July 23…The end of the pipeline that is.  Today we reached Valdez and we stayed at Eagles Rest.  I really enjoyed our stay at this campground. It had a lot to do with our wonderful neighbors who live in North Pole, Ak. (you know who you are ;-).  We were unable to book a charter for halibut fishing and they were nice enough to swap some of their halibut for some of our sockeye (red) salmon.  The boys and I haven’t been able to try the halibut yet, but Nana said it was delicious.  We hope our lovely neighbors keep in touch with us. They had recommended eating at Old Town Burgers and it was delicious.  Nana had fried halibut (shocking) and the boys and I enjoyed our burgers.

July 24 – Our second day here we went on a Stan Stephens Tour of the Prince William Sound.  We had a great time even though the tour was for nine hours to see the Mears Glacier.  I had hoped to go on the Columbia Glacier tour as it’s six hours but there were no available seats.  There were several caravans in the area so we were just happy to be able to get a tour without much advance notice.

We truly had a great time on the tour.  We were able to see several rafts of otters lying on their backs resting in the water, puffins swimming and flying around the water, sea lions lazing about soaking in the sun, a humpback whale and her calf, and the most exciting site of all, a glacier calving.  I am not sure what my mom or the kids liked best, but I was thrilled to see the whale and her calf.  Since whales can be under water significant amounts of time, we were fortunate to see one with a calf.  Since she had her calf, she surfaced whenever her calf needed to.

July 25 – We spent today doing some laundry and general housekeeping on the RV.  Nana and I dragged the kids to eat lunch at the Totem Pole.  This is a hotel with a restaurant and gift shop in it.  Nana was glad to see a shop as it’s pretty much the only gift shop in town (in the traditional gift shop format).  There were some small multipurpose stores that seemed to be a couple businesses combined.

Tomorrow we begin our journey towards Haines, AK.   Pictures will be uploaded when we have a more consistent internet signal.

Later Y’all

July 22 – We are heading towards Valdez (pronounced Val-deez unless you want to be laughed at).  Since we are traveling on roads that we don’t know the conditions of, we have decided to only do a three hour trip today.  Once you factor in stopping in pullouts for scenic views (and not so scenic potty breaks) and slowing down for road conditions, our trip took about four hours and fifteen minutes.  We chose to stay at Northern Nights located in Glennallen.  This is a nice stopping spot for the night.  We were able to fill up at a gas station just a bit before the campground and across from the gas station is an IGA for groceries.

Brian and I did discover that the IGA is about 1.6 miles from the campground as we walked there.  We both thought my mom said it was a short walk to IGA.  Turns out it’s a bit more than a short walk.  Brian decided to get a cookie ice cream sandwich to enjoy on the long walk back.  As long as the walk was, I enjoyed having time to spend with just Brian.

Tomorrow we will head off to Valdez.

Later Y’all

July 21 – Today we did a short 2.5 hour drive from Seward to Anchorage.  We stayed at Anchorage Ship Creek RV Park.  There are a few pros to this park.  It is near the trains, the coast, and the Ulu factory.  There is a con as well: the trains.  We were gone most of the day so the trains didn’t bother us.  In fact, you can walk over to the Ulu factory from the Park and sit and watch the trains and people watch.

Since we have had such a hectic pace recently, we decided to take a bit of a break today and do some restocking from Walmart and Fred Myers before heading out for our last two weeks in Alaska. Nana and I went to see Sabrina at Salon Demetri to get our hair done (I feel soooo much better now) while the boys played video games.

We all enjoyed our peaceful day of rest and look forward to continuing our trip.

Later Y’all

July 17 – We took a four hour drive from Anchorage down to Homer.  It was a lovely drive.  We occasionally were able to see the volcanoes across the cook inlet.  The first view of the spit in Homer is breathtaking if you have a clear day.  We stayed at Heritage RV Park for two days. This campground offers driving spaces that face the water.  Our first night Nana chose to sleep in the drivers seat to watch the view instead of sleeping.  If you are in the mood for a great restaurant we highly recommend AJ’s Oldtown Steakhouse & Tavern.  This kids loved their burgers and fries while Pat and I enjoyed our steaks.  Nana, as usual, ordered seafood and really enjoyed it.

July 18 – The most exciting part of our trip was taking the boys salmon fishing on the Kenai river.  We have never fished for salmon before.  I have only fished in lakes and deep sea fishing.  We were fishing for sockeye salmon with just weights and bare hooks.  We were originally scheduled for noon but received “THE CALL” at 6 am that their first boat caught their limit and we were up.  We scrambled to get ready and headed out to Soldotna which is 1.5 hours north of Homer.  We chose Alaska Fishing with Mark Glassmaker. Our guide was Derek and he was fantastic.  He made sure that we all had a great time.  Sean now loves fishing and we always knew that Brian liked it.  We each caught our limit and we finished within 2.5 hours.  We were very fortunate to have such great weather and to have a guide who knew just the right spot.  We did get our fish vacuum packed and flash frozen for us so we can take it home and split the goods up between family and friends.  The boys like it so much they have asked to fish again.

