Early start today to visit and explore the east side of the Kenai Peninsula and the town of Seward, Alaska.

If we thought the view was beautiful before, the early morning views were almost breathtaking.  The water on the lakes was so still, it was a perfect mirror of the mountains.  The whole area looks like a Bob Ross painting with thousands of happy trees and snowy mountain tops.

We are headed out for a combo trip of kayaking and hiking through Adventure 60 North.  To start, we are kayaking in Tonsina Point off the coast of Seward, Alaska.  Mike has decided that kayaking may not be the best way to spend a morning with his bruised ribs, so he skipped the kayaking portion and headed into Seward to scope out the town and grab breakfast.

The boys and I geared up and headed out to Tonsina Point. The beach was beautiful – Not a soul in sight other than us.  Thankfully we could wear rain pants from the Adventure 60 North so our pants didn’t get wet from the kayak seats.  We got on our spray skirt on – they fit over the kayak seat like a fitted sheet.  As cold as the water is you really do t want any splashing on you.

And then we were off.  It was amazing being on the water.  In the kayak, you could feel every wave and movement of the water but not really so it felt surreal.  Our guide, Blaine, was great.  This was his second season working in Alaska for the summer months – he moves to New Mexico and teaches skiing in Winter months.  He explained so much to us about the local plant and animal life as well as the history of Tonsima Point and Seward. 

We saw sea stars – a fatter and more aggressive form of starfish.  The seastars are the top of the food chain for crustaceans.

We saw 3 bald eagles including a massive nest, and a little baby otter who was just floating along on his back doing baby otter stuff.  We thought we saw a big ol’ seal, but it turned out to be a massive wood log just floating along… based on the amount of bird poop on it, it was basically a traveling perch for birds 😂 and we saved a bumble bee who ran out of steam while crossing the bay. We also stopped for a snack in the coolest place we’ve ever had cheese-its and goldfish 😀

It was a great way to start the day!

We headed back to the shop, changed out of our rain gear, and met up with Mike. The second part of our combo trip was a hike into the Kenai Fjords National Park with Blaine.  Honestly, we have never had a guide through a hike, and the only tour service we ever used in a National Park was the horrible Pink Jeep Tour in the Grand Canyon, so I was a bit skeptical.  So much so, that we decided to drive our own car to the National Park, just in case we wanted to stay longer or see something beyond what Blaine showed us.  I could not have been more wrong about Blaine.  He knew all kinds of stuff that we would never have learned on our own. He knew all the best turn offs/overlooks, plus, it was like having a photographer!

All along the trails were these signs with years marked.  Each marked where the glacier was that year.  Some years showed significant change and some didn’t. I can say, our hike to see the glacier would have been a lot shorter in 1917 😊

These hills/mounds are called moraines.  They were all along the trails and were hills created as the glacier moved along bringing rocks, soils, trees and whatever was in its path.

We are making our way to the Exit Glacier.  On top of the Mountain is the Harding Icefield. Several glaciers come off this icefield, although only the Exit Glacier is in an area that can be reached by hiking. Interesting note that it is named the Exit Glacier because it is the way an exploration party was able to “exit” the Icefield.  Unlike most National Parks, the Kenai Fjord National Park has one main visitors center and one main trail. 

Hiking with Blaine was like have a constant plaque with you 😁 Of course, he could have been making it all up and we would no way of knowing 😂

All the info just walking along with you… For example, this skunk cabbage, a favorite of bears 🐻

This looks like spinach but eventually grows beautiful flowers called pink pyrola.

This is glacier flour left over when the glacier grinds rocks into the fine powder.

We made our way up to the Exit Glacier Overlook. All along the way Blaine told us about the katabatic wind we would feel as we got closer to the glacier. Honestly we were all thinking it would be a slightly cooler breeze – WRONG! Imagine standing in front of an industrial fan that was blowing air out of your freezer! It was crazy! No breeze, no breeze, slightly cooler breeze, gale force freezer air!

We found (thanks to Blaine) moose scat and moose hair, which is hollow in the middle.

The glacier was amazing to see. The edges are blue because it’s pure ice. The gray shows sediment that has been picked up along the way. We talked a little about the blue color of the ice. It has to do with the wavelengths of blue versus other colors. One way Blaine explained it was if you went deep into the ocean carrying a bright red apple, the first few feet, the apple would be red. As you went down, the red wavelengths couldn’t go through the deep water or ice so eventually the red apple would appear blue. There was also a great display in the visitors center on this.

