Day 44 (7-14-12 - Quartz Creek Campground)

The headlines are true, It's Cold!!

This is the warmest day that we have had in weeks.  We had a high of 63 with partly sunny skies.  It was nice for most of the day and then the rain set in.

We slept until 8:30 this morning.  We decided to cook lunch instead of breakfast.  We cooked hamburgers over the camp fire grill.  This is our last pack of Fortenberry meat.

We drove 19 miles on a gravel road to Skilak Lake.  There were some pretty views around the lake.  The only wildllife sighting was a coyote.  On the way back to camp, we stopped for ice cream at Wildman's.

Lauren went fly fishing in Quartz Creek.  He didn't last long.  It got cloudy, cold, and windy.

We had a nice visit with the family that we met at Deep Creek.  They happened to be camping at Quartz Creek Campground.  They were the ones that told us about Quartz Creek Campground.  They cooked a delicious cherry cobbler in a dutch oven over the fire pit.  It was great to see them again.

Pictures   https://goo.gl/photos/3cdLKn7nTYCZ8X7KA

Day 43 (7-13-12 - Seward to Quartz Creek)

We woke up to the sound of eagle chirps and Ferny Kat purring this morning.  This is the adventure we dreamed of.  No generators and no doors slaming. I think moving across the bay was worth the isolation for a least a good nights rest.

Lauren was slow to get up.  He had some sore spots, (probably a bunch of sore spots from snagging yesterday), on his body.  He looked really tired when he went back salmon snagging this morning.

Lauren must stick out like a, "I'm not from here,"  kind of guy because for two days, there have been several guys walk up and give advice.  They have offered him their fishing pole to snag with and even give him treble hooks.  The generosity of these guys is unbelievable.

After a couple of hours with no snagged salmon, we decided to move on.

We moved 46 miles to Quartz Creek Campground.  

Our friends that we met at Deep Creek highly recomended this campground.   We are glad that we went out of our way to stop here.

We were agravated by the ravons when we got here   We acted like we were picking up rocks and throwing at them.  They flew away. Now we know what to do.

We rode around downtown Cooper Landing.  We had a milkshake at Wildman's.  Lauren had a pineapple milkshake and I had a chocolate milkshake.  Lauren  reminisced about me fixing his pineapple milkshake at Zesto's.  He said that this was the second best milkshake that he ever had.  I think he is right.

We walked around at the Russian River Ferry.  We met a man who is the manager of the Russian River Ferry that is originally from Laurel, Ms.  He went to PRC in 1960.  It was pretty cool to meet someone that went to PRC in Alaska.  I bet that it is rare to have 3 alumni from PRC at the Russian River Ferry in Alaska.

Ferny is purring again.  The three of us are happy.  Only one of us purrs.  Gotta love it!!

Pics https://goo.gl/photos/Do6upBUzUMr7zaa1A

Day 42 (7-12-12 - Lauren tried Snagging)

It was still raining today but the wind was calmer.  Lauren decided to gear up and try snagging.

We rode across the bay to Spring Creek Campground and watched people snagging.  The tide was in and the waves were rough.  Lauren watched for a while and saw several people that were sucessfully snagging fish. We saw salmon jumping out of the water. He decided to give it a try.  He cast for 4 minutes and lost his first treble hook.  He cast for about another 10 minutes and the line broke at the reel.  His 30 year old 808 reel was slipping and groaning.  It was time to rethink this.

After 3 trips to True Value Hardware he felt he had the appropriate snagging gear. We moved across the bay to Spring Creek Campground.  It is another city campground, but is more isolated than the others. There is 1 other camper here tonight. 

We set up camp and grilled our first King Salmon.  We thoroughly enjoyed it.

Lauren tried snagging with his new rod and reel.  He caught a lot of sea weed and lost plenty of hooks. He finally snagged some kind of fish, but it was not a salmon. 

If it keeps going like this, we will be going back to True Value Hardware tomorrow.

Pics: https://goo.gl/photos/C3bf4VJmiDcW6vta8

Day 41 (7-11-12 - A rainy day in Seward)

It is a miserable, cold, wet day in Seward.  It stated raining yesterday evening and has not stopped.  According to the forecast, it is going to be this way until Saturday.   We are so happy that we had not planned a cruise today.

