July 17, 2016 Day around the RV, short trip to do some bird and wildlife viewing

Sunday, July 17, 2016 Day around the RV, short trip to do some bird and wildlife viewing

Maximus  went to the groomer today which he badly needed and this cut hopefully will carry him till we get to Western MA.  The day went quickly as we made final preparations to leave Anchorage.  As you can see we have caught up on the blog as we don’t know how much internet we will have as we are starting to head east.  Again I will mention that we are going to visit some of the same places we did when we first started this portion of our trip back in May.  We will post when we see something very interesting to share or a new city as we cross into new Canadian Territory.  We are going to really miss Alaska in all of her beauty..

We did go to Potter Marsh Boardwalk.  It is a boardwalk over a marshy area.  We saw a pair of bald eagles and their nest with 2 juveniles still in it.  We also saw a new marsh bird to us, Yellowlegs and 2 new birds, a American Wigeon and a black capped chickadee.  It was another nice day. 

We are not sure if anyone is reading this BLOG. So if you are please leave a comment. So we can see if the interest in the BLOG is still there.

Yellowleg

Juveniles still in their nest

Black capped chickadee

American Wigeon

July 16, 2016 Boat trip on Lake Portage and Portage Glacier

Saturday, July 16, 2016 Boat trip on Lake Portage and Portage Glacier

We talked to Jim and Terry to find out how they did on the repairs on their motorhome.  They are back on the road and are staying at Portage RV Park.  What a coincidence.  So we are going to do this tour to the glacier together.

 

At one time people who visited the Visitor Center could actually touch this glacier now you have to take a ½ hour boat ride to even see it.  This glacier formed the lake and nothing lives in its waters.  So there is very little wildlife to see.  The waterfalls were nice and flowing at a good rate.  We saw icebergs in the water and as we got closer to the glacier it got colder.  We got very close to it and we did see it calve one time.  This glacier was ½ mile wide and 500 foot tall. 

We had lunch with Jim and Terry and said our farewells one more time.  I think that this is going to be our last outing together but we are going to stay in touch as they only are about 30 minutes from my sisters in New Hampshire. 

We made a pit stop at the Alaska Wild Berry Product Store.  We wanted to see the 20 foot “CHOCOLATE WATERFALL”.  This is the largest one in the world.  It contains 3400 pounds of real chocolate!  Unfortunately it is advised not to eat it.

Saw these Dall Sheep along the road on the way to Portage Glacier

THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE PICTURES

Waterfall on Portage Lake

Piece of ice that looks like a whale's tale

A bigger piece of ice

Portage Glacier

Check out the kayakers compared to the glacier

A bigger piece of ice

Extra large piece of ice

Bottom of the Chocolate Waterfall

The complete waterfall

July 12, 2016 Hanging around the Resort, July 13, 2016 On the road to Anchorage and July 14, 2016 and July 15, 2016 NO POST FOR THESE DAYS

Tuesday, July 12, 2016 Hanging around the Resort.

We went to breakfast with Jim and Terry and said our goodbyes.  We don’t know if we will see them in Anchorage or not.  Mike and I did some laundry and just relaxed with nothing on the agenda to see and do. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHERYL.

Wednesday, July 13, 2016 On the road to Anchorage

We headed back to Anchorage around Turnagain Arm again.  This drive has beautiful scenery.  It would be nice to see some Beluga whales but they have moved on.  I did see some Dall Sheep on the hillside but there was no place to stop.  This will be the 3^rd time that we have stayed at this campground.  The sites are a little tight but they are level and it is close enough to do the tourist stuff.  We are here for Pat to get her final checkup on her eyes as this is the only retina doctor in all of Alaska.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR NIECE, JAYME.

Thursday, July 14, 2016 AND Friday, July 15, 2016 NO POST FOR THESE DAYS

Mike did try to catch some more salmon but they just weren’t cooperating.  He did manage to get a 25# King salmon but he had to let it go as you weren’t allowed to keep this type of salmon.  Rats!!!!

