We stop at Kodiak at 3:45am in the morning and get to Homer at 2pm tomorrow afternoon. In hindsight it may have been a good idea to fly back from Dutch Harbor instead of taking the ferry back. I love the ferry but I think Tom and Charlie might be a little bored. Charlie and I are taking turns using the computer - he is listening to music and playing games, I like to listen to music, work on my photos, email, etc. Actually I could stay on this boat for a long time - and this is not even a really nice cruise boat. Tom and I seriously are considering a cruise now - because this ferry rider has been so pleasant. I don't know where to though. Just the water, the mountains, the slight sway of the boat - it is really relaxing. Here are some new photos.

Another view of the moon reflection early this morning. We actually get some darkness here.

Tom and Charlie on the deck of the ferry. Notice how similar they look - no question as to the relationship of these two.

This is a good idea of the visibility fromthe front of the boat during the foggy times.

I like this photo of the church because it appears that they simply dug out the side of the mountain to make room for it.

Another sunrise photo...

We spent the day in Dutch Harbor - a beautiful little town and it was a sunny day - something they very seldom have here. Tom rented a car and we drove in to see a lovely Russian Orthodox church, the World War II memorial, and ate lunch at the Grand Aleutian Hotel. I loved their gift shop and bought stuffed animals - cod, salmon, wolverine, swan, etc. I will have quite a collection of Alaskan stuffed animals when I return to Chevak. Gots lots of nice photos. We are now on the way back and approaching Akutan - a very tiny village. I shall post some photos today.


This Russian Orthodox Church is hundreds of years old. They are restoring the "icons" for $10,000 to $40,000 each


Looking at the right hand side of the photo - there is a big container of freshly caught fist. They are being sucked up in yellow vacuum cleaner hose and transported over to the sorting box. Quite an operation and they had quite an attentive audience.


Tom got up at dawn this morning and took this beautiful photo of sunrise.


This beautiful mountain is actually still an active volcano.

Tom got his name drawn in a lottery to go on a natural history tour of Cold Bay. He got some very nice photos and I am sharing two of them below. Charlie walked in with a friend and got the whale head photo. We land in Dutch Harbor tomorrow. Lovely scenery all around - and some whales.


Charlie poses with a whale head.


Tom took this photo of a chocolate orchid on the island of Cold Bay.


Tom also took this very nice photo of a ground squirrel, also on the island of Cold Bay.

Saw these beautiful mountains near Sand Point today. The scenery just doesn't stop - it's will be green and close up, then snowcapped in the distance and then jagged rocky mountains - all mixed in together.

Well, it has been a wonderful day. Best part first: Chevak has been awarded a $268,000 library grant (Improving Literacy through School Libraries) for this school year and guess who wrote it! Ann Bender, that’s who! We are going to get $30,000 for books, $40,000 for audiovisual materials, $40,000 for computers and presentation equipment, $10,000 for additional shelving, and thousands more for other stuff. What fun it will be to administer this grant and spend this money.

The sun has been out all day and the weather just beautiful. Most of the crowd has left the ferry so there is now lots of space everywhere and it is not so crowded. We are left with mainly older folks though and a couple of families. We are enjoyed beautiful scenery all day long and of course at 9:30 tonight it is still broad daylight. We saw several whales - rather their tales - earlier today. I am just going to post a few photos today.


One of the many unusual mountains along the coast.



That's me on a sunny warm day.



This small village was called Chiknik, I'll have to check on that spelling. You must be a fisherman to live here.




A photo of the infamous trash can from the first night.



Charlie and Ann computing and movie watching and listening to music.



This is a typical example of how people just settle in on the solarium deck.



Charles is sleeping in our wonderful cabin. These beds were so comfortable after the floor from the night before.



Charlie does not like getting his photo made, but he will smile on occasion.



They call this Castle Rock.



This was on the first day when the wind and fog and rain were blowing around fast and furious. You couldn't see 20 feet off the boat.



Thomas in the blowing wind and rain.