We went to the Alaska SeaLife Center and the True Value Hardware Store.  The sea life center had good habitat exhibits.  The True Value Hardware Store had a mixture of stuff, such as hardware, clothes, household goods, fishing goods, charters, etc.  It was an interesting shopping experience.

We had planned on pulling out the grill and cooking Salmon tonight.  Mother nature changed our plans.  We did a lot of thinking and researching.  Lauren found a recipe that kinda reminded me of momma cooking daddy salmon patties.  We both got in our tiny little kitchen, did some slicing and dicing, added some secret seasonings and cooked what we call salmon patties.  Man, they were good.

This Louisiana Woman and Mississippi Man have our own unique alaska cuisine.

Pictures   https://goo.gl/photos/Sp7xaQjHDno42npv9

Day 40 (7-10-12 - Kenai Fjords Glacier Cruise)

We had a fantastic time today.  We boarded a 7 1/2 hour glacier cruise on a boat named, Spirit of Adventure.  The day started out beautiful.  The last 2 hours of the cruise it rained.

We stayed on the outside top deck for most of the trip.  Standing in the cold was well worth the views.  We went inside when it started to rain and took more pictures from the rain covered windows.  We loved the scenery so much that we exhausted both of the batteries in the camera.

I prepared well for this trip.  I put on my Scopolamine Patch and the sea bands that Captain Lane gave me when we went Halibut fishing.  I never experienced any motion sickness on this cruise. 

There were several people that got sea sick.  I overheard a crew member calling and reporting that there was a woman unresponive.  The word unresponsive gave me flashbacks of working.  She also said that a paramedic was taking care of her and that the paramedic thought the woman was sea sick.  They carried her to the back deck, propped her up on lifejackets.  She eventually was able to get off the floor.  I sure did feel sorry for her and all the others who were sea sick.  I know first hand how miserable it is.

We cruised from Resurrection Bay to the Gulf of Alaska.  We saw jelly fish, sea lions, sea otters, seals, puffins, bald eagles, mew gulls, mountain goats, dall's porpoise, humpback whales,and  killer whales.  We saw several beutiful glaciers, including Bear Glacier, Aialik Glacier, Holgate Glacier, Pederson Glacier,and numerous others that were not named. 

Glacier calving sounds like thunder.  You look toward the sound and see a large piece of the glacier fall into the water.  It is an amazing experience. 

We ate out for the first time since we have been on this trip.  The cruise had a buffet of prime rib and wild salmon.  They even had prime rib that was well done.  I was suprised because most prime rib is rare and I won't eat it.  They also had a desert bar of brownies, fruit salad, and cheese cake. The food was delicious.  Hopefully I'll have enough exercise in this week to cover the extra calories that I ate.  I definitely got my money's worth.

The crew said that they scooped up glacier ice from the bay and were selling cocktails with glacier ice added.  Of course, I had to have one.  They ran out of margaritas, so we got a puffin on the rocks.  The ice looked like a big chunk of glacier to me. It was pretty good.  Lauren doesn't believe that they actually got the ice from the glacier.  But I believe.

The Spirit of Adventure was true to it's name.  We had an unforgettable adventure today.


We walked back from the pier to our camper in the rain.  We have a 60 percent chance of rain tonight.  We are settled in for the night.

                                                                Glacier Calving

Pictures: https://goo.gl/photos/r4nuUhdF1LJwdjPr5

Day 39 (7-9-12 - Exit Glacier)

We hiked 7.5 miles and climbed 146 floors, (per Fitbit), at the Exit Glacier.  We are tired but really enjoyed the hike.  The first hike we took this morning was a ranger guided hike with Lou.   We hiked the Glacier Edge Trail.  It was slow paced for us but we learned a lot about Glaciers.

