The Iditarod Trail Headquarters in Wasilla has wonderful displays, a movie, and dogs.  We missed Sarah because she was turning over duties at the Governor's Picnic in Fairbanks; we did see Lake Lucille, though.  Musk ox and qivuit: that's what we saw on Monday in Palmer.  These animals are more closely related to goats; they are combed in the spring and the items knitted are so soft and warm.  The Matanuska colonists arrived in 1935 but even before then Palmer was a good place to grow crops.  The Alaska State Fair is here in August.  We are now experiencing afternoon showers so we try to do outdoor touring in the morning.  This is a very comfortable area of Alaska.

Another dreary day with more rain; it's the low of 50 and the high of 59 that is more annoying.  We went to the Wild Berry Theater for the film "Alaska: the Land Beyond" and the world's largest chocolate fall; we also saw the Rock Man, an Inuit style rock creation.  We gorged at Golden Corral, shopped for mud flaps, and checked out the iphone. 

Thursday evening after several hours at the Alaska Native Heritage Center we are relaxing waiting for the sunset.  The center has five village sites, a theater, cultural galleries, and a gathering place with various performances.  This is an excellent representation of each Alaskan Native group. 

At 8 am Paul was out on the beach at the end of our campground road at the negative tide on Kachemak Bay.  He saw grasses and tiny fishes and eagles; he saw rocks hidden when the tide is in.  At the moment, 6 pm, we are watching two eagles in a dead tree just across the campground; they've been there at least an hour.  We nixed a cruise across the bay since the clouds have obliterated any view a few hundred feet away and up; instead we drove up to Anchor Point, North America's most westerly highway point.  On the beach we saw tractors launching boats into Cook Inlet - quite a sight.  The five volcanoes across the inlet were hidden by the soupy sky.  On the Old Sterling Highway back to Homer we saw a momma moose with two babies; nothing small about the babies, though; they were foraging at a creek for more than the five minutes we pulled over for pictures.  We've driven to Homer Spit where we walked through the Salty Dog Saloon and saw many halibut getting pictures taken with fishermen; tasted at a brewery, meadery, and winery; seen glaciers from East End Road (Skyline would have been useless); and read our way through the Pratt Museum.  On the road again tomorrow.

After driving through sporadic raindrops we arrived at Homer, where the road (Sterling Hwy) ends on the western side of the Kenai Peninsula; we probably won't take the boat to Seldovia across the bay.  Homer is surrounded by wilderness and ocean; we are looking across Cook Inlet at volcanic mountains, snow-capped and glacial but sadly in a mist so we may not see sunset at 10 o'clock.  The Alaska Islands & Ocean Visitor Center is partnered with the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge; film on the Tiglax, a Refuge research and supply ship was quite good; the displays of Aleutian artifacts, Bering Sea bird rookery, and WWII display of Dutch Harbor, Attu, Atka, and the three atomic bombs detonated in 1940's were very informative.  As the evening wore on we sampled honey wines at the Ring of Fire Meadery; our purchase was the 'honey wine made with Alaska high-bush cranberries aged in a rare boubon cask' to honor the 50th anniversary of Alaska's statehood.   We stopped at the Elks Lodge to visit the Norton's and purchase the lodge pin before heading home for dinner and relaxation.  We're hoping that the sun shines for a few hours the next few days so we can take another wildlife cruise and drive out to the spit.

The laundromat wifi is very busy.  Just want to say hi and we're still enjoying the scenery.  We've are in Soldotna now and head to Homer on Sat. morning; looking forward to seeing the spit and another boat ride if we are lucky enough to just have night rain .  On the way back from Captain Cook State Park in Nikiski yesterday we went to another brewery; love those samples.  Moose is Loose Bakery has 'roadkill' - flattened cinnamon bun covered with sugar;  yum, but Paul couldn't take it so he had a carrot raisin muffin with his coffee this morning.  We are headed to Cold Stone Creamery for dinner; have to take advantage of good food every chance we get....   We have seen many hundreds of fishermen in this part of Kenai;  the salmon are running at last; Alaskans are everywhere with net and dipnets.  We are meeting up with more and more Floridians on this trip; we are still enjoying the comforts of a 5,000+ populated town (as opposed to a 300 person town).   The TV here has a special on Sarah tonight; gonna have to watch it...  Last night watched the J.K. Rowlings special.  What you see at nine comes here at 7; we watch David Letterman at 10:30 p.m. and are still waiting for the sun to dip behind the trees; doesn't happen until midnight still...  If only it would stay warm with the sunlight...  later.

Well, I had hoped to do more writing and updating today but instead did laundry, shopping, cleaning, and sorting.  We took one last drive into Seward as we head to Soldotna and Kenai in the morning.  The sun shone today (Tuesday 14th) and now it is 10:30 p.m. and it looks like 7 p.m.  Easy for time to pass in this land of the midnight sun.  I think it will be difficult to be back in the lower 48; that is, until it gets snowy and cold in the north country.

Monday, 13th, we took a six hour Renown cruise through the Kenai Fjords National Park.  We saw many birds including several clusters of puffins; many Stellar seals and pups; a pack of Dall's porpoise; two orca whales; several humpback whales; several glaciers from a distance and Holgate glacier right up close - yes we saw calving.  This was an excellent day.

We've seen several glaciers in the last couple of days.  Well, you can't miss them driving down the Kenai Peninsula and looking ahead and up.  We got up close on the Glacier Discovery Train into the Kenai Mountains and the Chugach National Forest from Portage down to Grandview and then again on the m/v (marine vessel) Ptarmigan out of Portage to within fifty yards of Portage Glacier where we also saw Burns, Spencer, Trail, and a half-dozen other glaciers.  We are in Seward now looking across Resurrection Bay and it's unbelievable view of the Kenai.  We hope to walk on Exit Glacier on Sunday.

Busy, busy.  On our way to the Kenai today.  Train trip from Portage to Grandview on Thursday then Seward on Friday for glaciers and seashore.

Hey there!  Yes, we're having a great time.  Wifi is at the laundry not in the convenience of Cruiser where I can write late at night; so no news updates because we are out having a great time.  More will come later.

Good morning!  We are heading to Glenallen today to see more wondrous views wondering what our first wildlife sighting will be; yesterday we saw swan, coyote, and what we think was a wildcat.  Reaching "civilization" so we should be able to update more often; also looking forward to resupplying our supplements and health food items.  BTW, it is warmer here in the valleys; almost ready for shorts if it weren't for the mosquitoes.

Mainland Alaska – we have reached Tok (rhymes with “poke”), the first town outside Canada  except for the “panhandle” with Juneau and our excursion down to Skagway and Haines.  We’ve traveled 6500 miles since leaving Tallahassee in April, and we are just reaching AK.  This is quite a road trip; it is impossible to describe the beauty and majesty of the various mountains, valleys and lakes we have seen; the variety of animals that appear along the roadway and in campgrounds; pictures and postcards give you an idea but there is nothing like driving along the road.  We look forward to our trip back through YT and BC before reaching the lower 48.  If you haven’t been to Alaska, the Milepost is a total necessity for viewing along the one and only highway.  You can’t really get lost but it is important to know where the next turnout and what is available in the towns along the highway.  At Sourdough Campground for the night; we threw pancakes to try for a free breakfast; no luck.  Since we had a big lunch at Fast Eddy’s we didn’t opt for the reindeer stew or corn chowder dinner at Sourdough; but we did roast marshmallows and shared trip info with a group from Summerdale, AL, on their way back from all the places we are heading.  We also had our first experience with black flies, lots of them.  We are still enjoying the late evenings; it will be difficult when we don’t have as much daytime to play.