More eagles

7/21

Sunday

We took a drive further down the Oil Well Road, where we are staying.  We were told it is a 20 mile drive with about 2/3 of it on gravel.  It was a pretty drive with wild Fireweed flowers as far as you could see.  There was change in elevation and several small lakes along the way.  After about 15 miles we decided to turn around and head back.  We had a low tire indicator showing the right rear tire was low; so we stopped and checked all of the tires, they all looked good.  When we hit the paved area we immediately heard a noise that did not sound good.  We stopped right away and found a flat tire, not the right rear but rather the left rear tire.  We did not see a nail or any cause for the flat so after airing it up, we continued our drive home.  The indicator showed we lost about 4 pounds of pressure before we got back.  When we got home, Forest pulled the wheel off and was able to find where there was a small cut in the tire.  So he plugged it and aired it up again.  We will get it checked out tomorrow when we drive down to Homer for the day.  Guess we always need a little excitement to start the week off.

fireweed is taller than Cindy

Monday

We visited the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center in Homer.

Picked up Prawns to boil up at home.  Best boiled shrimp in all of the Kenai Peninsula and the MOST expensive shrimp we ever bought.  We paid $27 for a dozen and a half shrimp!  That worked out to $1.50/shrimp!  About 20-25 count.  Pretty expensive appetizer.

Tuesday

Drove down to the shore to see the eagles.  Drove back to the pond to look for moose, none to be seen.

don't know who Bob Chenier is but here is his memorial

Thursday

Drove out to Homer for the Skyline Drive.  Scenic drive with several pullouts with views of Downtown Homer, the Spit and Kachemak Bay.  Views of the mountains, glaciers and Cook Inlet.  The Harding Ice Field on the far side of Kachemak Bay is the source of over 30 glaciers covering over 300 square miles.  The three most visible glaciers closest to Halibut Cove are Growing, Portlock and DIxion Glaciers which you see from the East End Road and the Skyline Drive.  There are two more, Wosnesenski and Doroshin, which also can be seen from Homer beyond Post Peak and China Post Bay.

We had lunch at Lighthouse Seafood Grill overlooking Cook Inlet. 

Saturday

Drove out to Kenai.  Watched the dip netters fishing for salmon at the mouth of the Kenai River.  

Lunch in Soldotna at Frosos Family Dining Restaurant.

Sunday

Took it easy.  Attended Mass at 12:30 and received a special blessing from Father for our 41st wedding anniversary on Monday.

Lunch at Keen Kow Thai Food, very tasty and leftovers to bring home.  

After lunch we stopped at the Ninilchik General Store for an ice cream cone for dessert.  We each ordered a waffle cone.  Well we could have ordered ONE waffle cone to share with a family.  These were the largest ice cream cones we had ever had.  The young man filling the cones said he does them the way HE would want one made. 

 He first added a couple of small scoops of ice cream that he carefully packed into the bottom of the cone until the cone was filled almost to the top.  He then packed three or four scoops of ice cream together forming a very LARGE scoop of ice cream which he placed on the top of the cone.  Each of our cones contained more than enough to fill a pint size ice cream container.  WOW!  Had we known the cones were so large we would have skipped lunch and just had ice cream.  I guess we should have gotten cones from here last week when we first arrived.

Cindy couldn't wait for the picture, me either!

Monday

Happy 41st Anniversary to us!

We woke to the prettiest, clearest day since we arrived here in Ninilchik.  We were paid up here till today so we needed to decide if we wanted to stay longer or move on.  Since it was such a clear day, and it was MONDAY, we decided to take a drive down to check out the Deep Creek Campground on the beach.  Most weekends this campground is full but empties out during the week.  As we were hoping there were a couple of sites open right along the beach.  We spoke with the campground host and she allowed us to “tag” a site “occupied” until we could return with the coach.  That is what we did!  We drove back to All Seasons and finished getting things put away to move.  It is only a 5 mile drive and we were back in no time.  We are now parked right on the beach overlooking Cook Inlet, Mt Redoubt and Mt Iliamna (the two volcanos) across the inlet.  What a beautiful view!  

this otter has been floating around all day

one of the tractors they use to launch boats

you can see the volcano steaming

The tide was coming in by the time we got parked about 11am.  We took a walk down the beach and spotted a few eagles up on the bluff.  There were lots of seagulls all along the beach.  During the afternoon we walked out again along the beach and along Deep Creek to view the eagles.  In the evening we saw the tide going out again exposing a much deeper shore.  The tide ranges about 20+ feet with 2 low tides each day.

Tuesday

We got up to low tide and spotted a few eagles sitting out along the beach sunning themselves.  Everything out to the water was calm and peaceful.  We saw no movement except for the birds, looks like everyone is sleeping in this morning.

We will drive in to Soldotna today to do a little shopping.  We plan to stay here a few night to enjoy the views before moving on up to Fairbanks.