Views of Alaska

More About Alaska

This view shows the Homer Spit with mountain and glaciers in the background. The view is from our four bedroom apartment on a cliff in Homer.

Mrs. Phred, Danny and Doris took this float plane over Cook's Inlet to land in a lake and watch bears trying to catch salmon.

On the bus for the 14 hour ride though Denali National Park.

Resting place for a Japanese mountain climber who was lost on Denali. His grave is in Talkeetna.

Les and Sue had an oversize companion in the middle seat on the flight from Houston to Anchorage.

Dip netters on the beach in Kenai scooping up their 25 allotted sockeye salmon.

Fishing bear.

Same bear?

Where are they?

This humpback whale jumped about 14 times. There are many theories to explain this behavior, but the whales aren't talking in a language that we can understand. The day trip out of Seward explored some of the fjords and glaciers of Prince William Sound.

I achieve my lifelong ambition of landing a 10 pound sockeye in the Kenai River...now I can hang up my waders for good.

First Days in Alaska

That old white line
is friend of mine
And it's good time
we've been making
Right now I'm rollin' down
the open road
And the daylight
will soon be breaking.

-Neil Young 

We stop in Hope on the Kenai Peninsula on the first day to watch people fishing for the incoming salmon.

 In the afternoon we take a three hour raft trip out of Cooper's landing on the Kenai River.

 So today I walked seven miles in the morning down a lonely frontage road near Ephrata, Washington on I-90.

We discover in Homer that halibut fishing is not possible without a reservation this year, so we take an all day trip to the fishing village of Seldovia.

 Carol, Danny, Doris Les and Susie. Danny and Susie are my younger cousins.

The tides in Seldovia can be 20 or more feet.

 The Ocean House Inn in Homer has a nice view of the Homer Spit, Cook's Inlet and mountsins with glaciers.

We take a drive up the Skyline drive looking for picyures.

Danny and Doris at Anchor Point leaving Homer.

Mrs. Phred's Fish

Homer, Alaska

Mrs. Phred stands by the rail with a three pound weight in one hand and a fishing pole in the other. We're waiting for the captain to find bottom in the ripping current.

 We wake at 4 AM to make the 6 AM departure. The sunrise over the Homer harbor and the mirrored water makes good reflections.

 After a two hour run out into Cook's Inlet we stand by  the rail waiting for the Captain to set the anchor so we can start fishing. The tidal current is ripping though at about eight knots.

 Mrs. Phred starts to shiver in the cold wind so I try to get in front of her and act as a windbreak....

Fishing is slow at first so Mrs. Phred looks at me curiously....I've told her that usually the halibut hit the bait as soon as you get it down 200 or 300 feet....

 She hooks a 20 pound fish and struggles with it, her bad foot and the three pound weight....

 "Please, casn I have another cracker?"

The deckhand asks her if she wants a hand...she says yes and he begins applauding  and whistling madly....sadism....

What a woman....

After a week of halibut fishing we're ready to ship a 100 pounds or so to our grandchildren....maybe I should send their mother a recipe book....

Up to Soldotna, Whittier, Seward, Anchorage, Talketna and Denali....that's as far as my plans go at this point in time...

Maybe I'll catch a salmon or at least find another reasonable fish market....

Homer, Alaska

Junk is Beautiful

After Ninilchik we go back to the Homer Spit for three more days of Halibut fishing.

Homer is maybe my favorite place in the world.

In the mornings before the afternoon halibut trips I walk about 2.5 miles down the narrow spit toward Homer and find a really photogenic collection of junk boats and recreational vehicles.

Someone has taken the trouble to collect flotsam and jetsam and arrange it into a form of primitive high art...

Or maybe I just like the look of junk?

I'm having a hard time remembering where we have been and what we have done on this long strange trip....

Memory degradation is subject to many natural processes: stroke, amnesia and Alzheimer's. Then there are the self interventions: drugs, alcohol and suicide....

I keep a blog so I can remember who I am...

I blog...therefore I am...

This is not my beautiful house....

Homer Spit, Alaska

The Gulf of Alaska

This is it. This is where I intended to go when we hit the road seven weeks ago. Homer is the halibut capital of the world.

Yeah, so I caught this big salmon up on the Kenai river after I replaced my fishing line. Wild salmon is ok and healthy, but all my best recipes are for halibut.

Last night we had ultra fresh halibut on the charcoal grill. I seasoned it only with salt, pepper and lemon pepper.

I'm going out again today and on Wednesday. Yesterday on the "Sizzler" I limited out with two big halibut in five minutes and watched all the bad fishermen struggle for the next two hours.

 The tides up here are about 25 feet.

The homer spit is a narrow strip of land about five miles long extending across the mouth of a bay at the bottom of the Kenai Peninsula. I think it might have been formed from the terminal morain of a big glacier...I'll check that later.