I meant to post this photo of Charlie about to go kayaking but forgot all about it. Tom road in back. They had a wonderful time. I have some rafting photos also - from the Six Mile Creek - level V at one point. I need a scanner to copy the photo though. I believe it was the perfect "manly" trip for them. They are not so impressed with my Aleutian Island ferry cruise. Not enough to do. If I had 40 hours in the day, I still couldn't run out of stuff to get done.

Charlie told us at dinner tonight that while I was in the women’s restroom with the seasick folks, he was in the men’s for almost an hour. At one point he was lying face down on the floor. An Asian man came in and said, “Friend, are you okay?” Charlie didn’t move his head but did raise his arm and gave him a thumbs up. Then the Asian man proceeded to the stall to be seasick himself. What a day! Tom and I had been so worried about me we were pretty much ignorant of the fact that Charlie was also in distress. But all’s well now - we got our cabin at 4pm, drug up our luggage to a secluded area on the 2nd floor and fell into our respective beds and slept soundly for two hours. I had been worried that neither Tom nor Charlie would ever forgive me for bringing them on this trip – but a good rest and a cheeseburger in the dining hall have made each of us feel a lot better. I think we are going to be okay. We are watching movies and reading tonight in the privacy of our climate controlled room, We saw our two buddies we had been talking with a lot, two single men, and they were really kidding us about our “condo” since they are still sleeping down there in the “whatever” room. We have seen some really interesting scenery – but it is really rainy and foggy and cold. Hopefully we will have some sun tomorrow. I do feel like we are very far away from the familiar.

We just landed and swapped passengers at Port Lions. Their school has 42 students so I guess there is no library job available. We will land in the city of Kodiak in about two hours. Tom and Charlie plan to disembark and possibly rent a car a drive around a bit. Maybe they will go to the Coast Guard station and visit the commissary to buy some sodas. They might decide to just walk around on land for a while. It is 10:33 right now and Charlie has only opened his eyes twice - once to drink a coke for breakfast and once to ask where we were. He is not pleased about the arrangements.

So, let me describe the arrangements. This ship has about four areas for passengers, one place is the cabins, of which we will have one at 2pm this afternoon - thank heavens. The second area is the dining area -very nice. And the third is the solarium - a place where sleeping bags and tents are set up on the top floor. The fourth place is where most everyone is - the whatever - a lot of seats and a few booths with tables. Last night there were people sleeping in the seats, under the tables, in the booths, around on the floor and in the walkways. It was dark so you could hardly see anyone - but you could sure hear the snoring and body movements. I was working on my computer till late last night when Tom came to get me to get some sleep. I went over to the seats with him and tried to go to sleep sitting up. No way. The boat was really rocking we had some rough weather last night. Then people started throwing up. You couldn't see them, but you could hear them. Finally I had mentally and emotionally convinced myself that I was going to do the same. It was stuffy so I talked Tom into going outside with me where it was very fresh - but cold and wet and windy. We kept going back and forth till finally we went up to the solarium where we could sit but still get fresh air. Finally I got sick enought to throw up - several times. I'm in a dark place, with people sleeping all over the place and I'm hung over the trash can. Tom was wonderful. He held on to me and helped me and stood there while I sat in the only chair available by the trash can. We were up there till probably 3 am by the trash can. I had him go down and get the one sleeping bag we had brought, spread it out right by the trash can and went to sleep on it. Usually I can't do that - sleep on the floor - especially without pillows. But last night I lay down flat on that sleeping bag with Tom and both of us went fast to sleep - sound sleeping for about and hour and half. When we woke up it was getting light already. We went back down to the seats and got settled - I never want to go through that again.

Charlie had been sleeping soundly on the floor on his sleeping bag till Tom got it away from him in the middle of the night - so he is not in a very good mood.

Eveything will be better in about three hours when our berth opens up. There are four beds in there, a table, sink, and privacy. We are going over rough weather again now. A wildlife film about Alaska is showing so it is quieter. Some people are still sleeping, some have food out on the tables snacking, others are computing or movie watching, some are just talking in dirrerent languages. It is sort of stuffy. I'm just glad I chose to get that berth - seven days of this crowd......

