July 28-30

Evan arrived on Wednesday afternoon on a flight from Denver to Seattle and it has been a few days of “firsts.”

First flight by himself, first ride on both the light rail and the monorail, first time at the Space Needle and first crab dinner by the Pacific Ocean…

“I ate so much, I had a stomach ache!,” said Evan.  And, we had the first flat tire on the29th on the truck as we drove up to Olympic National Rain Forest.

We camped in La Push, Washington, about 40 miles NW of the Hoh Rain Forest for two nights—right on the Pacific—lots of huge trees. Visiting the rain forest and getting in a little fishing were highlights of Friday.

John took this image of Evan on the beach.

These are the boys in front of a Sitka Cedar which grows to over 270 feet tall with a diameter of over 12 feet and below in front of a duncan Cedar which is 178 feet tall and 19.4 in diameter.

Saturday we drove down to Castle Rock, WA and John and Evan went to Mount St. Helen Volcanic Monument.

July 26

Today John took me to see his ole Navy digs on Whidbey Island.  It was exciting to see where he spent time on two different occasions, even if it was over 40 years ago.  We had several interesting stops, first at Deception Pass Bridge.  The bridge was completed in 1935 at a cost of $450,000.  In the 1990s it costs more than that just to paint it!

In Vancouver we saw logs floating on the waterways.  Today we saw a mass of logs being moved in the bay by two tug boats.  We probably watched them for 20 minutes.  The lead tug has a "v" shaped ropes tied to the logs and they were pulling them.  The second tug would move around keeping the mass in order and moving them to stay in a pretty straight line.  There are several lumber and paper mills in this area, so who knows where they ended up.  Looking down from the bridge it looked like a flat game of pick up sticks.

We hiked down to the park along side of the bay and this is an image of the bridge--note the fishing pole in the lower right hand corner.

After leaving the Deception Pass Park, we went into the community of Oak Harbor where the Naval Air Station is located.  That is where John went to school to learn how to work on the A-3 aircraft, and then stationed there assigned to VAH-10. The squadron's mission was to basically be an airborne gas station, refueling the aircraft that were awaiting their turn to land on board the carriers.  I made one cruise on the USS Forrestal and another one on the USS J F Kennedy.

We found his old watering hole, the Oak Harbor Tavern and went in for a beer.  Here he is holding the squadron sign for his unit.  The joint hasn't changed much in 42 years!

Had another great seafood lunch at a place called Flyers--Navy guys own it and the food and service was great.  It was really nice being able to see where he spend a lot of time.  Of course all the businesses there now weren't around when I was here. 

Oh, the surprise---On Wednesday afternoon we will be picking up John's oldest grandchild, Evan Sawyer, at the Seattle airport.  He'll be joining us while we visit the Space Needle, Olympic National Park, Mount St. Helens and then into Oregon for Crater Lake National Park, sequoia and red wood trees, and making our way back via Nevada and Utah.

Evan is 14, loves to fish and is his Papa's pal.  It'll be a fun few days!

July 25 back in the lower 48

We left the Canadian campground about 11 am and headed south.  It really wasn't far to the US border.  There are two entry points just a few miles apart and the digital sign said one had over an hour wait and the other was unknown.  We went to the "unknown" at the Peace Bridge crossover. 

Waited 1 hour 32 minutes to get to the border patrol agent.  She asked what food we had and we told her.  Next thing we were pulled over for an agriculture check.  I had a Costco receipt from Anchorage where we bought tomatoes and oranges.  Went into the building, gave them all the keys and waited 33 minutes.  Guy comes back with one apple, the box of tomatoes and several oranges.  Said they were not legal to come into the US.  I showed him the receipt from ALASKA--the US.  "Items loose their citizenship in Canada."
Got our passports back, went to the truck, relocked the trailer and off we go.

Stopped for lunch and found:

Half of the SACK of oranges that didn't fit into the refrigerator drawer in the cabinet right next to where the tomatoes were located.  An apple in the refrigerator drawer, right where the other one was located.  Put off to put it mildly.

So, if Obama wants to put some of the unemployed to work I suggest:

1. Hire more border agents.
2. Put up signs with the restricted items you can't bring back into the US since things "loose their citizenship in Canada."  If you wait for over an hour, you could easily dispose of the items and thus save patrol time in searching and disposing of items you can't bring in--or do they eat it on the job?
3. Buy signs from a printing company that isn't working at capacity to list all items you can't bring in.
4. Hire a company to install such signs.
5. Buy trash containers from a small business to collect all the items listed on the list as per number 2 above.
6. Buy plastic bags from another small business to put into the trash containers in number 5.
7. Hire someone to install the signs and the trash containers.
8. Buy some port-a-potties to put in the miles leading up to the border crossing.  Several people had to get out of their cars, go to their trailers or walk to the duty free shop to potty, buy food, change diapers or whatever else one does with at least an hour wait at the border.  (The minimum of an hour was information provided in conversation while we were getting ready to leave.)

