Day 23 and 24 - "Old Friends" (Simon and Garfunkel song)
We woke up in Houston, did our morning tea and got ready for the day. The couple parked beside us were from Ohio and were doing Alaska just like us and we had a great chat. They are taking 3 months to do what we are trying to do in 5 weeks so they are at a much more leisurely pace. We can see ourselves doing that when we retire whenever that will be but in the meantime we are enjoying the traveling we can do in the summertime.
Today we are heading further down the Parks Highway to Anchorage and then continuing on the Seward Highway and then the Sterling Highway to the Kenai Peninsula. Earl has an old friend, Marion who lives in Kenai City and we are going to visit her and take a look at the beautiful Kenai Peninsula as well.
Wasilla was just down the road a piece and just in time for brunch. We popped into the i-hop that was hopping - so busy but the service was good and so was the food and at very reasonable rates. Across the parking lot was a Teacher Store just like the Education Station in Edmonton so of course I had to go and look ... well, not just look ... I brought a few things for my classroom too including a new puppet named Max - I think the students will like him! We also found a shoe store there and both Earl and I got new shoes for the fall.
Then off we went, we have already been shopping so we don't need to stop in Anchorage so we just drove through and out the other end to join the Seward Highway. This highway drives along the very scenic Turnagain Arm. First we see Potter Marsh which is a refuge and nesting area for waterfowl and then we get a good look at the water. The beaches looked so inviting and I was just about to ask Earl if we could stop and have a walk along one of those stretches of sand when I read this in the Milepost ~ "WARNING! When the tide is out, the sand in Turnagain Arm may look inviting. DO NOT go out on it. Some of it is quicksand. You could become trapped in the mud and not be rescued before the tide comes in." And yes, it is written in red. Further on in the Milepost they talk about the tides here: "Turnagain Arm is know for having one of the world's remarkably high tides with a diurnal range of more than 33 feet. A bore tide is an abrupt rise of tidal water just after low tide, moving rapidly landward, formed by a flood tide surging into a constricted inlet...This foaming wall of water may reach a height of 6 feet and is very dangerous..." I decided not to go walking on the beach. We did stop at some of the look-outs and was it windy!
We stopped into the Indian Valley Meats and bought some Salmon Jerky and other treats then continued on as the weather slowly deteriorated into rain. We popped down the Wittier side road to stop into the visitor centre and find out about the ferry we want to take to Valdez later in the week but we missed them by 2 minutes and they were closed. You have to go through a tunnel to actually get to Wittier and there is a toll fee so we will wait until we are actually going to pay that. I am sure this is a very lovely area when the rain and fog lift but we did not take many pics today because the mountains were shrouded by mist.
Back onto the Seward Highway, we shortly came to the turnoff for the Kenai and turned off there to head for Kenai City. It is the last weekend of the fishing salmon season. Along the banks, even with all the rain, were lines and lines of fisherman! The road was busy and the drivers did not like to be stuck behind a trailer going the speed limit so it was a little hairy driving! The water of the Kenai River is that beautiful glacial green-blue and despite the rain it was a lovely drive. We arrived in Kenai and of course that visitor centre was closed too so we found a place to eat - Louis' Steak and Seafood - YUM! The manager, Dwayne, came to greet us, he was fun to watch, because he had a great sense of humour, seemed to have great rapport with both his staff and the customers, he was always busy - lending a hand to his staff and they were very busy. The food was amazing too!
Now we have to find a place to camp as the place we thought we would that is in the Milepost wanted $44 a night for dry camping and was just a gravel area outlined in chalk for your stall. It was right on the water but those sights were even more money! We drove around and found Californsky Beach road and camped along the beach with all the fisherman - well, first we got stuck in the sand and some of the fisherman pushed us out, then we found a more sturdy surfaced spot and went to sleep with the sound of seagulls and the sea!
The next morning was still a little rainy but felt quite fresh and warm. We headed back into Kenai city to find a church. We found breakfast at Louis' again with the same manager busy and good-natured and good food. We also found the Kenai Christian Church where we were welcomed like old friends, enjoyed an excellent service with great music (we knew all the hymns) and a very interesting service based on 1 John 2 with all sorts of references to other passages in both the Old and New Testaments to tie it all together and applied to our everyday lives - wow - not just a preacher but a great teacher! We then had some fellowship with some of the members especially Tommy Thompson who might be through Toad River next month so we invited him to visit us. As we were getting ready to leave, a lovely lady stopped us and asked if we were the people from Toad River. She home schools her children and they read the book "Lunch at Toad River". We had a great chat with the "Rankin Crew" as they call themselves, exchanged cards and we are going to get my students and their kids to be pen-pals via the email. We had just met them, but it felt like we were old friends already.
We then drove back through Kenai City to the outskirts and found Earl's old friend from his Milepost days. She has a beautiful place with an abundance of flowers. It was great to see the joy on the faces of Earl and Marion as they greeted each other. We had a great visit and then roamed her gorgeous garden taking photos in the rain of her absolutely riotous coloured flowers. My favourite were the lilies of all sorts of colours including ones so dark purple they look like chocolate. The rain added the sparkle of raindrops and both Earl and I got some great shots. Eventually, we had to say good-bye as we had reservations in Seward so with lots of hugs we made our leave and headed back towards the Seward Highway.
Although we have had pretty good weather so far, the liquid sunshine has caught up to us and our Seward trip was very soggy. We are staying in a very old hotel called the Van Gilder. It was built in 1916 but is very comfortable. We had made the choice to stay in a hotel for a couple of nights (we had a 2 nights for the price of one coupon) before we came but with all the rain we are sure glad we did. So after a walk in the rain and a good supper, we are tucked up for the night in a big old brass bed with rain falling outside. We will see if the Sun shines for us tomorrow but even if it doesn't I know we will find interesting things to do.
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