Oh before we left last night Tom ordered a pizza from Starvin Marvins Pizza. They said 45 minutes - so Tom is outside the terminal waiting. I had a conversation going with another passenger inside the terminal who told me that they had seen a pizza man in the Salty Dog trying to sell or give away some pizzas. About 10 minutes later Tom came in and said he had called Starvin Marvins back and was told the pizza guy had been fired that he had decided to go drinking at Starvin Marvins. We gave up on the pizza.

We have seen otters and thousands of birds. Lots of Puffins. Weather is foggy, cold, and rainy.
I may post again later this evening - after Kodiak. Maybe Charlie will be awake by then.

It is late Tuesday. We are on the ferry after a long, long day. I woke up all clogged. Puffy eyes, stuffy nose, sore throat, and sneezing. I knew there was no doctor on the ferry and I knew I had to get fixed before I left on this seven-day voyage. That took almost the entire morning counting the time we had to wait for the prescription at Walmart. Dr. Reeves gave me predisone so it would knock the allergies out by the time I got on the ferry at 10 pm. He is so thoughtful and we both really like him because he actually listens. I mean he took into consideration that I had to get to feeling better in the next 12 hours – and gave me the necessary medicine to do just that. I’m also on Allegra again.

Okay, the ferry is huge. When cars and transfer trucks drive on they go down on an elelvator so that means that the vessel is worthy of high seas. At least that is what this guy told me that has taken this voyage the last 14 years. He won’t do it again because the prices have gone up so. He says it makes more sense to take one of the cruise ships.

I am sitting at a nice little booth table. We have our big bags over by our seats which are like recliners on the airplane but bigger. We actually won’t get our cabin until tomorrow night after all the folks disembark at Kodiak. Then we get our cabin with windows and four beds. We have so much luggage and one suitcase just of food. Tom says never again – that suitcase was too heavy. We brought canned chunky soup and tuna for lunch every day. We brought muffins for breakfast and we brought our coffee maker with cremora and splenda and our own special mugs and lots of tea bags. Then we brought cheese, crackers, cookies, candy, chips, and that’s why Tom, after lugging that huge bag on board, said “Never again!”

I just bought a week’s worth of internet for $36.00. There are no refunds so hope I will be lucky once we are out to sea to get a connection every once and a while. Okay, Charlie is now going to share his YouTube favorites with me. Hope we don’t start laughing too loud.

It’s late Thursday night and I am watching a French movie titled Bob Le Flambeur. We drove into Elmendorf about 10:30. It has been a pretty long day but let me tell you about yesterday first and then we’ll get to the mess today. We ate breakfast with Carmen and her family. Then Tom and Charlie went to get the Kennecutt Mine Tour. The plan was to come back and pick me up for lunch. I didn’t go on the tour because, well, my knee that I have not tended to was hurting. Tom and Charlie had to go park the truck, then walk across a bridge into McCarthy, then catch a tram up to the mine. I didn’t see them again until 2 in the afternoon and they were dead tired from all the climbing up and down those restored mine buildings. We had lunch in the gazebo that Carmen and John had built and then we all went and took a nap. I had spent the morning going through all my photographs on my computer and getting rid of duplicates. The three of us slept for two solid hours. We ate supper again with Carmen. Then afterwards, John took Charlie and Tom up separately in his airplane – the one he built. I will just insert here that John and Carmen have pretty much built everything on their property – barns, tire repair shop, cabin, houses, gazebos, fences, paths, airplane hangers, root cellar, and more. I was a little overwhelmed – it would take me and Tom a year to build a gazebo and we would probably never finish it! Anyway – the small plane ride was a first for Charlie and I think he was pretty nervous getting in and taking off. He said once they were up in the air, everything was great – they flew over Hidden Lake, some glaciers, the mine, and much more. They were in the air a good 45 minutes. Then it was Tom’s turn - same trip but the landing was a little “bumpy.” Tom had a great time – he loves that stuff and took loads of photos. When they flew over Carmen’s retirement home, John opened the door and leaned out and took the photo. Really. He’s a great pilot and don’t forget he built the plane.

