Day 77 – July 17
finds us flying out to Kodiak Island where we will stay for 3 nights at Cliff House Bed and Breakfast. Ron and I met Marty and Marion Owen last year
when we were volunteers at Capitol Reef National Park. At the time, we couldn’t decide if we wanted
to venture to Kodiak – we had heard pros and cons. Needless to say, they talked us into it. Marion is a person of many talents – master gardener,
professional photographer, author, chef and probably a lot more than what I
realize. Kodiak is a very lush
island. It’s cloudy and a little drizzly
this evening, but we are happy to be here.
Here are a few pictures of Marion’s gardens.
We drove out to Ft. Abercrombie and took a walk around. Very pretty.
This is an outstanding museum!
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The museum is located here. |
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Interesting! |
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Check the message that is typed here! So cool that they have this equipment hands on and working! |
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I think my dad did this type of work in WWII. |
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Reminds me of a rain forest. |
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The ripples on White Sands Beach. |
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Random vehicles found on the side of the roads in Alaska. |
Day 78 – July 18 We are up at the crack of dawn on this
drizzly morning to meet our fishing guide Dake (Memory Maker Tours). He came to
pick us up in his van. We aren’t sure what to expect. He keeps saying that
fishing is slow and hard – they just haven’t arrived. But we’re still in for an adventure. He drove
us down the road for about 45 minutes to Olds Creek. We could see salmon in the water – pinks and
King, and some Dolly Varden. We donned
our waders and raincoats. He explained how to fish here. Both guys caught a
pink, I got a Dolly, and eventually I got a King. So fun!
It ended up being a great day as fishing like this was on my bucket list. After our happy hour, we went to Safeway and
got the sides to cook with our pink salmon.
Yummy! Played a challenging game
of Scrabble and called it a night. We
enjoyed learning from Dake today. I have
never waded in that cold of a stream before to fish and just loved the
experience.
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Donna throwing her line in that cold river! |
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Greg can see the dolly varden and salmon. |
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Mary reeling in that king salmon! |
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What a fight! |
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Catch of the day! |
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Yep, not too much as far as count, but all good. |
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The "cooked" fruits of our labor! |
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Time to quit with our catch of the day! Look at the rain clouds behind us! |
Day 79 – July 19 I think we all enjoyed sleeping in! Looking out our picture window we can’t see
the mountains across the bay. We decided to drag our feet a little and then
head out for some sightseeing. First stop
was at the harbor – so pretty. Found the yacht we will be on this evening for
our dinner cruise. Nice.
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A lot of Russian influence. |
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So colorful |
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There are wind turbins on the hill. They are really self sufficient. |
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A Japanese cruise ship |
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Kodiak has the largest coast guard influence. |
Next we decided to drive out to Fossil Beach which means we
have to drive through the Kodiak Launch
Complex. On our drive, we see the Coast Guard out practicing rescues. Awesome. Then, we take the road down
Pasagshak Road. We saw a fox, 2 Sitka
black tailed deer, an eagle guarding her nest.
Made a stop at Surfers Beach.
Very pretty. Then we get to Fossil Beach. Pretty cool. Donna and Greg had fun
collecting fossils. Back in town,
stopped at the Baranov Museum – a 1794 log cabin. Very, very good museum! We liked learning
about the Russian – American Company.
This building represents an important reminder of the Russian occupancy
of Kodiak. This house – the Erskine
House – is significant as the only building remaining as evidence of the
historical continuity between the Russian – American Co. The local natives, the Alutiq lived on Kodiak
for 7,500 years. Their villages were
located at the mouth of salmon rivers.
They had a wealthy chief. Things
changed when the Russians arrived in the late 1700’s. Enough history…..
although it still blows my mind that we are this close to Russia! And Japan!
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Our Coast Guard |
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Pretty cool to watch. |
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Check out these fish posing for us. Look like Dolly Varden. |
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Baby owl |
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Baby owl playing peekaboo! |
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Ron watching a local haul in a salmon. |
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Eagle guarding her nest. |
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Fossil Beach |
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Fossil Beach |
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Greg and Donna at Fossil Beach |
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Looks like a tail |
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Launch pad? |
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Locals fishing |
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The ship we get our fish on in the lower 48. |
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Great museum! |
Tonight we went on a dinner cruise with Marty on the “Galley
Gourmet”, their 35’ yacht. Chef Joe’l
made us an awesome dinner of sea cod and halibut. Unfortunately, the weather
sucked – as in very foggy, misty and rough seas. Only saw some sea lions and puffins, but
still enjoyable.
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Leaving the harbor on the Galley Gourmet. |
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Captain Marty Owen |
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The clowns of the harbor. |
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Birds |
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Puffins |
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Mary and Ron getting ready to be served dinner. |
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Our dinner |
Day 80 – July 20
finds us flying back to our “homes” that we left behind in Anchorage. We did have a lunch stop at Gwennies. Then it’s
laundry, shopping and planning next week!
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