John said I needed an attitude adjustment, that the agents were just doing their job.  I say if they are doing their job, then do it right--what crap!

There was an elderly man (not a WASP) who parked his van on the north side of the road, in Canada.  He got out a cart, put in some ice cream bars and cold bottled water.  Made his way across 4 lanes of traffic, lifted the cart over the Jersey Dividers and was walking between the two lanes of traffic selling refreshments.  That guy will retire a millionaire while the rest of us put up with total governmental inefficiency.  Maybe an urgent care facility for those whose blood pressure goes up too high...that would employ more people.

Anyway, good to be back in the lower 48.  John was stationed at Widbey Island, just a few miles from here when he was in the Navy.  We're going to tour his old haunts tomorrow, Tuesday it's to Seattle where we'll announce a surprise tomorrow.

July 23-24

On Friday we drove through the south central part of British Columbia, stopping at the 108 Heritage Site. There are about 20 historic buildings like this one of a house with the Clydesdale barn in the background.

After looking more closely at maps and travel times, we decided that we really couldn’t stay at a Provincial Park so we found a campground in Burnaby which is a 45 minute drive to the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal.

Saturday we left on the 8 am ferry to Swartz Bay, Victoria--good diversion for me since it would have been Bill's 65th birthday.  It was a beautiful 90 minute ferry ride – we caught a taxi to the Victoria International Airport and picked up a rental car for the day. John and Rae had visited Victoria before and he wanted to show me around the city. Our first stop was at Butchart Gardens which was created over 100 years ago by Jennie and Robert Butchart. He had a limestone quarry and she wanted to see something other than huge holes where rocks had been excavated, thus the development of Butchart Gardens was started and the historical site is still owned by the family, managed by a great granddaughter. This is an image John took in the Sunken Garden, the first development of the project.

The Gardens cover over 55 acres and they employ over 500 gardeners, they must work all night because we saw only one and the fireworks crew which was preparing for a Saturday night display—this sequoia tree was started as a seedling in 1934 and it is the first sequoia I've ever seen, so I had to capture it.

John took these images at the garden:
These Azure Sea roses are lavender color and one of Rae’s favorites

He is becoming an artistic photographer in his own right!

In the Japanese Garden

Through the window of the patio

After spending several hours at the gardens, John drove us into downtown Victoria where we enjoyed a great seafood lunch overlooking the harbor and then went to the Empress Hotel, built in the late 1800s. Wow, it was lovely!

The harbor walk called – it was a great place, entertainment, (this kid was playing with his Dad) an official seaport for airplanes and water taxis.

We took a historic harbor tour and saw this draw bridge, which is operated by counter weights on one end…just radio up to the tower and they will sound the horn and open the bridge for you, free of charge!

This morning we are headed for Washington State.

July 17 – 22nd

It was a very cool 48 degrees when we packed up and left the Kenai Peninsula on Saturday about noon. Before leaving we stocked up on cases of canned king salmon which we were able to stow in the trailer. After a stop at Costco in Anchorage we were back in the Mat-Su Region and camped at Matanuska Glacier State Recreation Site. We had visited this site before when we were based in Palmer but it was not nearly as nice, from a weather perspective as Saturday.   John captured this-

On Sunday morning we left camp about 6 am and headed to Tok, the first town when you come into Alaska from Canada. John found a campground, Tok River Recreation Site, just a few miles outside of town, but more importantly, close to the Taylor Highway which leads to Chicken. Our goal was to get to Chicken in time for lunch and we had to cover about 350 miles from our starting point. On the drive up the Tok Cutoff road we saw this pair of trumpeter swans which John captured on his camera.

It only took about 10 minutes to set up camp and leave at noon for Chicken. On the drive up the Taylor Highway the road was washed out last Saturday when over 10 inches of rain fell between the communities of Chicken and Eagle. It actually washed away one car and the driver hasn’t been found and about 35 campers, motor coaches, trailers and cars were stuck, with the latest 40 foot motor coach getting out yesterday. That caused us not to be able to go back into Canada over the “Top of the World” road.