After a wonderful breakfast this morning we left Carmen and family and headed back out on the dirt and gravel road to Chitina. Charlie drove us out. At about the 50 mile mark, only ten miles from Chitina, I said, “Charlie you are doing great. I believe you are going to beat Dad’s time by almost half an hour.” About a minute later Tom said, “Pull over, the front right tire is flat.” Okay, I spoke too soon and jinxed everything. It was all my fault. But it was just a flat and we had a good spare.

Tom and Charlie got out. I remained in the truck. After a while I realized it was taking entirely too long to get the spare out. I hopped out and saw the situation and quickly got back in the truck. That spare wasn’t coming out. Tom said the turning bar was stripped. Several people stopped but Tom said everything was fine. So they went on. After about 45 minutes of fooling around I suggested that Charlie hitch a ride into town and call AAA and if that didn’t work, to call Carmen – cause that family is pretty much prepared for any situation that might arise in the Alaska wilderness. I gave Charlie some cash, my calling card, my AAA card and Carmen’s phone numbers. He hitched a ride with the next car that came by. Happened to be a couple on their honeymoon from New Hampshire and he had to talk to them the whole way in. Remember you can only go about 20-25 miles an hour on this road and sometimes you have to creep, so it takes a while to drive ten miles. Back at the truck, you can imagine the situation. Dee had told me when she was here that sometimes it was best just to be quiet. So I just be’d quiet. It was hot but a cool breeze was blowing. I helped Tom put covers on the two side windows to block the sun and we left a crack for the wind to blow through. It ended up being pretty comfortable in the truck – except for the insects that kept coming in. We sat in silence. I got out a DVD to watch on my computer to keep my mind off the tire and to avoid any conversation about it with Tom. Several people stopped, Tom told everyone our son had gone into town to get help. We figured three hours till Charlie would get back – an hour in, an hour to get help, and an hour back. One man told us about Boone – the tire fixer in Chitina. I just hoped that Charlie would choose to find this guy – that someone would tell him to go there and that Charlie would get this guy to come out. I didn’t care what it cost. At about three that afternoon – 3 1/2 hours after the flat – I had fallen asleep in the back seat. A man pulled up and this guy would not leave. He kept wanting to try different things to get the tire down, and also hook up this thing to try to get air in the front tire - so we could at least get to Chitina. He wasn’t going to leave us there. Then he found out we were friends with Carmen and John and he was bound and determined to help then. I was listening to all this half asleep and finally raised up to help Tom with the conversation. The man was startled, “There’s a human in there!” (He had only seen Roxie in the truck.) We had a great time talking to him. Another local, a friend of his stopped by. After he left, our friend told us he was the son of Mudhole Smith – a quite famous Alaskan Bush pilot. I’ll have to look him up online. Then here comes a huge truck carrying a long load of gravel with a tremendous cloud of dust behind him. The man said “Better roll up those windows – he’s on the clock and ain’t gonna slow down.” I’m racing to raise the windows and that truck slows to a fast halt. Charlie hops out of the passenger side. Then the driver hops out to check things out. He couldn’t get the turning rod to work either. Charlie had, in Chitina, contacted Carmen and her brother Joe was on his way. When they heard this, both of these guys seem to realize we were in good hands. So the gravel man pulled out. Charlie had actually spoken with the Boone tire place in Chitina. Mr. Boone had quoted him $75 plus $3.75 per mile which added up to around $112. Charlie thought that was way too expensive so passed on his help. I couldn’t believe it - I would have paid twice that. Our friendly helper said there was nothing more that he could do and knew Joe would be there soon. So he left. Inside of three minutes, Joe pulls up, hops out, picks up the rod, examines both ends, sticks it in and lowers the tire. By the time we discovered he had lowered and removed the tire, Joe was jacking up the front and had pulled off the flat. Then we went up there to help, but he didn’t need any help. That tire was changed in a flash. Tom let down the jack and the tire was flat – not enough air in it. No problem – Joe went and got an air machine and pumped up the tire in a few seconds. Before we knew it Joe was heading back to his truck. Tom tried to pay – but no way. And here’s the kicker. He followed us all the way to Chitina in his truck to make sure we got there. We had spent four midday hours on a hot dusty road in the middle of nowhere with no phone service - but at least we will know which end of the rod to insert to lower the spare when we have our next flat, Charlie has learned that $112 is not too much to pay to get a tire fixed on the McCarthy Road, we spoke to the son of a famous bush pilot, I watched a great movie, Tom read Harry Potter for the first time, and we found out how helpful and determined the local residents are who live on the McCarthy Road. We drove all the way to Anchorage, stopping for supper in Glennallen, and arriving home at our pop-up at 10 pm. It was like we were the only people on the road till we got to Palmer. Took about three minutes to get into bed. Roxy was glad to get out of that car. Pictures coming...