We walked down into the overflow area… but only so far! The overflow is where the run off comes in summer months. The overflow becomes dangerous when water filled holes in the glacier break loose and massive flashfloods fill the overflow area. Signs mark where it’s unsafe to go closer… giving yourself enough space to avoid a flash flood. Absolutely one of the coolest places we’ve ever had lunch!

We completed the hike, circling back to the visitors center. Had to get a photo with this erratic rock… basically a rock that the glacier moved somewhere that just doesn’t match anything else around it. Erratic rocks can have rounds edges, which means they rolled with the glacier and were smoothed out like a rock tumbler, or they can have jagged edges meaning the glacier rolled over them.

Between the 4 mile hike, the temperatures that reached 78° today, the kayaking, and the early morning wake up, we decided to head into the town of Seward and do a little exploring before grabbing an early dinner. Seward was a cute town, think of it like Asheville on a harbor.

Blaine told us about a great place for dinner, The Cookery, but he said to be there between 5-6pm. The Cookery didn’t take reservations and was that good. He wasn’t kidding. We got there right at 5, and there was a line! Thankfully, they were just opening so we walked right in. The food was clearly just caught and delicious!

The drive home was just as gorgeous, and it was crazy to see how much more green we could see today versus just a couple of days ago!

A quick stop at Three Bears for some ice cream, and we finished off a pretty great day with ice cream and a movie.

Tomorrow, we leave the Kenai Peninsula and head north toward Denali with an overnight stop in Talkeetna.

Staying in Cooper Landing has been an excellent starting spot for day trips. It seems like everything in Alaska is 1 1/2 hours away from everywhere else. We’re basically making a 5-pointed asterisk over the Kenai Peninsula. Today we made our way across to the western coast and down to the southern tip to Homer.

The drive was beautiful. We started with snow capped mountains, and then watched everything get flatter and flatter through the valley. You could still see the mountains (which we later learned are a volcano chain) across the bay.

Clearly we are not the first folks impressed by the view because there are traffic signs with a camera and yardage… translation, don’t try to take a picture while drive, pull into the parking area.

Onward to Homer… the views continued and we were stunned by the relatively large town of Soldotna. They boasted a Fred Meyer (like Walmart), Walgreens and Taco Bell. After where we have been, this was like Charlotte!

Speaking of Charlotte, Charlotte Stewart is staying with the fur babies while we are gone. Everyone is Alaska seems to have a dog, so we have been missing our babies. Thankfully, she shared some pictures today – more of Scarlett because Sampson doesn’t stay still.

We made it to Homer and Kachemak Bay. (If that name sounds familiar, it’s home to the show Alaska, The Last Frontier). Homer is a really cute town centered on and around the Spit. The Spit is a thin strip of land into the bay. The Spit has a huge dock and fish processing plant, lots of restaurants and funky stores. The dock and plant were eerily quiet today. We talked to a guy in one of the shops and he said he normally works on the docks but the fish just haven’t started running yet, so not much to do.

We had a great lunch at Captain Patties (thanks Holly)… literally couldn’t be much fresher. We also did a Little Rock skipping with someone the smoothest rocks. Boys noticed that the only other places with rocks like this was in Hawaii.

I think we checked out every little shop. We bought a few shirts, a sweatshirt, even a necklace with a little bit of Alaskan Jade. And of course, we had to check out the local ice cream shop – Spit Lick 😂

There was a nice monument to the fisherman and vessels that come in and out of the port. We recognized one f/v (fishing vessel) the Time Bandit and its crew from the Deadliest Catch.

Several times on this trip, the boys said Alaska felt like the edge of the world… well, today we found the End of the Road Park and Sign, so guess they were right.

And we loved the sign on the local theater

We had to stop at one more lookout on the at home. This view never gets old!

Since Soldotna had the first grocery store like back home, we decided to restock to get us through Denali next week. Man, it was nice to get everything we needed at one time!

We made it back to our little Cabin, and made dinner that now can include a fresh salad (thanks Fred Meyer’s Grocery!) and frozen Screamin’ Sicilian pizza. We finished dinner off with homemade chocolate chip cookies and milk and a movie.

Tomorrow we head over to Seward to explore the eastern side of the Kenai Peninsula with a little coastal kayaking and a visit to the Kenai Fjords National Park!

The plan was to end today with cooler full of rainbow trout, but instead we ended with sore legs from a couple of beautiful hikes. Pivot and Adjust!Michael and I researched hikes and found a few close by that we could all do. (Still keeping things easy to moderate for Mike’s ribs.)