On Monday we knew we had a hard week of driving before us if we wanted to be in Victoria Island over the weekend, so we decided to leave every day by 6 am and stay in the Yukon Government Campgrounds and the British Columbia Provincial Parks.

As we left Alaska on the Alcon Highway, four moose bid us farewell –a bull, 2 cows and a yearling. They were too far away to photograph, but we watch through the binoculars and John saw one cow chase the others away from the water. Of course, I missed that because I was trying to find my binoculars…

In the Yukon Territory, we drove through Destruction Bay and just had to capture this image of their police car. There are only 55 people who live there and it is just s beautiful area by Kluane Lake, which is the largest lake in the Yukon Territory, so I’m sure there are a lot of speeders, and no police. What a hoot!

We have been traveling on the Cassiar Highway, or as John refers to it, “the highway from hell” from Watson Lake south through the western part of British Columbia. It is a 463 mile road—half of it in terrible shape and half in just above poor shape. The interesting thing is there are no communities in this part of the province that are more than a couple hundred people, but there are tons of lakes, streams and beautiful scenery. We got to the Yellowhead Highway yesterday and today got onto the West Access Route to Alaska which will be our route until we get back into the US.

As we left the Yukon Territory, John captured this one last photo of a black bear eating the flowers on the side of the road. Haven’t seen any more bears since this one.

On the 20th we stayed at Boya Lake which was beautiful, but it started to rain and that weather system has been with us through our stay on the 21st at Seeley Lake Provincial Park and even some today.

We have seen foxes, red and black. John says the black ones are very rare. There were two at this gravel pit, but of course, never close enough together to get a decent shot.

This morning we passed through a little community, Burns Lake, with about 10,000 population throughout the area and at both ends of town they have what John refers to as the “Flower power slug bugs” and he captured this one.

We’ll leave tomorrow and be in the Vancouver area until Monday, and we plan to stay in the Provincial Parks so there will be no more internet postings until Monday.

Mileage to date 10,939.

July 16

Well, we had one appointment during this trip—king salmon fishing. We went fishing, the fishing day starts at 6 am and Jeff our guide took us out on the Kenai River. There we were greeted by lots of boats, all trying to get king salmon. This year had rated as the slowest spawning on record for kings, so there was a lot of hoping going on!

John had a couple bites and then reeled in this one

He was hoping for something larger than about 15 pounds (guide’s estimate of the weight) so he releases it.

That’s it folks, I didn’t even have a bite on my line all day and very few people caught fish that we saw. It was fun and I has so pleased that the sun finally came out about noon as we were getting off the water.

Fun tidbit from the Peninsula Clarion, the Soldotna-Kenai newspaper, yesterday’s question of the day:
“If a moose strolls through your yard and the dogs don’t start barking does that mean…six more weeks of sunny summer weather OR winter’s coming early this year.” We’ll miss the result of the public polling.

Today we are heading north, two days ahead of the schedule, but there are things we didn’t get to see on the way south that we want to catch on the way home. We’ll be camping at state parks and national forest camps and so will not have any internet service. Cell phones will work while we are in Alaska, but when we hit the Yukon Territory they cease operation.

Miles to date-8847.

July 15

John left early this morning to go fishing in the Kenai River at Centennial Park in Soldotna. He said he stood in the water for four hours without a bite. Cold feet, lots of competition and so he came back. Here is a shot he took at the boat dock.

I walked around the campgrounds, which is a working ranch with horses, emus, goats, chickens, gardens, barns, old vehicles and farm implement tools. While John finds bears in the woods, I find roosters.

And check out the garden…yep, those are old tires with veggies growing in them. Keeps the veggies up high so the critters have a more difficult time helping themselves.

We went to the UPS store to fax and print things and something I needed had to be notarized. Their notary was off and so they suggested a DMV location. Went there, their notary was off, but, the worker CALLED her and she drove about 20 miles just to notarize three documents. Can you believe that customer service? Wow oh wow oh wow!!!

The City of Kenai is just about 10 miles from our camp and so we visited the Kenai Visitors and Cultural Center. Saw a film about bush pilots—you may think that all you need is a plane, however, in Alaska it has to be fitted with wheels, skis for winter, and floats for water. The film was beautiful showing all kinds of wilderness locations and lots of bears eating lots of salmon. We haven’t seen that yet!

When the US purchased Alaska from Russia in the 1867 there were a lot of Russians who moved here and along with them came the Russian Orthodox Church. John took this image of the Holy Assumption Orthodox Church which was built in 1895-96. It is still operational with an active congregation.

