Week 10

August 10, 2008

Another beautiful day in paradise. We took a boat tour to Seldovia which was originally a little Russian village across the bay (17 miles) from Homer. It is now part of Alaska and the US but still has a lot of Russian heritage and culture. It has about 250 year round residents.

On the way we saw 15,000 to 20,000 birds, mostly gulls. But we did see puffins, cormorants, loons and others, including several bald eagles. We also saw about 75 sea otters.





			Our Tour Boat


							Bald Eagles






				Seldovia Boardwalk



					Loon


	Sea Otters



		Puffin



Russian Orthodox Church in Seldovia

August 11, 2008

We are in Sterling, AK tonight; only drove 94 miles. We returned on the same road we went in on so no new scenery pictures. We will put a couple of ones from yesterday below here though. We are having a steak and crab leg pot luck dinner tonight.

We stopped at a Fred Meyer (like Wal*Mart) today and put 50 gallons in at $4.579. We saved 10 cents a gallon because someone let us use their Fred Meyer rewards card. We also stocked up on Bart’s Crown Royal and gin for the “lemonade”.


	This was called Elephant Rock. As the boat passed it at a distance, the view changed and it looked like he raised his trunk.




		The penguin like birds (top and right center) are Murres. They fly very low to the water and can dive for fish down to 300 feet.

August 12, 2008

Sunny and hot today, probably in the high 70s. We are in Palmer, AK today - 181 miles. Nothing noteworthy, just a resting place on our way to Valdez. We did catch a quick look at the beluga whales again as well as a cow moose but we were unable to stop for either to get pictures. However, the mountains never let us down asyou can see below

We went back through Anchorage. We topped up the tank in Anchorage because the price is lower than we will find for awhile. We got 21 gallons at $4.36 per gallon.

August 13, 2008

Traveled to Valdez, AK today. It was a long trip with a 45 minute delay due to bridge construction. 261 miles in all. Gorgeous scenery though. The glacier (top right picture) is the Worthington Glacier. It is only a few hundred yards from the road.

We topped up the gas tank in Glennallen with 21 gallons at $4.849.

We lost our good weather. It is cloudy and rainy again though not as cool, high in upper 50s.

August 14, 2008

This was a free day but it was dreary and rainy all day. Kay and Elaine did laundry while Bart slaved over the laptop uploading photos and updating the web site for your viewing pleasure.

Then Elaine got out her sewing machine and finished a quilt she had been working on.

Meanwhile Kay and Bart decided a little drizzle shouldn’t interfere with pictures. So they and Bill went for ride with cameras in hand.

They found some water falls, and a few more eagles.




		Then they spotted this bay teeming with seagulls. Upon closer inspection they found what was drawing the gulls. The salmon were running upstream to spawn.


	And in Alaska, spawning salmon means BEARS!! After supper we all went back and watched this young black bear run down and grab a salmon, then take off. We watched him do this several times from about 25 yards away. Notice the flash reflected in his eye in the first picture. That is a real CLOSE-UP.


		Awhile later, this bigger black bear walked down the roadway and beside the car about 20 feet away. Kay got this quick picture out the passenger side rear window while sitting in the driver’s side rear seat. The white line is the rear side window.

August 15, 2008

We took a boat tour today in Prince William Sound - utterly amazing and unbelievable. We saw two glaciers, the Columbia and the Meares. The Columbia is a retreating glacier which meant we could not get close to the actual glacier as there was so much broken off ice in front of it as below.




	Meares Glacier is an advancing glacier so we could

get right up to it. We could see and hear it “calve”, which is when pieces fall off. Note how it is gouging out the pine trees in the one picture.


	We saw several fishing boats and this unique island that geologists say was originally in the Pacific off the coast of California but thousands of years ago it was moved here by earthquakes.




	And of course we saw wildlife. First another picture of a Bald Eagle because you can’t see too many eagles. We saw this Peregrine Falcon which our guide said is fairly rare here. Then more Sea Otters because they are so darn cute, followed by Harbor Seals and lastly Stellar Sea Lions.






		Shortly after this picture was taken of these sea lions, a crow flew over and spooked them. They all took off for the water and were roaring. We could hear them clearly on the boat.

			August 16, 2008 We can’t believe it is the end of week 10 already. We are back in Tok, AK again. We put 52 gallons of gas in at $4.689 which is eleven cents cheaper than when we were here on July 25th.

It was a 256 mile drive but there were a lot of frost heaves in the road which made for a long slow drive. At least it was warm and sunny reaching 70 degrees today.

The only wildlife we saw were these Trumpeter Swans. But the mountains never let us down. Even after all we have seen, they are still beautiful.












			Last updated August 16, 2008