Valdez – August 3rd

Kim, Kurt and granddaughters arrived on schedule, almost! As their flight into Anchorage was preparing to land a passenger decided to go to the bathroom and took his briefcase with him. Big no no! The flight attendants knocked on the door and told him, using the P.A., that he needed to return to his seat or the plane could not land. He ignored their requests so the plane pulled out of the landing sequence and started to circle. He finally returned to his seat but everyone was very peeved, to say the least, because he made everyone more than a half hour late! The kids never found out what, if anything happened to him.

We had a fun 6 days with them. Kurt went out on a halibut fishing charter boat and caught his limit and the limit for the three other people who were on board. While he was fishing the rest of us went out on a cruise from Homer to Seldovia across Kachemak Bay. Saw lots of sea birds and sea otters, our favorite because they’re so cute. Seldovia was one of the first settlements on the Kenai Peninsula but the 1964 earthquake caused lots of damage and it never really recovered. Now it’s just a quaint little town that can be explored on foot.

We hiked up to Exit Glacier one day and visited the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center another. Our clamming adventure was very successful thanks to Kurt. We would scout for the clam air holes and Kurt would do the digging. Other people on the beach came over to find out our secret and ask if we were locals. I think they were surprised to find out we were from California. Kurt cleaned the clams and cooked them in butter and garlic the next morning. I didn’t partake because I don’t care for clams but I was told they were good.

Kurt went salmon fishing in the Kenai River several times with success. And we all went on a 6 mile hike to and from the Russian River Falls. We had hoped to see the salmon jumping up the falls and maybe a bear or two trying to catch them. No luck with either! We did see some salmon in the pools at the bottom of the falls but none of them were in the mood to jump. And the only sign of bears was some berry filled bear scat on the trail to the falls.

On the last day of their visit we went to see the cannery that Kurt worked at during summer break from college. The area where they camped was still there and mostly unchanged. It brought back lots of good memories for him.

After they left we needed to take care of some chores like laundry and haircuts for both of us. Terri, tell Kathy that I no longer have a wedge hair style. The stylist talked me into a very short haircut and I’m trying to get used to it. Now I no longer have my nice fingernails or my hair. I’m turning into an Alaskan!

We arrived in Valdez yesterday, August 2^nd and are camped right on the water at the Sea Otter RV Park. We have water and electric hookups and the best part is the WiFi connection. What luxury after days and days of dry camping!!

Today we’re going to explore some waterfalls and a glacier we passed on the way here. We’ll probably leave tomorrow and start heading for home. We have to backtrack to Tok and Whitehorse to catch the Cassiair Highway down through British Columbia with a stop in Hyder to hopefully see more grizzly bears. With any luck we’ll be home the end of August.