Another good day-no rain and about 60 degrees. Someone on the weather channel said it was going to be a “sweltering 72 degrees” tomorrow in Anchorage. Wow, how do you guys in the lower 48 feel with your past 6 weeks in the 90s? Lots of room to migrate to Alaska, you only need to become accustomed to 19 hours of daylight, here in the south and highs in the 60s now and highs in the -20s for six months of the year. It’s wonderful here!

Tomorrow we go salmon fishing at 5:45 am on the Kenai River.

July 14

We spent a quiet morning in camp and then headed over to watch people dip net fish on the Kenai River. If you are an Alaskan resident you can “dip net” fish for short period of time in July. It’s quite interesting seeing people with huge nets standing in the water or from a boat dipping these nets into the river. The limit for salmon is big—like 30 fish a day via the dip net. When we fish for salmon on Friday the limit for us is one. The lady holding the net to the buttress of the bridge didn’t pull in any that we saw.

Then we headed down to the community of Homer, end point of the road going south right along the Cook Inlet. In this image you can see the “split” of land away from the mainland.

John got this good image of the harbor.

While walking we found the Salty Dawg Saloon and after looking in decided to have a home brewed beer. Every surface in the building is covered in dollar bills.

They have constructed this Seafarer’s Memorial that John captured.

After a great dinner—fresh peel and eat red strip shrimp from Prince Williams Sound, oysters on the half shell, salmon and clams and prime rib (guess who chose that!) we drove north. John saw a lynx cross the road about five miles outside Homer.

Linda caught the biggest fish of the day!

John landed six halibut, released four and I landed two and stopped fishing, two is the daily limit. It rained all day long, although the seas were relatively quiet.  Had a great time with four other people on the charter.  Here are some of the day's images.

John landed the first fish of the day.

Landing a 45 pound halibut is hard work and the manufacture of rain coats always makes the hoods way too big, or I have a very small head!

Even after 6 hours on the boat, John was a happy camper.  We are getting ready to head back to land.

John with the entire day's catch.

With our four fish.

The guide and his sister filleted all the fish and then we took our 47 pounds to the processing plant for packaging and freezing, then it will be air freighted to us.

This was our boat for the day.  The guide Mark actually built the boat and with his family owns the operation.  We had halibut for dinner tonight and it was yummy!  Bro John says "damn good."

July 8 – 11

Thursday morning we left Palmer and drove down the Steward Highway to a National Forest Camp Ground called Trail River. It is located right on the Kenai Lake, nestled in the surrounding mountains which are snow topped and beautiful. We parked the trailer about 20 feet from the water’s edge. The lake, because it is snow feed is a brilliant turquoise color and there are several streams which fill it with water and fish. Just had to walk 20 feet to see this:

John snagged a nice rainbow trout on Saturday morning, which he released.

On Friday we took the 8 ½ hour Kenai Fjords National Park Cruise out of Seward. It was a beautiful, cool morning going out into Resurrection Bay we could see Mount Marathon where they have an annual July 4 race. Hundreds of runners divided into Youth, Men and Women categories run up that trail and back again… look closely. It’s steep 1.75 miles with a gain of 2800 feet. We followed the race in the newspaper up in Palmer. The men do the race in 43 minutes, women in about 53. The same woman has won for seven years in a row and announced her retirement…I would guess she had tired legs.

Out in the bay we saw harbor seals, humpback whales, (which John caught blowing), sea lions, puffins, and lots of other animals—even the salmon put on a show jumping out of the water.

This is an image of Bear Glacier, one of many which are part of the Harding Ice Field. This glacier is now actually three joined together due to the melting of the ice. You can see the black lines which separate them. In the lower left hand corner there are some ice bergs which have broken away and sit in a lake which has formed.

We left the bay and traveled in the Gulf of Alaska to see the Holgate Glacier. Check out the size of it and the sail boat John captured. He also caught the calving, ice falling off the glacier in the lower left. The ice breaks off and just floats in the gulf until it melts. John wanted to hum the theme from Titanic!

Great day, cold and I worked hard as evidence below

On Saturday it was cool and rainy so we just took a trip up to Cooper’s Landing and from there followed Quartz Creek Road. In many locations where there are boat docks, there are kids life jackets available for people to borrow. As PDF Otter says “kids don’t float!

We are at the Diamond M Ranch RV Park until the 19th when we'll head north back to the "Top of the World Road" through Chicken, Alaska and into Dawson City, Yukon Territory.  Tomorrow we have charter to go halibut fishing at 10 am and on Friday we go salmon fishing at 5 am.  More later.