Week 17

Monday, July 22, 2002

After a spectacular day in Denali National Park yesterday, I would have been ready to leave today, but I had a reservation for a show tonight at the Alaska Cabin Nite Dinner Theater. This show was recommended by AAA as a worth while attraction at Denali. When I attempted to make the reservation on Saturday, I was told that the soonest I could get was Monday night. I figured it must be good, so I stayed over another day. I didn’t do too much during the day. I just went to the visitor’s center for a while, stopped in a few gift shops, then went back to the RV Park and washed the princess. At about 7:00 I went to the Hotel where the dinner theater was located. First of all, I got a great seat at a table front row center. This was an informal dinner theater with large tables for 10 and parties mixed. I was at a table with several loners and we all had a great time. The show was about Alaska and how some people come there and never leave. It was a humorous take off on the trials and tribulations of cabin fever during the long cold nights of winter. There was a cast of 7 people. They were very professional and it was a great show with terrific voices, great acting and fine dancing. The food was great and included delicious ribs and baked salmon. All in all it was a great show and worth waiting for. Another late night…I left the theater and came right back to the RV Park and crashed.

Tuesday, July 23, 2002

Today is a travel day. I packed up and left the RV Park at 9:00 this morning. The highway from Denali National Park to Anchorage is a beautiful drive along mostly smooth flat road, even though there were huge mountains on both sides of the road for most of the 200 miles. I stopped for lunch at the Alaska Veterans Memorial State Park, which is a very nice monument along the side of the highway with lots of plaques honoring a number of Alaskan heroes of various wars. The state park had a terrific view of Mount McKinley and it was a fitting place to have such a monument. After leaving there, it was non-stop to Anchorage arriving shortly after 3:00 and checked in at the Ship Creek RV Park. As soon as I checked in, I went back out and took a drive around the city streets of Anchorage. I will probably take a city tour tomorrow and I plan to take in a multi-media show called The Alaska Experience. I called ahead to Homer Alaska and made a reservation for Friday and Saturday night. The salmon are running now and there are more than the usual number of tourists in the area. I was thinking about renting a car while I was here, but I called several car rental places and none of them have any cars available because of the salmon run.

Wednesday, July 24, 2002

It rained all night last night, and I slept in a little late this morning. I went to the office to check my e-mail and send Charlie week 16. Finally around Noon, I decided to take a drive around Anchorage. I drove up and down some of the main streets, and then finally parked in a city lot near the heart of town. I went to the Marine Highway office and picked up my ticket for the Alaska Ferry from Haines on August 8. Then I went to the Anchorage visitor’s center and picked up information about some of the places that I planned on going to. I wanted to take in the multi-media show, Alaska Experience, but when I finally got to the theater, I had just missed the hourly show. Earlier, I had browsed through a nice four story mall here and went to several gift shops. By the time I got to the theater, it was 6:15 and the next show was at 7:00. I decided to go to a nice crab house called Phyllis’s and had Alaska King Crab legs. The best I’ve ever had! I decided to save the Alaska Experience for tomorrow.

Thursday, July 25, 2002

It was kind of a rainy morning today, so I got a late start as usual. I went to the office and got on the internet to pay a few bills, then left early in the afternoon and took a drive around town. Anchorage is a beautiful city. It has a population of about 250,000, about half of the whole state of Alaska. There are many beautiful buildings in the city, most of them either Federal or State buildings. There are flowers everywhere, even on every streetlight there is a basket of blue and yellow flowers, the state colors. The economy is doing well mostly thankful to oil and tourism. I spent a little bit of time at a huge Office Depot store with a very big computer department, and then I went to a place called The Alaska Experience Theater. This was the only thing in Anchorage that was on my “to do” list. There are two main attractions here. The first is a theater showing a film about the famous 1964 earthquake that nearly leveled the city. I was a little disappointed at first, the 20 minute film was mostly interviews with scientists explaining the nature of earthquakes, but at the end, they showed some actual footage of the ’64 quake. As the sign indicated on the door, the whole theater shakes as you view the film of the earthquake. It is very real and does a good job of demonstrating what a frightful thing this was. Outside the theater, there were several displays with photos and newspaper articles showing the devastation. The second film was in a large dome shaped theater. It was a flight simulator, with scenes from all over Alaska. This state is so big, about one fifth of the size of the “lower 48”, the only way to really see this state is from the air. Highways only visit a small part of it. I think that I am seeing more of Alaska than most Alaskans, but this film was like a helicopter ride over the entire state from the oil fields of the Artic Ocean to the fjords and glaciers of the inland waterway. This state is by far the most beautiful of all the states.

Friday, July26,2002

This is a travel day. I left Anchorage this morning in torrential rain. The drive along the coast would have been prettier if I could have seen through the fog and rain. There were high mountains on the left of me and the waters of Cook Inlet and Turnagain Arm. The Alaska Railroad runs frequent trains on the tracks along side of the road. It is about 230 miles from Anchorage to Homer, most of it along the coast line. The highway was good with gentle grades and smooth surfaces. One stop for lunch along the way, and I arrived at Homer around 5:00. I checked in at the Oceanview RV Park. The name is justified. The view from my window is nothing but water. It’s not really the ocean, but you can’t see the other side, so it looks like the ocean. I didn’t see any wildlife today; in fact, I have been a little disappointed in the amount of wildlife that I have seen on the entire trip. I saw a few stone sheep, and Caribou and one or two Moose and a Coyote, most of them in the Yukon. Then of course I did see lots of wildlife on the Denali tour, but I wasn’t driving. I did see my first Glacier today. It was from quite a distance, but I could see it pretty well. I hope to take a cruise in a few days and see more glaciers.

Saturday, July 27, 2002

When I checked into Oceanview RV Park, I was told apologetically that I would have to move on the second night. It seems that a caravan would be arriving on Saturday and my space was promised to the caravan. Since I was planning on going into town, it was no big deal. The town of Homer is a small town, but there is another place called Homer Spit. This is a long strip of land that extends out into Cook Inlet for several miles. It is filled with fishing boat charter services and gift shops and greasy spoon restaurants. Actually it was quite a neat place, and I spent most of the day there. Since I don’t care much for fishing, I didn’t go on one of the fishing trips. I probably should have gone, because they say that Homer is the fishing capital of the world. I know a lot of place make this claim, but you should have seen the Halibut and Salmon they caught. Every trip came back with lots of huge fish. Around 5:30, I went to the only AAA recommended restaurant in Homer. It is called Land’s End, and it was at the very end of the road. I had the Seafood Quartet and it was delicious.

Sunday, July 28, 2002

I left Homer early this morning and headed up the Sterling Highway retracing my route of Friday for 142 miles back to the Seward Highway. The Seward Highway runs from Anchorage to Seward, but Friday I took it from Anchorage to its junction with the Sterling Highway. Today I am taking it the rest of the way to Seward. I did not make a reservation for the night, because too often, I found that there was a better place to park after I got to the place that I reserved. My three campground directories did not show much in the Seward area, but I had faith that I would find a good spot. I was right! When I got to Seward, I stopped at the visitor’s center and found that there is a city owned camping area right on the Resurrection Bay. It is a fabulous place. There are hundreds of RVs here and it is walking distance from town. There is a very nice place called the Alaska Sealife Center. It is kind of like an aquarium, but it was different than any other aquarium that I have been to. It is more of a research center and there was experimentation going on in almost every tank. I found it very interesting, and I was surprised to find such an elaborate museum in this small town. I walked back to the campsite through the business district. It is a neat little town with some nice stores and restaurants. I had dinner, then returned to the campground just in time to watch a cruise ship go right past where I was parked.