May 22

You must get up very early in Alaska to see a sunrise!

Today Charlie and our workamper friend Rich are going on a Charter Fishing Trip!

Deb and I are going to HOMER, AK with them to find our own advernture and hopefully to bring fish home for cooking!  We left at 3 am and watched as these pictures came on the sunrise!

CHARLIE
AND RICH PREPARING TO LEAVE FOR THE DAY!

IS THIS ALL I AM GOING TO CATCH??????

HALIBUT!  JUST THE REASON WE CAME !!

RICH CAUGHT A KING SALMON AS WELL AS HAILBUT.  THANKS FOR SHARING THE MEAT WITH US!

Halibut everywhere!  Each person had a limit of two!

Our two halibut are fillets in the freezer now and will be many meals!

Deb and I had breakfast after the guys left and then enjoyed this visitor center.  It had wonderful exhibits and films to watch.  There was a walkway in the back that took you down to the water.
  We also found a great bakery in Homer!

As we walked down to the Homer spit, we enjoyed watching this juvenile eagle with his catch!  He was so busy eating and watching, I was able to get quite close to him for pictures!

Then back to Kenai and to our campsite for a day or two of rest!

Olivia, the potbelly pig decided to make her home our front yard for a day.  She has only been by to say hello since then!

These goats are around the ranch and get petted as tours of kids come!  The white momma is a little more shy for petting.

This is OBAMA the LLAMA, interacting with Cali the dog.  Trying to make a new friend!

This week we have had a few days of rest and a few days of work and learning!

IT IS GOING TO BE A FUN SUMMER!

May 19 & 20

Coastal Classic Train  -  Anchorage to Seward

May 19
Station at the 
Alaska Railroad
Train left 6:45 am
Return 10:15 pm
WE HAD A FULL DAY!

This early in the year the train was not crowded. Our seats were on the lower level, but we were able to move to the upper dome car which made our viewing so much better.  The Railroad staff were fun and full of information along the way!

There was a light rain all the way on the train ride to Seward, so you can see that with most of my pictures.
Below is a glacier we could see from the train.

We did see a moose with two very young babies!  Sorry, I was on the wrong 

side of the train and simply was not fast enough to get a picture!

The railroad track is divided into blocks.  There was a sign to begin and another to end each block.  Only one train can be traveling within a block at one time.  This is for safety purposes!

Alaska Sealife Center
Seward, Alaska
Terrific Place!

Can you believe the performance of this Sea Lion??  Next 3 photos!

Our friends and fellow Workampers, Rich and Deb. 

We are getting acquainted and having a great dinner on the train!  

The food was fantastic and everyone in the dining car was so friendly!

Highline poles are still there for part of this trip.  Many still have the glass insulators on them.  The wire has all been taken down and sold - copper wire worth a lot.  You can see by the insulators, there were a lot of strings of wire!  Plans were to take the poles down, but seems there is no money in them.

This building houses a cannon to shoot into the snow and to create a controlled  avalanche.

These trees are dead because of the 1964 earthquate in Alaska.  Sea water came into this area and killed the trees.
The locals say the ground shook  for a full 15 minutes!

May 20                     We are now finally headed, with our RV, to Kenai, Alaska!

OUR DESTINATION!        WE MADE IT!           YAHOO!!!!

Then the next part of our adventure!  

Charlie backed us in and forgot that he was not in that Chevy truck with the long wheel base.  This short wheel base Ford just can not do a 90 degree turn from the fifth wheel.  The trailer hit the back window and it shattered with the sound of a gun shot!  We all jumped, but no one was hurt!  Will get a new window next week.

Our campsite next to the fish cleaning station.
Notice the crash wrap on the back window.  Feels like we are driving with saran wrap on the back!

THE WELCOME MAT IS OUT!  COME ON OVER!  

WE WOULD LOVE TO SEE YOU!

May 17 -18

WE ARE ALMOST THERE!

We stayed here at the
Red Eagle Lodge between

Tok and Glennallen.
Had a great breakfast here on
Tuesday morning before leaving.

The best part about Red Eagle was the people.  Here's Judy and her helper, Walker.  It is like her ad in the Milepost says, "What guests remember is the spirit of the Roadhouse - meals served by the fire, stories shared with fellow travelers, and a good night's sleep for tomorrow's adventure".
We felt that attitude!
Thank you,
Judy and Walker

Watched this snowshoe rabbit play around our trailer that night!

This is it for the wildlife today!

The view on the way to Anchorage!   OK, you may be tired 

of these pictures, but I simply couldn't choose one or two!

Do notice the clouds as well as the mountains!

These two pictures are trying to show the difference in how green everything has gotten as we near Anchorage.  We watched for 2-3 days everything become green!

While in Anchorage we visited the ALASKA NATIVE HERITAGE CENTER.  It was fantastic and we learned so very much about the native Alaskans! Here are two of our guides.

This is where food was stored away from animals.

One of the Native Cultures had houses like this.  The large one in the back was for the men and boys older than five.  The smaller houses were the women and young children.

These whale bones were placed near the opening of the underground (or under ice) homes of one of the Alaskan cultures.  Since all was snow and white, it would show the hunters the location of the home.

The white outline on this native dress are buttons.

Alaska's Native people are divided into eleven distinct cultures, speaking 21
different languages.


The Heritage Center showed the diversity of five different cultures in the way they lived and in different areas of Alaska.

Above shows where we walked around this lake to visit an example of each different culture's home.

TOMORROW IS THE TRAIN RIDE!