The other hike we took on our own, was to Marmot Meadows on the Harding Icefield Trail.  It was 1.4 miles up the mountain with an increase of 1,558 foot in elevation.  Another tough hike, but well worth it.  We could see the blue color in the glacier that looked like ribbons carved in the ice.  Very nice and well worth the hike. We saw a couple of marmots on the trail.  We stopped and waited for them to get off the trail.  We needed the break so it was good to wait about 10 minutes for them to get off the trail.  They were picture hogs.  When we made it back down, the ranger told us that it looks like someone is feeding them.  I agree, they were not scared of us.  As a matter of fact, I think my bear bells summoned them out of hiding.  We saw them as we were going up and coming back on the trail.

We saw several people on the glacier from Marmot Meadows.  They hire guides to take them on this trip.  We were told that it is usually 1 guide for 2 to 3 people and is very costly.  We were also told that the guide is very selective on who he or she takes on the hike and that some people would be turned down by the guide.  With our inexperience with hiking in an glacier, we had no chance of going with a guide.  Good.  We were exhausted from walking up the trail of mud and rocks.

We admired the view of the glacier, and started down the mountain.  We had a  light shower.  It is very slippery walking down the muddy rocks.  We had a few slips of foot but made it to the bottom without injury.  Unless, you consider the injury to our muscles in our tired, shaky legs.  I am sure that we will recover in a few days.

We got back to the camper and opened the back door and pulled down the screen of the toy hauler.  Fernie was very happy.  She sat in the back of the camper and watched people.  Almost everyone walking on the walk/bike path commented about the cat.  We would see people walk by, look in the camper, point, make a comment, and laugh.  One lady told us that she liked the house that our cat lived in. This is a true statement because we bought the camper so the cat could travel with us. Ferny was the talk of the walk.

We watched a couple of whales and a lot of boats in the bay this afternoon while we were recuperating from our hike.  The waves are really rough at high tide.  The waves were coming over the bow of the smaller boats.  I hope the seas are calmer tomorrow when we go on the Kenai Fjords National Park cruise.

                                                                Ferny (the talk of the walk)

Pictures :  https://goo.gl/photos/cfeNcNPM6xrJmaXG7

Day 38 (7-8-12 - Resurrection Bay)

I have a new favorite place in Alaska; Seward.  I love this place.  We traveled 6 miles today and are camped in the city campground on the beach.  Resurrection Bay is gorgeous with the mountains surrounding it. 

We walked 6 and half miles today.  We have a walking/biking trail behind our camper.  It is a really busy trail with walkers, dogs, skate riders, and bike riders.  Our campfire is between the walkway and the beach.  Awesome, (unless you want privacy.)

Lauren's gift of gab has paid off again.  We were leaving the campgroound today to go to Safeway, Lauren saw some guys taking their pictures with their fish. He wheeled around, left the ignition running, and checked it out.  After about 15 minutes, I turned off the ignition.  I knew that this was going to take some time.  He came back with several pounds of king salmon and silver salmon.  This was perfect in the Zatarain's Fish Fry that Lauren doctored up with spices.  It was another great supper.

Ferny has decided to stay in the camper and people/dog watch.  As usual, there are a lot of dogs, several of which are not on a leash.  We are planning on staying here at least 3 nights.  Maybe the next site will be Ferny Kat friendly.  For now, she is watching out the windows.

We drove around the bay today and watched fisherman snagging for salmon.  Lauren is ready to give this a try.  It looks hilarious to me.  You throw a hook with about 3 trebles sticking up, (no bait) and try to snag a salmon.  As good as the salmon tasted that we had tonight, I hope this works.

We saw some sea wildlife today.  We think it was sea otters and dolphins.  We were unable to get pictures because they were better swimmers than we were photographers.

We watched a cruise ship leave the dock around 8 pm tonight as we were sitting by our campfire.  There were very few people out on the deck on the ship.  It is chilly right now.

We are planning on hiking tomorrow and taking a glacier cruise Tuesday.  This is the most plans we have made since we decided to leave home.

As usual, we have had another great day in Ak. We have met a lot of really nice folks, and we are enjoying every minute of it. 

The good news is, it is slightly warmer here, but it is still cloudy and rainy. We have been chilled a few times today, but not chilled to the bone. There is hope that we won't freeze.

Did I mention the view is spectacular.

Pics:   https://goo.gl/photos/BG9VqqMBUKpHohw1A