roof of the camper.  Ferny Kat ran around in the camper chasing this bird.  Ferny walked all over us, jumped from one side of the camper to the other, as the bird walked on top of the camper  It has been our alarm clock for the last couple of days.

This campground is in a beautiful forest with plenty of mosquitoes.  There are several eagles here but not like the bumper crop at Ninilchik

We hiked 6 and half miles today.  Obviously, there have been strong winds in this area recently.  There are a lot of trees blown down.  These downed trees turned the walking trail into an obstacle course.

We hiked deep into the woods.  It was nice to see some greenery.  I wore my bear bells and made Lauren carry my bear spray.  We walked down the bluff to the Swanson River.  The tide was out and it looked like a mud hole.  It will probably look better at high tide.

We encountered several dogs on the trail that were not on a leash.  I began to worry more about being dog bit instead of mauled by a bear. 

We saw plenty of moose poop on the trail but no moose.  We did see a couple moose on the road before we got here today.

Pics:  https://goo.gl/photos/hg6r6jNBFaHbmPpi7

Day 35 (7-5-12 - Clam Day at Ninilchik)

                                                                      First Razor Clam

We woke up the sound of rain again.  We thought, (kinda hoped),the camp host would back out on clam digging.  He was ready to go.  BJ, (camp host), had the bucket and the gun and was in for the hunt.

The other camp host was also on the beach looking for clams.  He could spot a clam a mile away.   He would look, draw a line, and say dig here.  Lauren would dig, and dig, and dig.  Finally, he would pull up a clam. The little fellows are sandy.  It took a lot longer to clean them than it took Lauren to dig them up.

We had about 40 razor clams.  We cooked a few of the clams for supper.  We cooked plenty of french fries, in case we didn't like the clams.  It was pretty good.  We are not giving up white perch for them.  Well, I guess we might, we have no more white perch, so we need another source of food. 

Dang, it's tough living on a fixed income.

                      
Pictures:  https://goo.gl/photos/ShvFrkKEYwA7RFKo9

Day 34 (7-4-12 - Ninilchik again)

We have had the furnace burning when we are inside and the campfire burning when we are outside on this 4th of July.  It has rained off and on and is it is chilly, same as yesterday.

We watched people digging razor clams again this morning.  The camp host is taking Lauren razor clam digging tomorrow.  He told us that the low tide will be about 11 am tomorrow and he will loan his gun to Lauren.  This way we will know if we want to buy our own.  He said that there is a camp host position opening July 15th here.  You get free camping and it pays $450 a month.  He told us to talk with the park ranger if we are interested.  This would be a great office with a picturesque views.

We have layered up today.  We had on under armour, jeans, and insulated jackets with hoodies.  We were at Glacier National Park a couple of years ago on the 4th.  We threw snowballs and were warm.  This is the coldest 4th of July we have ever experienced. 

It is fantastic to watch the fire works show here.  They shoot a roman candle up.  It is still daylight, you here the pop, and see the fire light up.  There is little color to the roman candle.  We get our money's worth is South Mississippi.  We light our roman candle, we see the sky light up, and we wipe the sweat from our brow.  We don't know how lucky we are,   Kinda getting home sick, NOT!!!

Pictures: https://goo.gl/photos/N82om9vZsaMSQYbn7

Day 33 (7-3-12 - Ninilchik)

Today, we have been wet and cold, then cold and wet.  It has been a cloudy, cold, rainy, almost miserable day.

We were laying in the bed listening to the waves crash behind the campsite around 3:45 am this morning.  This was so nice.  At around 3:50 am the people camped next to us, (from Pennsylvania), fired up their generator.  All for the relaxing sound of the waves crashing.

Our neighbors on the other side of the camper, (from Alaska), invited us to go razor clamming this morning.  We told them that this looks like work to us  and we would rather watch. We walked about a mile and a half up the beach this morning to watch them.

It is amazing to see so many people line the beach at low tide with shovels and a thing that looks like a post hole driver.  They call the thing that looks like a post hole driver a gun.  Lauren was excited again, thinking he would see a clam big enough that thay would have to "Choot em".    Our neighbors have enough clams to make a big  pot of clam chowder.

We were cooking elk steak and baked potatos when  our neighbors came over with caribou sausage for us to try. It was all delicious.

Lauren has enjoyed building the campfire with Amanda's wood.  It's a good thing that he didn't find a women like Amanda before me.