We start the day nice and slow. Our Dolly Varden Cabin has a room with 2 full sizes beds and a queen size Murphy bed. Since Mike and I are always up first, we took the Murphy Bed. I have to say it’s pretty cool pulling the bed out of the wall 😀

I was too sleepy to finish the blog last night, so while I finished the blog this morning, Mike fixed a delicious breakfast of grits and bacon. I did not realize until later that I looked like the crazy lady with my bed head. Between Mike’s cuts and black eye and my crazy hair, we were quite the sight 😂

After breakfast was finished and cleaned up, we were off to hike the Russian Lakes Trail. The hike was gorgeous! And the weather was crazy… if the sun was out and no breeze, it felt like 60 degrees. If the clouds came in and the breeze started, it would drop to 40 degrees. Of course, we found lots of plaques about different disaster, and even info on limited fire burns specifically for moose. Who knew moose prefer young birch, aspen and willow trees? And of course, these two had to find a way to make some kind of competition – pull ups on a bridge in a forest? Yes, please.

We can add tiny little brown mouse to our animal check list.

Thankfully, we didn’t see any live bears, but we did see some scat.

We made it to the Falls… not a waterfall but more like a series white water falls. Either way, it was beautiful, and definitely worth the hike!

We went a little further to see the sport fishing area… which was a tiny trail down to the water’s edge for net fishing and catching salmon.

Of course, 2.5 miles in means 2.5 miles out…

We made it back to the car just in time for the opening of the latest Mom’s Cafe location at Russia Lakes Trailhead.

After our late lunch, we decided to try another trail Michael found – Skilak Overlook Trail. It was supposed to be a beautiful overlook of Skilak Lake.

We started the trail with no problem and then about a quarter of a mile in, we saw a pile of bear scat. Not just scat, but fresh scat…

This trail was much more narrow with dense woods, so it was much harder to see through the woods compared to the last trail. We went on for about half a mile and then decided, after bruised ribs and stitches, we didn’t want to risk an up-close encounter with a bear. So we headed back to our car, and checked out the overlook in a bear free environment!

Plus we learned (from a plaque) that bald eagle come back to the same nest year after year adding to the nest each year. Bald eagle nests can weigh up to 2,000 pounds!

The drive back was just as pretty so here are ever more landscape pictures 😉

When we got home, we decided to go ahead and bake the cookie batter we got yesterday so they would be ready tonight after dinner.

We found a local place for dinner, the Cooper Landing Brewery. Great little place with homemade beers, and pretty good food – well, we guess it was all good. We all got chicken wings and fries, and they were good 🤷🏻‍♀️

We walked down to the water at our cabin when we go back, since it still daylight at 9pm. Seriously, these pictures are from almost 9pm!

With sore legs (well at least the adults have sore legs) and full bellies, we are in for the night with a movie rolling and heavy eyelids 🫩🥱

Tomorrow we head down to bottom of the Kenai Peninsula to check out Homer, Alaska and any other adventures we find along the way.

Today, Alaska tested the overly planning permanently positive Clark Griswold in me…

Not surprisingly after our midnight return home, we slept in a bit and enjoyed coffee in our little cabin. The boys were asleep when we got home – sleeping well I might add because it took banging on the door, doorbells and repeated calls to get them to open the door for us 😂 – so we caught up over coffee and breakfast bars. They had dinner at the Dirty Skillet again, and told us how good the steaks were (I’m sure they had nothing on the Dairy Queen chicken strips we had in Anchorage 😂), and we discovered that both boys thought the other left the tip for the waiter last night. So we added “stop by Dirty Skilket” to our open days empty agenda. Otherwise, this is an open day… another little God provision after the Rafting/ER day before.

We said goodbye the little cabin in Hope and headed to the Dirty Skillet.

The Dirty Skillet is down a short dirt road with cabins built all in the woods and a “Lodge/Office” in the center by a little pond. The pond is where the boys were canoeing yesterday. We had planned to stop in the Lodge this morning to look for an ornament, so we headed there to find Roman the waiter or at least leave an envelope for him. Search was not needed because Roman was working in the coffee shop inside the lodge. He was shocked that we came to make his tip right. We stayed for coffees and saw our waitress from the first night, the owner and several other members of waitstaff sitting around a table with guitars and music. They were playing and writing Christian songs. Apparently the waitstaff all live in the cabins nearby rent/utilities free for the 4 months that that Lodge and Skillet are open. Lots are recent college graduates just looking to fill a summer, but some are what they call permanently seasonal employees who go from one area to the other. Alaska in the summer, Colorado in fall and winter to work at ski resorts. We stayed a while and enjoyed our coffee and really relaxed Sunday morning with music.

