Day 27

It is still raining. Everything is starting to get that damp feeling to it. Nothing will dry in the RV and the walls are sweating. It is just so damp and nasty. We decided to go to the Seward aquarium since it was indoors and out of the rain. It features native Marine life. It was not very big and very overpriced however. It featured exhibits on salmon, seal lions and a few other native fish. We finished it in about an hour. We went into the sea bird exhibit and one of the puffins was attempting to murder an arctic tern. It had caught it and was holding it underwater. Someone alerted the keeper and he scared the puffin off and scooped the tern out with a net. It didn’t look so good. I suspect it died. It was ultra violence. We then hustled into the car and went to a local diner for lunch. We had some halibut and chips and chowder. We found a local bakery and got some goodies and coffee. If it would only stop raining. Last night Grant woke up and crawled into our bed saying he was scared because there was a bear outside. We let him in thinking yeah right. Well, when I got up to put my trash away in the AM. The owner asked us if we had heard noise at night. Apparently there was a bear that had come into the campsite overnight and been raiding campsites. He was apparently still there in the morning and they had taken pictures and showed them to us. There was one where the bear was sitting on the picnic table of the campsite next to us. I guess Grant really did see the bear outside. Guess we need to take him seriously.

Day 26

We left Ninilchik today to head toward Seward. It is still raining and generally a nasty day. We got packed up and set out. We drove past the Kenai and Russian river areas and again there were arm to arm salmon fisherman going for their salmon. We passsed a little something on the road. It was a little bear cub that had been killed on the road. We arrived at our campsite near Seward several hours later. The road was very winding and we did not make good time. We checked into the campsite. It was a family run place with a little lodge area. We checked in and I asked about fishing creeks in the area. They told me about a stream a couple hundred yards up the street that had good Dolly Varden fishing. The man sitting at the bar didn’t think it was a good idea, as there had been a 100 pound grizzly bear visiting there for the past view days. It was still raining. We drove into Seward. The waterfront is very pretty although we could not see much of the scenery because of the haze. There are bald eagles everywhere. We found a playground to let Grant play, and sat back and watched the eagles in the tree. We walked a bit on the waterfront and headed home.

Day 25

Alex’s first birthday went well considering we celebrated in a trailer camp in Ninilchik Alaska. We made the best of everything. Amy and Shari baked a strawberry cake and covered it with with a chocolate frosting. Grant had a blast helping to decorate the cake! We all sang happy birthday and watched as Grant happily helped her to blow out the candles. She seemed to have fun and it was fun for us. The weather here on the Kenai Peninsula has been awful. It has rained all day and everyday for the past week according to the locals. It is kind of depressing. I wish the fog would lift so we could enjoy more of the view. That’s just the way of it I guess. The weather is due to be rainy and nasty for the foreseeable future. Everyone in this RV park kind of keeps to themselves. It appears there are some serious Alaskans from the mainland who come down to fish. They have freezers plugged into the outside of their RV’s. We watched a fishing charter come back with a load of halibut. Some were big but they looked mostly like large flounder. The clamming expedition was an adventure. Amy and I got up early and went to rent clamming “guns” and buckets from the office. A clam gun is a big tube with a T handle that has a small hole in it. Placing your finger over this hole will create a seal as you dig down with the gun and as you lift, technically should pull out a cylinder of soil and the clam. That is in theory. We arrived at the beach about 30 minutes before low tide started. There were tons of locals with all of their equipment ready to go. A local game warden showed up and people seemed a bit nervous. I have noticed seeing a game wardens make rednecks nervous like seeing a cop in the ghetto will make a black person nervous. We gathered and began looking for the “show” or little hole the clam makes as its digging. This proved difficult. The holes were often subtle and an hour passed with no success. I heard locals talking about how the clamming wasn’t that good today. We did begin to figure it out and snagged some of the rascals. We ended up with about half a bucket full. Digging with the clam gun and pulling it up is actually very physically taxing and I was exhausted after the morning. When pulling the clams out you are elbow deep into a sandy mucky hole. Grant went to help, but after the cold water touched his feet he had enough. We ended up wearing him on our backs. A bald eagle circled overhead looking for scraps. We came back and cleaned the clams and froze them. Perhaps we will make chowder tomorrow. We leave for Seward tomorrow. Hopefully the truck won’t get stuck in the mud pulling out the trailer.

Day 24

It was kind of nice to get up early. Today is another cold wet day. I found a mechanic shop a few blocks down to change the oil. It took about an hour. I read the local newspaper. It seems as if a lady was asked to stop breastfeeding at the local water park and it is now a big deal. I am not sure what has happened in this country that people are so hung up on a woman breastfeeding an infant. Sarah Palin is also having a series of farewell town picnics. After the oil was changed, we hooked up and ate breakfast of French toast with blueberry sauce. We drove on to our next stop Ninilchik. The drive down the Seward highway was breathtakingly beautiful. It was like the postcards of an Alaska cruise. It was still very rainy and nasty though. The drive took about 4 hours. We passed several areas where people where fishing arm to arm. We arrived at our campsite. Because of the rain, the whole area seems dreary. We inquired a bit about clamming tomorrow and the lady told us some about it and how we could rent equipment at the office. We will try that tomorrow when the tide is low, about noon. We got setup, ate dinner and drove to the beach. We walked around a bit and watched the gulls and some fisherman cleaning up after a days of fishing. There was a bald eagle circling overhead. We will try to get the children to bed early tonight so we can have a productive day of clamming. Apparently the razor clamming days have hundreds of people scrambling for these clams. We shall see. I enjoyed a nice bit of rum as I was able to refill the trailers grog in Anchorage. They did not have Mount gay so I got some Bacardi. There is no comparison.