Charlie and Tom will go to Hope to river raft Saturday and on to Seward for kayaking on Sunday. I’m remaining here with Roxy. We leave on our ferry trip to the Aleutians on Monday night.

It all seems so long ago – but yesterday morning we left for McCarthy. We loved the drive on the Glenn Highway and it took us, with all of our photo stops, about five hours to get to to Glennallyn. Such scenery! It was just beautiful. Charlie said he had scenery overload. I had read this great article about the Brown Bear RoadHouse, how great the food was and how special all the hundreds of photos of brown bears were that were hanging on the wall. So we stopped to eat. We walked in and no one was in sight. We just sat down to wait and soon a waitress came out. Tom said, “Hello, how are you.” That waitress just threw the menus down on our table and walked away with a sour face. We laughed a minute or two and then got up and left the Brown Bear RoadHouse and the sour faced waitress. We then went to the Caribou Diner to get some Panther Pizza. Walked in to be seated – told the boy we wanted pizza and he just waved us to the back room where a man was making a pizza. The pizza maker didn’t even look up at us just kept working. Tom finally asked if we could get a pizza. He said “What do you want?” There’s no menu on the wall, no prices, no sign anything. We did eventually end up getting a good pizza – but these people don’t like customers too much.

It gets worse. We stopped at Copper River Inn - but they wanted $159.00 plus 25.00 for the dog. We thought that was a little high. We drove on back out to the highway and saw the Princess Lodge up on the hill. Tom wouldn’t stop there because it costs $179. We drove on down about 20 miles and came to Kenny Lake Inn. There were full but called ahead to the next B & B and we drove to those about 10 miles down the road. We paid and went to our cabin – no water, and two twin beds. Tom got mad and went up to get a different room. They only had one with four bunks and still no water and the shower house closed at 10. Well, it took almost 45 minutes to get the charge removed from the card. It was getting to be around 7pm now and we were tired from driving all day. We kept on driving and finally got to Chitina. Miraculously my phone had worked outside town and I was able to reserve the last room she had in the hotel. $179.00 and no pets. The hotel was an old one that had been restored - or rather was in the process of being restored. It was pretty but the rooms were about as big as a closet. They gave Charlie a blow up mattress and once we had that down there was no standing room. It was hot, the shower was mini and the bed was pretty hard. Charlie spent the evening by the lake reading. Tom spent most of the night checking on Roxy since she had been relegated to the truck for the night. I just took my shower and fell in bed. What an evening!


Early this morning we got on the road to McCarthy to visit Carmen. Sixty miles on a bumpy gravel road – it took us three and a half hours since we had to stop for photo ops and lunch along the was. One out of ten cars get a flat tire. We were so glad to finally get here to see Carmen. They have quite an operation here: his planes and airstrip, a tire repair shop, a bread and breakfast with several cabins, and lots of other stuff. They are building their retirement home on some nearby land and we took a tour of that. Great views of the mountains and glaciers and the house is 5000 sq ft. It is truly grand and they are building it stick by stick themselves. There’s a beautiful barn with skylights - well some of the roof panels are clear so it is just like skylights. Thee barn was bigger than our house. We also got to see Katie’s Place – a parcel of land with a small cabin that Carmen bought from Katie. Carmen then moved the small cabin to a better location on the lot and proceded to redesign and double the size the cabin – it is now a lovely little vacation home by a flowing stream.


