Alaska- May, 2007
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Introduction note (by Joe): Christine and I made our third trip to Alaska in May to attend a delayed wedding reception for Christine's brother, Craig. Craig and Katie were married last Thanksgiving in a small intimate affair and opted to throw this party in May when more people could attend, and the weather is a bit warmer. Following are a few pictures that Craig & Katie sent us from their beautiful ceremony.
Click on thumbprint photos to see them enlarged.
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Since going to Alaska is such a travel commitment, all those attending from Christine's family decided to make a weeklong vacation out of it. We all arrived on the Saturday a week before the reception. This included Christine's parents, five aunts and three uncles. We spent much of that week seeing sights with them in whole or in part with a few activities that we did, just the two of us. The first four nights were spent in Eagle River, just north of Anchorage. We mostly stayed close to the area.
Day-hiking at the Eagle River Nature Center:
Following are pictures from some other outings near Eagle River:
From Hatcher Pass Lodge looking south down to the Matanuska River. Christine & Joe after a 7-mile hike along mostly frozen Eklutna Lake. From the hills above Eagle River looking west across Cook Inlet to Sleeping Lady mountain. Can you see her lying there?
We spent our fifth night in Soldotna on the Kenai Peninsula. We made that day an adventure by taking an 11-mile hike on the Turnagain Arm Trail. Turnagain Arm is an arm off of Cook Inlet that separates the Anchorage area from the Kenai Peninsula. The following images were taken along the trail in the foothills of the Chugach Mountains looking across Turnagain Arm to the Kenai Peninsula. We saw three moose that morning--all right along the trail.
Hello moose! Joe. Christine. Seward Highway and the Turnagain Arm below. Christine.
I woke up early our morning in Soldotna to try my hand at some early King Salmon fishing. There is an early run of kings that come up the rivers and streams of the Kenai, but it was running late this year. This king run is not known as a large run, but the record King (97 pounds) was caught on this very day in May some twenty years ago from the Kenai River. The only river open for Kings at this time was the Kasilof River about fifteen miles south of Soldotna. The tides pay a critical part in catching sea-run salmon coming in to spawn. You want to be fishing the hours on either side of high tide. Christine's uncle Richie and I made a reasonable effort to abide by the tide schedule and found ourselves in the very cold water of the Kasilfo river at 5:30 AM at the peak of high tide. We fished until 1:00 PM and caught nothing. There were a few people fishing around us that landed some Dollie Varden, but that was about it. Anyway, you can see from the following pictures that the setting was beautiful for stream fishing...even without catching anything.
My neoprene waders were a must. Richie staying warm with his feet out of the water. Yes, that is ice on the river bank.
The whole visiting group spent the next three nights at the Lands End Resort at the very end of the Homer Spit. Homer sits at the southwest end of the Kenai Peninsula in the protection of Kachemak Bay (Halibut Fishing Capital of the World). A narrow four-mile spit of land extends from Homer out into the middle of the bay. This is Homer Spit. We stayed in lovely south-facing condominiums that looked across the bay to glaciers descending from the Kenai Mountains. The following pictures were taken from the deck of our condo.
You can just make out Homer Spit extending past the trees on the left. Kachemak Bay and Glaciers from our condo. Ditto. Ditto. Christine & Joe.
On Friday Christine went her own way and did a sea kayak tour of the coves and islands across the bay. She caught a ferry in the morning and met a small group for a guided tour.
Meanwhile the rest of us went on a private Halibut fishing charter. The weather was surprisingly fantastic, making for calms seas and a pleasant day on the water. We caught nothing more than a 25-pounder (the big ones can be over 500 pounds!), but everyone got to take home some fresh fish. The eleven of us landed 20 fish on a lovely outing.
Katie & Carol heading out to fish. Those are our condos in the background. Twenty tasty Halibut. They are bottom feeders like flounder, so the bottom of the fish is white.
The reception was a lovely affair Saturday right there at the Lands End Resort. I hope to add some pictures from that at a later date. Sunday we all packed up and spent the day lazily making our way back to Anchorage for red-eye flights back home. We stopped to take in some sights along the way.
Russian Orthodox Church in Ninilchik. Built in 1901... ...sits on a bluff overlooking Cook inlet with Mount Redoubt Volcano across the water. Mount Redoubt Volcano (10,197') Kenai Mountains. Kenai Lake. Bear Lake. Christine at the bottom of Exit Glacier. Exit Glacier from a distance.
