Anchorage
July 27, 1995
We are now back in Anchorage - the place is growing on us. We climbed up into the foothills in Chugach State Park that borders on the east side of town. From the top of a hill we could see all of the town with Cook Inlet behind the town and the snowy Mt. Susitna as a backdrop - it was beautiful. After a day of rain at a Forest Service campground in Hope and another at Portage Lake and glacier, it was good to have a sunny day here in Anchorage. Largely because of the closeness of Chugach Park, the city is frequently invaded by bears and moose. When a bear breaks into a house and finds food, he is doomed. Once a bear finds that a house is a source of food, breaking into homes becomes a habit, so he is shot. Salmon may be caught in streams running throughout the city. This is a modern city in most all ways and the locals are very friendly. Seems we meet lots of folks with whom we chat for a while on a very friendly basis, we learn a lot from them about great places to visit, then we part with no social obligations. It's a great life!
Terri had a marvelous wedding aboard the ship "Adventurer" while watching Stellar sea lions, puffins, sea otters, and a host of new birds for our list including common murre's (penguin-like bird), pigeon guillemonts, tufted and horned puffins, cormorants, kittewakes, etc. Terri and Carl were married on the bow of the ship by the captain. We were very fortunate that the sun shone for the wedding, which took place in Resurrection Bay near Seward. The other passengers joined in with the wedding and sang ta, da, da, da to the tune of "Here Comes the Bride." Terry was gorgeous in her traditional wedding gown. Carl wore a suit and Scott, Joan, Pat and I dressed casually because Scott did not bring a suit or tie. It was really great fun. Because we had made reservations early, a female attendant had time to bake a wedding cake, complete with a couple of puffins on top and sporting candy forget-me-nots, the Alaska state flower. The crew treated us like royalty and catered to our every whim.
We have seen lots and lots of salmon, including kings, silvers, and chum. Scott cranked up the charcoal grill almost every evening so that we had grilled halibut, salmon, king crabs, prawns and clams regularly. We decided that while traveling with Scott, we would reclassify sea food as vegetables so as not to break our vegetarian diet.
We met Scott and Joan at Denali National park. Although we had planned to meet in Sterling AK, Pat decided that they might be in the vicinity. We called Scott's cellular phone number and he answered from a RV park outside the park. By coincidence, we had both been in the visitor's center the previous day but had missed seeing each other. Anyway, we traveled together from Denali Park, down through Anchorage, and into the Kenai Peninsula. We met Terri and Carl at Sterling, AK, then traveled on to Homer, then back north by Sterling and on to Seward for the wedding. After the wedding Scott, Joan, Terri and Carl left for the trip back to the lower 48 states. I really enjoyed traveling with Scott - he has a good eye for wildlife and has many interests similar to those we share. Joan took some short hikes with us but her back hurt too much for longer ones. Scott, Terri, Carl, Pat and I all hiked up the side of Exit Glacier over 3000' to the Harding Icefield. It rained during the entire trip but the scenery was spectacular. Homer proved to be one of the most beautiful sites in Alaska. From a scenic drive north of town we could look down on the spit and harbor, backed by Kachemak Bay and the ice-covered Kenai Mountains. We took a boat ride in the bay to see the native wildlife. A naturalist aboard helped identify the animals and explained the geology of the area. The faces of the sea otters look like whiskered old men - really cute.
I have enclosed a copy of insurance phone numbers etc. It occurred to me that if we were to have a bad accident from which neither of us survived, it would be difficult for you to obtain this information from our files. Also, if there were a fire associated with the accident, many of our files would also be lost.
We will start slowly back toward Texas early next week - visiting the Winnebago factory in Forest City,Iowa on the way so they can fix some minor problems with Winnimax, then to Kansas for Aunt Hazel's 90th birthday, and ending at Bruce's to help with the pecan harvest. Apparently, he will have a bumper crop this year. We are actually looking forward to some warm weather. When the temperature reaches 65 F in Anchorage, many sport T-shirts and shorts as if they are having a heat wave.
By the way, Hazel is considering her birthday party a sort of family reunion - don't know if she is sending invitations or what, but if anyone is interested in being in Wichita on September 21, we will be there.
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