From Seward via Moose Pass & Kenai to Homer--July 16

Today we leave for Homer, AK and unfortunately Marvin is not feeling well. Not only did he not catch any fish yesterday he got seasick and was feeling kind of washed out this morning. We stopped at Moose Pass for both boys to have a nap. Dee and I went exploring which didn't take too long. Moose Pass is like most towns in Alaska--small. It had a bar and 2 cafes/gift shops plus 2 motels, a few houses and a lake with not boats but float planes sitting on it and also a church. We did see a family of ducks and some beautiful flowers and then back on the road again.

Our next stop was Soldotna to find the Moose is Loose Bakery we had heard about. It is much bigger with a population of about 4000. This part of Alaska is more populated and much more traffic and it has been all day. I'm not used to it after where we've been. Anyway, I digress. The bakery was unbelieveably busy and small with only 6 tables. We finally found seats and the pastries Dee and I had were too die for. When we head to our next stop we have to backtrack so we will stop again. Oh my, the best we have had, I think.

We decided to change course and drive down to Kenai which is on the west side of Alaska also on Cook Inlet. Wolf and Barbara had mentioned that they were going there and had asked us if we wanted to have lunch so off we went. Somewhere along our trip a moose was beside the road and we were lucky to see him before he headed to the woods. The drive to Kenai didn't take long and we ran into Wolf and Barb at the Visitor's Center. The center had lots of stuffed birds from the area, gifts and a museum which had a lot of icons, etc. from the local Russian Orthodox Church. The church is being restored with private money, I think, so they charge for the museum in order to raise money. We unhooked 2 cars and began to tour a little . We found the church which originally was log and you can see that it is just being covered with aluminum siding as they can afford and the priest volunteer opened the church for us to see and told us a little about it. Then Dee asked about the emblem of the cross they use and got more of an answer than she had asked for not realizing that these priests never give a quick, simple answer. After this we were ready to eat so we visited one of the oldest buildings in town--Veronica's Coffee House which is the old Oskolkof/Dolchok House built in 1915 out of hand hewn logs by John Oskolkof. In 1945 it became the Dolchok home. It is one of the few remaining examples of a community building and Kenaitze subsistence. Very cute and the food was delicious. Bob just had a salad while I had a cup of Italian Wedding soup and a half of Turkey and Provolone sandwich with a spoonful of pasta on the side. The soup was absolutely delicious and the sandwich I ate later was very good. We all enjoyed not only the food but the camaraderie. Marvin decided that it called for dessert so he and Bob shared this brownie with lots of ice cream and chocolate swirled over it. It was huge. This place was also extrememly busy. On to more touring.

Our next stop was the bluffs overlooking the Kenai River where they were fishing with dipnets. They are great big round nets on a pole that look like the things you blow bubbles. The people were in these waders with suspenders and they were out in this cold, cold water up to their waist or higher holding this net waiting for the salmon to swim into them as they go upstream to spawn. To use a dipnet you either have to be a native or have lived in Alaska for at least a year. You are allowed 10 fish a day per person for however long the season--which ends the end of the month. They were all lined up along the river and they had set up tents and their cars were down there with their whole family. It was like a holiday but of course for the natives this is food for the winter as well as now. I haven't gotten a picture of it yet but along the side rivers you will find people lined up side by side fishing with poles because the salmon are running now. This is called combat fishing. They all throw in at the same time, let the lines drift down and then they all pull them out at the same time. It is very syncronized (sp) or they will tangle their lines. There is an awful lot of haze over the mountains and the water today.

I walked down a road from where we were standing to another area of the bluffs to see the volcanoes and did see them even thru the haze just not clearly. There are approximately 40 active volcanoes in Alaska and of course this area and on down into the Aluetians is part of the ring of fire. It is also part of the San Andreas Fault that goes down into California. The two I saw was Mt. Redoubt which erupted in 1989 and also in 2009. Then south of it is Mt. Iliamna which is identified by its 3 smaller peaks on its left but it remains dormant so far. Nearer to Anchorage is the tallest which is Mt. Spurr which last erupted in 1992. We left Kenai by a loop road which was Kolifornsky Hwy. which eventually went back to Sterling Hwy. which was what we were on before our diversion trip. Also took some good pictures on those miles of the volcanoes. Because of our side trip we did not make it to the social but finally settled in with a great view of Cook Inlet .

Dee's lunch didn't settle good with her so about 8pm Bob and I went for a drive up and around the top of the mountains that are the backdrop to Homer and Cook Inlet. It was a great drive. Another day tomorrow.