2,077 miles between July 14 and the morning of July 29

Fifteen days has been a long time between updates. Sorry, but we have been busy! And, we haven't averaged much over 35 m.p.h. for most of those miles.

On July 14 we went for a six-hour boat tour of Kenai Fjords National Park, out of Seward. Gorgeous, to say the least. One lowlight was having Tuck toss his breakfast into my lap about half an hour into the trip. We were plowing through 8' seas and it made him just a bit sick. Fortunately for me, I had put my rain pants on, so the warm wetness of his offering didn't get my pants underneath wet. Ann, surprisingly enough, did not get sick. Hooray for that!! Saw a beautiful glacier up close and enjoyed a fairly rare sunny day.

After the tour, we drove back to familiar territory, the gravel bars on the Resurrection River (where the guys were drinking) to spend the night. Had a visit by a couple of eagles...

On July 16, we drove north and then west to Cooper Landing, to stay in a USFS campground and do some guided fishing, in boats, on the Kenai River for a few days. I went by myself the first day, and took Ann and Tuck on the second. Ann was the most successful of the group!

Here are the shots from the 16th...

My guide, Michael, on of only seventeen guides licensed to work the "Refuge" section of the Kenai...

Other wildlife, starting with what a bear did to our campsite that morning...

Here's what I got on the 17th...

Our guide, Drew Petrie...

Monotonous, isn't it...

Lots of eagles, and a few ducks...

It was a bit rainy and cool. Tuck took advantage of an extra jacket provided by Drew...

It was a great two days! Spent the night of the 17th in the campground, and headed for Homer on the 18th. It was a beautiful drive, through forests burned and not burned. Wound up in a KOA Campground with a nice view...

Spent the 19th seeing the sights in Homer, including taking a ferry to The Saltry Restaurant, in Halibut Harbor, across the inlet. Here's a glimpse of that day...

Halibut fishing is a BIG DEAL here. Couple of fishing boats, and an interior shot of one that had an on-board processing plant...

Some folks did well that day, including a 172-pound Halibut...

Some seagulls made for a couple of interesting shots...

What owl?

The Salty Dog Saloon, on the Homer Spit, is a landmark...

Inside of the front door...

The ceiling...

Here's the ferry we took to The Saltry...

And, here are some shots I took on the forty-five minute trip, as well as on land on a short walk we took after dinner...

This is a puffin...

More eagles...

And while on our walk...

We were going to spend two days in Homer, and then, on the 21st, Ann's 64th Birthday, were planning on retracing our steps to Girdwood, there to have a couple of massages and enjoy the Nordic Spa at the Alyeska Resort, and have dinner at a famous restaurant, the Double Musky. However, we found out the restaurant wasn't open on the 21st, so we packed up and made the roughly four-hour drive to Girdwood a day early.

Here's a morning shot of our view from the KOA... It was a lovely spot in which to do some trip planning....

The Double Musky is a landmark, dating back to 1962. No reservations are taken. It opens at 5:00, and folks start lining up at the door early, 3:40, in fact. We got there at 4:55 and there already was a very long line. We thought we might have to wait for the second seating! However, we got the last -two-top, next to a foursome that Ann had chatted up in line. Dinner was great.

Went back to the Crow Creek Mine to campout there for the night. Here are some shots of the next day, around the Alyeska Resort (a phenomenally steep ski area that typically gets a crazy amount of snow each year, something like 450"!).

Here's a nearby life-size bronze of a grizzly...

More coming soon, covering our drives from Girdwood, to Anchorage, to Tok, to Chicken, to Dawson City, to Whitehorse, to where we are now, overlooking the Salmon Glacier outside of Hyder, AK...