After 2 days on bad roads we reach Tok Alaska on June 24.  Tok is the first town in Alaska on the Alaska Highway.  It feels good to be back in the US where our cell-phones work and so does our cash.  When we leave Tok, there are great views of the Wrangell Mountains.  On June 26, we wake up to 39 degrees.  There is fresh snow on the mountain tops.  As we drive it gets colder and starts to sleet.  We stop at Matanuska Glacier, bundle up and take a walk on the glacier.  Then, we stayed in Palmer for a few days.  Palmer is known for the Alaska State Fair and its farms that grow humungous vegetables during the summer.   We take a scenic ride up to the Independence Mine on Hatcher Pass road.

Anchorage: We spent July 4th weekend here.   Anchorage has grown so much since the last time we were here in 2003.  It was hard to find a decent RV park to stay.  New shopping centers are all over and the houses are spreading up the mountains and along the waterfront.  We had lunch at our favorite place: Humpy's.  I had a Halibut Taco and Ron had  a Halibut Burger.  Both were wonderful. We drove down to Girdwood for their annual Forest Fair.  This is hippie heaven, lots of arts & crafts and good food and music.  The drive is very scenic along Turnagain Arm where if you are lucky you can see Baluga Whales chasing the Salmon up the river.  We were not lucky as the water was way out in low tide. We meet up with the Kelley's again for fun and playing Mexican Train.

Girdwood: We camp out at the Alyeska resort day parking for a couple of days with the Kelley’s.  They do not usually dry camp anywhere and we helped them out so we take an Alaska RR trip out to Spencer Glacier and Grand view together.   We see people parasailing from the mountain.  Ron said he would love to do that. The RR trip was great except for smoky conditions.  We hit record high temps for this area in the upper 80’s!

Seward & Homer:  The sun is shining and it is warm.  We take a hike to Exit Glacier.  We can see how it has receded since 2003.  It is amazing!  This is the last time we see warm temps and clear skies for a while.Soldotna: We buy king crab and enjoy a feast of crab and smoked salmon.  Next stop, Homer and Homer spit.  Everywhere we go, we see changes in the area.  Homer spit now has condos on the spit.  The views are great until it starts to rain and we have rain for 2 weeks!

Ninilchik: Now we head back up the Kenai Penninsula to Ninilchik, where we booked a Halibut Fishing trip with the hopes of getting our limit of 2 each.  The best size for eating is around 25 lbs.  It was a cool and rainy day, the tide was in the full moon phase, which means that there is little time for slack tide.  Which all of this means that it was hard to catch our limit of 2.  Ginny caught the first one on the boat, and then it slowed down from there.  In the end we got 3 nice Halibut that we had filleted and frozen.  They are in our freezer to enjoy and remind us of the Alaska journey!

Cooper Landing: We took a raft trip on the upper Kenai River.  The water in the river is the color of the Caribbean Sea.  We watched the fishermen “combat fishing” for the salmon going up river and saw many eagles, and a little bit of sunshine.

We head back up the Turnagain Pass to Portage and stay at Williwaw National Park at the foot of Portage Glacier.  The views were great for the little while it was clear.  Otherwise it was raining and foggy, and you would never know there was a glacier view.

Anchorage: Some minor RV repairs and continue on our trip.  We book at trip on the Alaska Marine Highway ferry from Haines to Prince Rupert with stops in Juneau, Petersburg, Wrangell and Ketchikan. Hoping for better weather and scenic views. 


Talkeetna: We see many changes in the small town.  There are housing developments being built on the main road and many more shops.  But, this is where we had our most memorable experience.  We took a flight seeing airplane to Denali and landed on Ruth glacier out in the middle of Denali National Park.  It was one of the most thrilling things we have ever done.  We were surrounded by glaciers and walked around on one that is over 3000’ deep and a million years old!   Pictures just cannot capture the feeling of being there, but we tried.

Tok: Back into the smoke from forest fires in the area.  We were told the smoke was coming in from as far as Russia and also areas in Canada.  We were lucky to capture a view of the Wrangell-St. Elias Mountains along the way.  The further east we go, the thicker the smoke.  We are disappointed because we missed the beautiful views on the road from Haines Junction to Haines because of smoke and fog.

Haines: We hoped for better weather, but not.  We celebrate our Birthdays here.  Ginny chose a Mexican restaurant that had good write-ups and Ron chose a local Pizza place.  Ron made the better choice.  We get on the first leg of our ferry trip to Juneau.  We camped at Mendenhall Lake National Park at the foot of the glacier.  Ginny gets to buy her “old age pass” for National Parks here.  Juneau is very crowded with cruise ships and tourist shops that go with it.  We enjoy a great lunch at the Hanger in the Wharf building.

To Petersburg: We take the fast ferry for this leg because it goes directly instead of making stops. (3.5 hours vs: 20 hours)   Petersburg is known for its rain and fishermen. It rains over 100” a year here  and while we were here we made sure it kept up with their reputation for rain.  The fashion of the town is wearing brown rubber boots, dirty sweatshirts and raincoats. Well, they are Fisherman!  We cannot take the rain anymore and take the ferry directly from our next stop in Wrangell to Prince Rupert.

To Wrangell:  The sun is shining!  This is the first time in a month!  At the ferry dock, Ron backs the RV down a ramp with curves and is about 300' long.  He did a great job and the crew and passengers applaud.  Wrangell is a very small, quiet town.  And it rains.  We have lunch at Diamond C Cafe which was great.  Both of us had the special Crab salad.  It was a small bowl loaded with Dungeness crab mixed with salad greens.  Fantastic! 

To Prince Rupert:  There is a 2 hour delay after loading the ferry in Wrangell to Prince Rupert.  There was a 6 hour layover in Ketchikan but now it is a 4 hour.  Besides the delay, Ron had to reposition the RV in Ketchikan which took another hour.  We waited 30 minutes for the bus in heavy rain and decided there would not be enough time for a visit and dinner.  We never got to see Ketchikan.  Maybe next time!  We get into Prince Rupert at 5am, get to a campground and sleep a little.  We toured Prince Rupert in the pouring rain and it is making us crazy!  We bought 4 1/2 lbs of Dungenness Crab to dine on for dinner.  Makes my mouth water to think of it. 

To Washington:  We cannot wait to get out of the rain.  So we hit the road and head back to the lower 48.  On the way we stopped at Minter Gardens in Chilliwack BC, which are beautiful and the sun is shining!  In a few days drive, we get to Anacortes, WA.  We take a scenic drive around Whidbey Island and a 5 minute ferry to Guemes Island.  Guemes Island is a very small island with only a General store, quiet and scenic.   We plan the rest of our trip and decide to meet up with friends, Ruth & Terry Hager at Zion National Park in Utah before heading east to SC and back to FL. 

  
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