Supper at Carmen’s house was no less interesting. Her mom and her brother were there and a woman from France with her son. It was fun to hear her heavy French accent. Supper was lively with everyone talking at once. Turns out the French lady works for a restaurant in Paris three days a week getting in 38 hours. The name of the place is Le Relais de Venise and their specialty is “Son Entrecote” I think that means sirloin steak. So they serve this steak with French Fries and a sauce over the meat. That is all that is on the menu – you get it rare, medium or well done and you have to eat fast cause there’s always a line of folks waiting. The manager goes to great extremes to get the customers seated, served and out so that new customers can come in. This restaurant serves about 700 meals a day, they only have seven waitresses and this girl had been there for twelve years. There’s a similar restaurant in London and Barcelona and instead of giving the recipe for the sauce to those two places – the secret sauce is shipped in by truck or plane. A food writer for the newspaper once published the secret recipe in Paris – but listed all the wrong ingredients and when people tried to make the sauce it turned out awful. So interesting and she was so excited about it all – I never knew waitressing could be such fun.

Charlie’s plane arrived in Anchorage on time and he saw us before we saw him. His hair is really long and he has facial hair, so he should fit right in up here in Alaska. Of course his baggage had been lost and we had to go report it. No matter. We went promptly went over to the SourDough Mining Company to eat – but there was a huge crowd. We then drove over to Friday’s, but there was a line out the door. We ended up eating at IHop – which was the same restaurant we chose when Elizabeth came to visit.

Their impressions of Alaska will be so different. Liz came in mid winter. It was freezing cold, mounds of snow everywhere, and dark all day. Charlie comes in mid summer, the sun is shining warmly and it is light all the time.

We hit the sack early cause everyone was tired. Charlie used some of Tom’s clothes. In the middle of the night they called to say the luggage had arrived. We picked it up the next morning early and then drove over to Gwennies to eat breakfast. He loved the place and had to try the reindeer sausage. We boxed up the leftover sausage and potatoes to eat for breakfast the next day. Our trip for the day was to visit the MuskOx farm in Palmer and then take a drive up to Hatcher Pass. Charlie loved every minute of it. He especially loved the mountains. I start to take them for granted so it is nice to have fresh faces see them with us. The MuskOx were friendly enough to eat fireweed and dandelions out of the guide’s hands. This particular farm collects the wool from these animals and sends it out to Native Alaskans to knit caps and such and then they sell it. It is actually a nonprofit organization. We then drove up to the Hatcher Pass to see an old gold mining operation that is being reconstructed. Tom and Charlie walked all over it but I took it easy in the visitor’s center. My knee hurts pretty much all the time but it really hurts when I do a lot of walking and we had done a lot of walking at the Muskox Farm. The visitor center was actually the foreman’s home and it had been completely recreated to the original state – very nice. We drove the truck on up to the very top of Hatcher Pass and I just can’t describe how beautiful it was. I think it was so special because we had our Charlie with us and he was having such a good time and was so impressed with the scenery. He said he wanted to live here more than once. (Remember it is summer!)

We made a special effort to get to the SourDough Mining Company to eat supper because Tom and I like the food. I got Clam Chowder soup and clam cakes, Tom got ribs and Charlie got the King Crab. Well we finished before he did and were waiting around for him to finish this huge plateful of crab legs. It was just taking too long – so Tom and I peeled the legs and put the crab meat on a plate for Charlie. It was like a race. We both peeled as fast as we could and all Charlie had to do was eat the meat. We laughed so hard! But at least he finished all those crab legs in a reasonable length of time. Afterwards we walked across the street to show Charlie the World’s Largest Chocolate Fall (like in waterfall). He was impressed.

It is Saturday around noon. I am proud to say that Elizabeth got Charlie to the airport, assisted him in checking his bags, walked him to the security check and waved good bye as he walked toward the gate.. She is certainly my daughter. When she told me she was driving him to the airport yesterday I was a little worried. I wanted her to take him to the Marta station and let him go from there or at least get someone to ride with her. She had never driven to the airport before – but being my daughter, she felt like she needed to assist him all the way. I said, “I feel like you are so grown up.” She said, “Well that’s what children do Mom, they grow up.” Now it we could both leave Charlie alone…..