Later Y’all

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July 15 – We arrive in Anchorage! For the last week we have been hearing people telling us that the Golden Nugget in Anchorage is not a good place to stay.  We almost changed our plans to stay there and we are glad we didn’t.  I am not sure if we lucked out on our spot (#109) or if we just have totally different expectations than others.

We had a level gravel site with full hookups that we backed into.  I was happy to see the site across from me was empty as it helped me to back in very easily.  It was only empty as we arrived at 1pm.  I believe if we arrived early evening the empty site would have been full, but I still could have backed into the space fairly easily.  The only time I felt it was tight was about 6pm when everyone seemed to come back to the campground after the days activities.  Some sites had more than one vehicle parked there and parked one on the road which could cause it to be tight to get in at night.  Their washrooms were excellent.  Nana did a ton of laundry.  While we do have a washer and dryer in the RV, we prefer to wash jeans and towels at the campground laundry as they have a better dryer.

Our first afternoon here we went to the tourist area down by the water. We ate lunch at Hard Rock Cafe, bought a few shirts and looked at some tourist gift shops.  I decided that the kids weren’t going to last (and neither would Pat) so I dropped them off at the trailer.  Half an hour later I was back where I left Nana and she was gone!  What was even worse was her leaving her cell phone in the RV to charge it.  Forty-five minutes later she comes back to where I left her.  After a discussion about never making me worry like that again, we went over to visit my best friends cousin, Sabrina.  She is the owner of Salon Demetri.  If you are in Anchorage I highly recommend stopping by to see her.  The salon is just outside of Nordstrom which is connected to the Mall.  Sabrina suggested we eat dinner at Simon & Seafort’s.  If you have a chance to eat here, and don’t mind dropping some money, the food is fantastic.  There was an hour wait to get in so we ate at the bar.  My filet was fabulous and my mom loved her salmon.  She still loves the salmon she had at Sourdough Campground in Tok more.

July 16 – Today Brian, Sean, and Pat headed out to Palmer, AK to do an ATV excursion.  According to Pat, this was a much better, and more rugged trip.  All of them totally loved this trip and highly recommend it.  We found them through the toursaver coupon book that we purchased to use in AK.

While the boys were playing, Nana and I went just down the road from the boys to the Musk Ox Farm.  Nana really enjoyed learning more about the Musk Ox.  She also enjoyed checking out the gift store as well.  She seems to think that they are cute.  Apparently we have totally different definitions of cute.

We all met back at the RV and Nana was nice and watched Sean while Pat, Brian, and I went to do a Segway Tour of Anchorage.  We had a lot of fun on them.  The have a max speed and since your not encased in a vehicle you feel like your really moving.  We were all shaky for the first minute but then we got the hang of it.  Its a bit like skiing.  So much so that we got off every 30 minutes or so to stretch our legs.  You can really feel it in your calves.

Later Y’all

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Hot Rod Mama

July 13- Today we had multiple adventures.  We went ATVing, visited Husky Homestead and Pat and Brian went on a Jeep Excursion.  My mom was a bit reluctant to go on the ATV adventure.  She is not into a bumpy ride or speed.  She prefers nice and slow so she can take in the scenery.  We lost our small camera (thanks Pat) so all we have are a few pictures I took with my cell phone.  We all had a good time and would have had a great time except it was very, very dusty. I don’t know how many showers it will take to finally feel clean.  When we booked the ATV tour they had a combo deal that included a visit to Husky Homestead.

Puppy Love

Husky Homestead is owned by Jeff King (4 time winner of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race).  Everyone loved holding the puppies except Sean (who was worried about being licked) and Pat who wanted to take pictures instead.  I am sure it didn’t have anything to do with how adorable the puppies were and how much Brian has been begging to get a dog.  After an overload of cuteness, we switch over to viewing Jeff taking a group of dogs out for a practice using an ATV.  The dogs were all yammering, hoping to get a turn.  As soon as they were hooked up they got down to business and ran.  Our final step was listening to Jeff as he talked about the Iditarod Race.  After all the running around we went to grab some dinner before Brian and Pat headed off to the Jeep Excursion.

Pat and Brian loved the Jeep Excursion.  They started with a white jeep and it ended up completely tan in the end.  There jeep was equipped with a snorkel and they needed it.  We don’t have very many pictures as Pat was busy driving.  According to Brian, Husky Homestead was better but only because he got to hold a puppy.

Later Y’all

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July 12 – Today we did a bus shuttle into Denali National Park.  We had hoped to go on a tour with a naturalist.  However, I did not call early enough to get the tickets.  I should have called a week ahead instead of just three days.  Our shuttle bus driver, Kim, was fantastic. She was doing the Kantishna Shuttle which totals 12 hours.  Six hours each way.  Knowing the kids would never last the whole day, we opted to fly back to an airstrip just outside the entrance.  We saw four grizzlies, one moose, four Caribou, and one ptarmigan. Brian and I were really hoping for a wolf as there are 12 packs in the park but our luck was gobbled up by stellar views of…(da da dum) THE MOUNTAIN.

Pat joined us today after flying into Anchorage and driving a rental car up to Denali.  We at dinner at the Salmon Bake which we highly recommend.  There is a variety of food.  Brian loved their burgers and our service was stellar.  Tomorrow we have a full day planned so we are off to bed early.

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Take care Y’all