July 16 through July 21, 2010

View from the deck at the Palmer Elks!

Removing the big pieces!

Bernie doing her favorite thing!  (shopping)

We pulled into the Palmer Elks club for our visit to the Anchorage area.  The first day was beautiful, as you can see from the view over Finger Lake, where the Elks is located.  It rained off and on for the remainder of our time in this area, although we did manage to do day trips into Anchorage.  Our time spent at the Saturday street fair was in between drops -- yeaa!  We took the City Trolly which gave us an overview of Anchorage.  I was totally amazed at the float plane harbor.  One in three people have a pilot's license here!  We ate a local restaurant which had a great view out over the Cook Inlet, albeit without sunshine, but was still beautiful.  The dinner of fresh halibut was not too shabby.  

Of course, we had to go to Costco to stock up.  They have two Costco stores in Alaska, both of them being in Anchorage.  Tomorrow we head down towards Homer.

All vehicular traffic has to yield to the planes in the float plane harbor.  

Here comes the plane we had to wait for!!

Today, July 21, 2010, we explored the town of Kenai and the surrounding area.  Drove all the way out to Captain Cook State Park, 36 miles from where we were staying.  Great views across the Cook Inlet towards Mt. Redoubt.  This is the time of year that every Alaskan can dip net 25 fish each plus 10 for each family member.  The red salmon are running now and it's a zoo around here.  Dip nets are flying out of the local Fred Meyer store.  Campgrounds are very crowded.  People take coolers full of fish home -- it's supposed to be for their own "subsistance" but I find that hard to believe.  We will be clearing out of here tomorrow, heading for Homer.