Back in the car, we decided to take the long route to Cooper Landing, and check out Whittier, Alaska via the longest tunnel in North America. I checked in with my new travel buddy, ChatGPT, and asked for a map with interesting stops along the way… 4.9 seconds later…

The views were again just breathtaking. If 17 and 18 year old boys are putting down their phones and looking at the landscape, you know it is phenomenal.

We made it to Portage Glacier and Lake and the Begich Boggs Visitor Center. It was absolutely beautiful and COLD with an arctic wind off the water. The Visitor’s Center was named after 2 members of Congress were presumed to have died in a plane crash coming to this area. The Visitor’s Center overlooks the lake and the glacier which is little hard to see now because it has receded about 3 miles.

We were also fascinated by the poles along the roadways. A little research later, we discovered that these are snow markers. The Portage Valley gets enormous amounts of snow, and these markers show where the roadway, guardrails and ditches are.

In case you’re wondering why glacier water is so blue, here’s what we learned: As glaciers slowly, they slowly grind up rocks into an extremely fine powder called glacier flour or rock flour. When this lands in water, it is so fine it is suspended in the water, and then sunlight hits these. The flour reflects blue and turquoise wavelengths more effectively than other colors. (Thanks ChatGPT 😉)

As the rain came in we decided to head to Whittier. The only way to get to Whittier by road is through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel. It is a one-way alternating tunnel that runs each way every 30 minutes. The tunnel is 2.5 miles long and literally goes through a mountain, under water, through another mountain and then welcome to Whittier. (Little bit unsettling for those of us with Claustrophobia to think that not only are we in a tunnel, but in a tunnel under water)

Whittier is a tiny fishing town that according to Michael looks like you are at the edge of the world. We explored the town (about 45 minutes of walking)

We grabbed lunch at the Saltwater Cafe. This may be some of the freshest we have ever had. The “restaurants” are like little shacks with seating for 18 people on barstools.

We headed back to the car – making sure we timed our departure with the tunnel traffic, and off we went to Cooper Landing. Our new home for 4 days (Four nights in one place???) is in a clearly just completed area but has the greatest name ever – the Dolly Varden ♥️ The cabin still has that “new car” smell. But what it didn’t have was a washer and after the ER adventure, I need some clothes washed. Car unpacked, the boys went to explore the lake and grounds and I unpacked Mom’s cafe.

While the boys were gone, I got a phone call from Captain Jason about our rainbow trout fishing trip tomorrow. He said due to the cold weather lingering the fish really were not biting. He had gone out on his own and then again with another guide, and got maybe 2 fish in 4 hours. I don’t know what you know about fishng trips, but they are not cheap. I told him about Mike’s injuries and that we were doubtful he could cast or reel in fish and absolutely could not a rocking boat. In light of everything, Captain Jason offered to cancel the trip and refund our money. We were blown away that he would offer this! Although my overly detailed planning is getting crushed, we are taking as another God provision to us. So if we, or anyone we know, is ever looking to fish in Cooper’s Landing, Alaska, Captain Jason is the honest fishing captain that we will use!

We have a grill at the Dolly Varden so off we went carrying our bag full of dirty clothes, to find a grocery store and laundromat. This proved to be more difficult than expected. Alaska is remote. These little towns have Sheetz-sized convince stores, think a mini-truck stop, called Three Bears Alaska. These stores have a little bit of everything, including showers and a laundromat. We put our clothes into washers and walked around the corner to the store. The store/prices/inventory were crazy! Inventory wise I will give grace because it was Sunday night so maybe trucks come on Monday. And the prices are probaably reflective of location and shipping costs. The store was too funny though. For $16.99 you could get a container of olive oil or a machette. 🤣 They did have a MASSIVE alcohol section so maybe that makes the limited selection easier to bear 🤣 We grabbed some steaks for dinner and bacon for breakfast and all the fixings and went to check our clothes. Washers were done so we loaded the clothes into a dryer. Mike stayed with the clothes and boys and I ran back to the cabin to unload groceries. Wrapped the potatoes, salt & peppered the steaks and scooted back to pick up Mike and the clothes.

When I tell you those steaks, potatoes and green beans were delicious, they were outstanding. So much so, that I forgot to take any photos. 🤦🏻‍♀️

So now we are regrouping for tomorrow… Thankfully there are lots of great hikes around here, so we will find lots to do. Whenever things don’t work the way you plan, I always tell the boys: pivot and adjust. Practicing what I preach now so that’s what we are doing. We have bear spray and picnic stuff so the hikes will be great!