Hello from Homer Alaska,
It is raining today so we are at the Homer Library.

We left Denali National Park last Monday and drove for about an hour when we hit a delay. A tanker filled with super cooled liquefied methane gas overturned on the highway. The road was closed at Cantwell, about 20 miles south of Denali Park and wouldn't open for another 12 hours or so. There wasn't a lot of lodging in the area of Cantwell and what there was was full. One possible lodge had closed, and on the door was this sign: "No food, no beds, no liquor, and don't bother the woman in the cabin out back. She is mentally unstable and has a gun." Well, you know you're in Alaska, where every information sign has been used for target practice by someone. I think everyone owns at least one gun here.

So we just pitched a tent on the side of the road. This being Alaska the spot was beautiful as you can see from this first photo. We woke up to fog, frost and beautiful views of Mt. McKinley. We saw moose while drinking our coffee before we drove on. In Alaska even the side of the road is spectacularly beautiful.

We drove to Seward and found a great campsite in Kenai Fjords Natinal Park close to the Exit Glacier Visitor Center and the next day we hiked along the Exit glacier up to the Harding Ice Field. It was a four mile hike, one way with an elevation gain of 3000 feet. This is a fairly strenuous day hike but it was well worth it as it was both interesting and beautiful. The ice field is 300 square miles of ice that feeds dozens of glaciers. The ice is thick, perhaps up to a mile, no one really knows. Anyway, it was an other worldly sight and really fun getting there.

The following day we went on a boat tour of Kenai Fjords National Park. We were out about eight hours. The photo here of some sea lions is a bit lame but the tour wasn't. We saw a couple of Humpback whales pretty close and I got some pictures with a 35 millimeter camera. I hope they turned out. We also got a close look at a glacier ending at the sea. It was dramatic in color (blue), size (400-600 ft. high) and sound (it cracked and crashed loudly as small pieces feel into the ocean). As for other wildlife, we saw sea otters, dolphins, water birds including eagles, murres, puffins, cormorants and lots and lots of gulls.

Finally last night we stayed at a bed and breakfast in Nikolaevsk, a tiny town of Old Believers Russian Orthodox, a sect that broke off from the Russian Orthodox Church in the 17th century. Nikolaevsk was settled in the sixties as the Old believers fled communist Russia. They are a bit to Russian Orthodoxy what the Amish are to Protestant Christianity. However I think the Amish are doing quite a bit better. It was an interesting side trip. The picture is of Nina, the B&B hostess. She fed us an authentic Russian meal, for a rather hefty price. It was an interesting to visit.

Thanks for the comments, it is fun to hear from you.

Love, Brian and Ruth