Day 23

Today we packed up and made the drive from Denali to Anchorage. We continued along the Parks highway. This has been some of the most scenic driving on the trip. It wound through green valleys and lakes and marshes with moose grazing. Some of the water was so still and clear it appeared as if there was a mirror image of the mountains in the water. We got a bit of a late start and didn’t arrive in Anchorage until about 3:30. We had wanted to take Grant to the zoo. We stopped at a place called Centennial Park. It is a city park that offers campsites. It was actually very nice. We are near an Air Force base and fighter jets are buzzing overhead. We quickly set up camp and drove to the zoo. I dropped everyone off and went to try and get some errands run. I went to an RV shop and asked them to check the torque on the hitch ball. A nice technician came out and torque it and they charged me nothing. I then went to try and get the oil changed and the oil change place claimed they weren’t accepting any new customers even though it was almost an hour until closing. I had some time to burn so I went to Wal Mart for some supplies. I bought oil and I figure I will take it to a mechanic tomorrow and see if I can just get them to change it. I picked the others up from the zoo after that. They said there were lots of bears and you were able to get very close to the animals. It was a small zoo otherwise. We then went to the grocery store and stocked up on groceries and supplies for Alex’s birthday party. We went back to the trailer and Amy and Shari begun dinner while I went to Lowes to get some things to repair the broken jack. I took Grant with me and since he had been good all day, I bought him a toy monster truck which he was very pleased with. We went back and ate some delicious chicken parmesan and got to bed. I will need to get up early to try and get this oil changed.

Day 22

Wow, what a day we had today. We got up, or at least I did, at 4:45. It was the usual struggle to get the women and children up and going. We got there slightly late, and had to take the last seats at the rear of the bus. Luckily, the bus people had car seats we could borrow so we did not have to take the ones out of the truck. The day started of a bit cloudy and the guide prefaced the drive by saying it may not be the best day for seeing wildlife and Mt. McKinley. You basically ride an old green converted school bus along a narrow dirt road. At some times the ride was harrowing as there was no shoulder, dirt road with no guardrails and hundreds of feet of sheer cliff. The driver assured us he knew the roads like the back of his hand. Just after we crossed a pass past the point where you are not allowed to drive by yourself, the view opened up to the most magnificent vista I have seen. There was lush green subalpine tundra with a backdrop of the Alaska Range as far as the eye could see. It looked like something out of a Lord of the Rings movie. I expected to see a Giant lumbering across the plain at any movement. We saw a large male grizzly down below. As we moved further a female grizzly and her cub popped up not 50 feet from the bus. The casually ambled across the street in front of the bus and frolicked in the field next to us. We were able to see moose, Dall sheep, Harriers, and Golden Eagles all in this area. Further along you are supposed to be able to see Mt McKinley, which is the tallest mountain in North America. In reality, it is covered in clouds 70-80 percent of the time as it is so large, it creates its own clouds and weather. As we crossed the bend, the road opened up to a magnificent view of the mountain. It was one of the most awe inspiring things I have ever seen. The pictures here are truly worthless and no picture I could post could convey the enormity of it. We arrived at the far visitor’s center and hiked a bit with Grant. Unfortunately it was very windy and cold and they could not tolerate much of a hike. Soon after the mountain was engulfed by clouds again. We boarded the bus and headed back. Some British hiker boarded the bus from the road and gave us his leftover apple and muffins. We rode back and absorbed more of the view on the way back. It was an awesome trip. We came back to the trailer and Grant did some activities from his junior ranger bag while I performed some maintenance on the trailer. Many of the hitches bolts needed tightening. I do not have the tools to check the torque on the ball so I will see if there is an RV store in anchorage that will check it for me tomorrow. We went back out to the visitor center, and Grant turned in his junior ranger activities. He got to wear a ranger hat and the Ranger made him swear an oath to protect Denali. He got a little badge for this. We then went to get ice cream, Amy was very sad to see that the flavor she wanted “birthday cake” was gone. We came back t o do laundry. We reheated leftovers over a fire. Today we did laundry. Some fool was making a stink about how the washer wasn’t fast enough and how he needed to use the dryer first because he was with boy scouts. The kids are tired and we will try to get them to bed early. Tomorrow we head to Anchorage. We booked our fishing charter for salmon today. Hopefully we will catch a mess of fish.

Day 21

So far the first part of the park hasn’t been very impressive in that you can’t see much. Mostly its dense trees flanked by some mountain vistas. It is very clear today as most of the smoke seems to have cleared out. We did several small hikes. Grant tired quickly today and I had to carry him most of the way. After the hikes, we stopped again at the visitor center for Amy and Shari to research the berries and find recipes. We also bought some ice cream after that. I got a cup of coffee. We decided to pony up and just by tickets on the bus that takes you into the park. We decided on 6 am as we figured it would be better for viewing wildlife and would leave us the afternoon to do other things. We tooled around a bit more and came back and grilled hotdogs for dinner over a campfire and then more smores. We wanted to get the kids to sleep early since it would be an early start. Hopefully the weather will be good tomorrow. Amy and Shari have made a blueberry coffee cake tort thing that we will eat for breakfast.