As I am typing this at 8:30 pm the rain is peppering the roof of the camper.

Pics: https://goo.gl/photos/WrQgLHFcQmC4wFoGA

Day 32 (7-2-12 - Homer to Ninilchik)

The waves are crashing behind our campsite on the Cook Inlet.  We have a fantastic campsite on the beach at Deep Creek SRA. The mountains are barely visible through the clouds. We can see the boats fishing outside our window.  We would be outside, but it is cold.  It is in the low 50's, partly cloudy, and the wind is Howling. 

We are at Ninilchik, which is 35 miles north of Homer.

We took a couple of strolls on the beach today.  The tide was way out when we got here.  Deep Creek surrounds one side of the campground and joins the Cook Inlet.  There is a gorgeous bluff behind the creek.

We walked up to the tractor launch and watched a boat coming in from the inlet.  A skidder backs the boat trailer in the water, the boat rides on the trailer, and the skidder pulls the boat out.  It is the most unique boat launch that I have ever seen.

This must be the razor clam digging capitol.  We saw several 5 gallon buckets of clams at different campsites.  The clams are about three times  as big as the oysters are at home.

I saw my first drift wood retriever.  A campsite next to the creek had a dog that went down the steep bank of the creek, started barking, found a piece of driftwood, and carried it up to the campsite.  As cold as it is here, I'm sure his finds, help keep the firewood stocked.

There are a lot more eagles here than Homer. We have seen almost as many eagles as we have sea gulls since we got here. We are  mesmerized by the eagles here.  The eagles flap their mighty wings to run off the sea gulls on the shore.  This gives the eagles the prime selection of the chume in the inlet.  I can't do anything but watch.  I have never seen a beach with eagles and sea gulls.

We noticed when it is low tide the birds flock to the beach and there are about 4 times as many boats fishing.  Looks like the locals and the birds know what is happening here.

After a  great day, we ate left over halibut.  We sat around the campfire,  birdwatching, (which I never thought I would ever do), we are ready to go to bed and hear the waves crashing,  I love to hear the waves when I am sleeping.

This is my favorite place since I left home.

Razor Clams

Pictures: https://goo.gl/photos/26pBaezKy39bJ7rr6

Day 31 (7-1-12 - Another great day at Homer Spit)

We strolled from the campground to the end of the spit then back again this morning.  It was 49 degrees, cloudy, and a light wind.   It was nice. 

We debated whether it was time to move on or to stay another day.  We decided to stay another day.

Lauren went fishing in the fishing hole.  He didn't get a bite.  There were 2 seals playing in the water and a huge golden eagle watching while he fished.  I took plenty of pictures.

I told him to try fishing behind the camper in the bay.  He didn't catch anything.  He skipped rocks to entertain himself.  The  fish weren't biting so he might as well have fun.

I cooked my homemade chili with the help of the generator.  It was the prettist view that I ever had cooking chili.  I hope that the chili taste as good as the view..

Today was the anniversary of daddy's death.  I mentioned this to Lauren as I was cooking the chili. It was cloudy, and a lot colder because the wind had picked up.  Lauren said  I bet Otha can do something about the weather.  All the sudden the wind slowed down and the sunshine came out.  It was fantastic.

After I cooked the chili, a truck pulled up and asked if we needed firewood.  They said that they would give us a good deal.  Of course, we were interested.  Lauren bought some wood, and by the way it was a good deal from 2 women in a truck. 

Lauren commented on the younger women's tatoos and found out she did it herself.  She had arms that were  bigger than a lot of men.  She has to be tougher than most men because she tatooed  herself. 

We  have noticed that there a lot of women cleaning fish in Alaska and we are impressed.  These women made us believe that these women are TOUGH and self sufficient. 

We also cooked Halibut tonight.  I hope the frozen halibut taste as good as the fresh.  The chili I cooked tonight will be for another meal.

The tide is a major event at Homer Spit.  The tide range is 28 foot.  We have the water lapping  right behind our camper then as the tide leaves you can walk a LONG way before you get your feet wet.  From what we read, this tide is more extreme than most.

We saw bald eagles,  a golden eagle, (which is rare in Homer) and seals in the fishing hole.  It appears that the seals caught more fish than the people fishing in the fishing hole.

Pics:  https://goo.gl/photos/fYQbS1GHMeyyS1nY6