A roadside waterfall

July 11, 2016 Boat trip to Northwest Glacier

Monday, July 11, 2016 Boat trip to Northwest Glacier

This was a 9 hr round trip through Resurrection Bay and into the open waters of the Gulf of Alaska.  The day started out with clear skies and cool temperatures.  As we entered the boat the smell of fresh baked cinnamon rolls hit us.  What a wonderful greeting!  The day started out with us stopping to check out the sea otters.  They were just chillin.  We continued and spotted a humpback whale but the captain was on a mission.  He had heard that there was a pod of some killer whales that he wanted to get to.  We did!! This is the one thing that I wanted to see.  We watched these guys for at least 20 minutes and then continued on our way.  We continued and saw harbor seals on ice and the stellar sea lions sunning on rocks.  We saw plenty of puffins and so many different birds that nest on the islands in the bay.  The next part of our trip was to look at various glaciers.  Some of these were tidewater (glaciers that reach the water), piedmont (glaciers that do not reach water and forms it’s own body of water), hanging glaciers and alpine glaciers(glaciers that are in the mountains).   The next highlight of our already fantastic day was reaching the Northwest Glacier.  Here we stopped about 45 minutes and listened to the cracking of the glaciers and we saw it calving (ice dropping into the water).   We couldn’t have asked for a better day.  We were pretty tired but Jim and Terry were again leaving us so we went out to dinner on the recommendation of the crew.  Thorn’s Restaurant is a local favorite.  We walked in and there were shelves and glass cases filled with Jim Beam bottles that the owner has collected for over 60 years.   The food was pretty good too!

Puffins

Pair of Eagles

Humpback Whale

Sea Otter

Harbor Seals

Stellars Sealions

KILLER WHALES

Our boat for the day

SIGHTS ALONG THE WAY

CAN YOU SEE ALL THE STARFISH

ONE SIDE OF NORTHWEST GLACIER

OTHER SIDE OF THE GLACIER

 

GROUP PICTURE-JIM, TERRY, MIKE & PAT

CAN YOU SEE THE FISH-MOTHER NATURE AT HER FINEST

July 10, 2016 Visit and hike to Exit Glacier and a fishing trip for Mike

Sunday, July 10, 2016 Visit and hike to Exit Glacier and a fishing trip for Mike

Mike left at 530 am and wasn’t expected back until 6 tonight. He went out about 60 miles before they started fishing and they hit a bunch of Rockfish. You can keep 4 of them and the 13 fishermen/women limited out in about 45 minutes. They moved to another spot and started hitting Halibut. We can keep 2 Halibut a day up to a total of 4 for the season. Mike had 2 from his last trip so after he caught 2 on this trip he had limited out for the season. No more Halibut for us. He still wants to try and get more Salmon before we leave but he was done for today. He got back in about 6 and we had the fish cut, bagged and in the freezer before Jim and Terry came over for dinner at the Resort. 

Jim and Terry arrived shortly after noon and off we went to find them a room for a couple of nights.  Rooms here start at about $160 and up.    We found a room and then we headed off to see Exit Glacier.

We followed the river coming down from the glacier and after about 1.5 mile hike we made it to the glacier.  Couldn’t touch it but we were close.  We also ran into Flat Stanley.  I believe that a series of books have been written about Flat Stanley.  It just tickled me. We walked the river bed and even saw someone that had a piece of ice from the glacier that was floating in the creek.  

Halibut catch of the day

Lingcod is the fish in the back row

The orange fish is Mike's and it is called Yellow Eye Rockfish

Exit Glacier from far away

FLAT STANLEY

July 8, 2016 Road trip to Seward, Alaska and July 9, 2016 Visit to the Sealife Center in Seward

Friday, July 8, 2016 Road trip to Seward, Alaska

We are leaving Kenai and it is a beautiful day.  This is only going to be a 2 hour road trip and the scenery was enjoyable.  We checked in at Seward Military resort.  Not bad for $27 a night.  We have water and 50 amp service.  The resort is very nice.  Seward is going to be our last new city or town in Alaska so the posts won't be as frequent until we have something new to show.

Received a phone call from Jim and Terry and their RV broke down so they won’t be getting a campground here but will be joining us for our boat cruise on Monday.  So Mike and I are on our own.

We checked out what we were going to do tomorrow and worked on the blog some.  Nothing exciting.

Saturday, July 9, 2016 Visit to the Sealife Center in Seward

We took the free bus down to the Sealife Center and spend a couple of hours.  The center is home to a lot of native animals and fish.  I fell in love with a little puffin by the name of Dory.  She was hand fed and loved people and she just followed me around.  I wanted to touch her but that was not allowed and I was being watched very intently by her caretaker.

 

We decided to walk back to the RV which was only 2 miles or so.  We looked in some shops, had some lunch, walked on the old Iditarod Trail.  This city has the most murals in all of Alaska and we saw a lot of them and before you knew it we were home.

Nice shot from the road

Vermillion Star

Dory the Puffin

King Eider

Plumose Anemone

Scallops

Halibut

Sunflower Starfish

MURALS ON SOME OF THE WALLS