So I am on pins and needles till we pick up Charlie at the airport around 6pm tonight. It will be great to see him for the first time is exactly one year. We actually left Georgia on July 15th last year. We will take him on a couple of day trips around Anchorage and then pull out to McCarthy to see Carmen and John and the dog, Jetta. We board the ferry on the 24th.

The final leg of Mary’s visit was spent in Denali. We took the camper up there and stayed at the Riley Creek Campground. It was a beautiful camp area, lots of trees, quiet. Mary and Tom kept birding every possible minute. We took the Denali BackCounty tour into Kantishna the next morning entering the park at 7 am and returning at 5:30 pm. Mary was really impressed with the park. We had great sunlight for the most part of the day and got one wonderful sight of the south peak of the mountain. When we rode by Wonder Lake all I could think of was that I was glad we weren’t stopping cause of those mosquitos. We arrived at the BackCounty Lodge for lunch, panning for gold, bird watching, hiking and just resting by the water. All of the workers were from countries like Russia, Albania, and Poland. Had such a good time and the park looked completely different on the way home. The last hour – I really wanted off that bus….

We took Mary to the airport Tuesday night. I hated to see her go, as I had Terry and Dee earlier. I really enjoyed that change of pace traveling and seeing new things with them.

I watched Carnivale yesterday, the first season. Today I’m watching season three of The Wire - one of my favorite shows. Can’t wait till Charlie gets here. I hope we recognize him.

Spent the last two nights in Seward at the Toroga Inn. It is a former officer’s quarters facility used in World War II. The first day, or rather evening in Seward we went to the Alaska Sea Life Center and then ate at Christinos for supper. At the Sea Life place, I was taking a photo of Tom with the Sea Lion and this woman poked my on the shoulder and said, “Excuse me, could you move out of my way!” It was Evelyn – our co-tourist from St. Paul. She and Donna had only lasted only two nights at the Big Bear thing in Hope. We had coffee with them one last time. Such great people! That is one thing about traveling – the people you meet just make the trip! The restaurant, Christino’s, was one we had eaten at when Terry and Dee came. It was a lovely, dark, quiet place, not very crowded and we liked it. So we went there with the same expectations this time. About three minutes after we were seated about 100 middle school kids came in and were seated. We noticed that every last child had ordered a spaghetti dish at this fine seafood restaurant. It got loud and crowded and we really had to talk load to be heard across the table. The food was still great though. I had baked salmon. We went by the Benny Benson Memorial after supper and had a little drive through town. Seward is a beautiful place. We fell into bed and slept soundly in preparation for our 9 1/2 boat trip the next morning,

We took the Captain’s Choice boat since Mary wanted to see the most possible. It was a small boat holding only 20 people and it was not full.


We took off and kept going out further, going over ocean waves at high speeds. Oh, the captain was a female, maybe 30 and petite. We stopped for birds, seals, eagles, sea otters, whales, glaciers, and I’m sure there was more. Mary got three lifers-Rhinoceros Auklet, Black Oystercatcher, and Kittlitz’s Murrelet.

We were on that boat until 5:30 that evening. On the way back the boat went over some really rough seas. Tom and I chose to sit in the back part of the boat and it was going up and down and up and down over huge waves. I couldn’t move – because the boat was going so fast and up and down.


All I could think of was that I was going to lose all of my photos when we went under – that and wondering just how cold that water was going to be. Mary even sent the deck hand back to see if we were okay. Since that very wonderful trip, each time I close my eyes I am back on that boat going up and down – it’s been 24 hours now and the rocking has not stopped. We are taking the afternoon off after driving back from Seward this morning and birding along the way. We stopped at Hope Alaska around lunch time.


It was different this time in that there were kids and parents and dogs everywhere. SourDough Sue’s was not even open – probably didn’t want ll those kids in her shop. Mary and I walked over to the library and waited around till it opened. We had a great conversation with the librarian and checked out the used books they had had for sale. Both Mary and Tom found books to buy. (They had also checked out the library and the book sale in Seward on one of their birding trips.) It is a beautiful little town – a bit quiet for anything long term. I’m getting clothes washed for the last leg of our journey which will be Denali. We’ll be staying at Riley Creek Campground just inside the part.