Carol's Excellent Adventures: August 2015

Howdy doodie to all of you !!!

We finally made it to Seward on 7/25...upon arriving in this fine little town, my GPS....(yes, it was my GPS's fault!!!) brought me to the WRONG DANG road..........and all of you RV'ers know that once you have committed to a wrong turn, you must either find a turnaround spot or drive until you can take another street.
MAXINE (as I fondly call my GPS) repetitively told me to 'MAKE A U-TURN.....
...there were no U-turns.......anywhere.
There were no side streets.
It was just one big long crappy, bumpy, pot hole ridden, narrow, depressinging lonely road..............
I drove until I came to a cul-de-sac...a very, very, very, small cul de sac.......
......how small, you ask?????
So small that I couldn't even park my RV in a straight line......I was kind of in a small V-like position......grrrrrrrrrr!
......SOOOOOOO now my minimal maneuvering skills or lack of came into play.
I tried any and every number of turns, back ups, etc. trying to get my butt out of there. I had little sweat balls hanging from the end of my nose!!!!
The underside of my 'gals' were sweating.
My heartbeat was a wee bit fast!!!
FRUSTRATION GALORE!!!
Finally, I backed up into an overgrowth of branches etc.......(who cared at that point whether or not I scratched my rig!!!) .... that used to be a road, and made it out.

Hence, My FOURTH acquisition of the MOOSE!
It was suggested that I just get a darn car seat for the poor little moose!!!
I think, though dare not ask, that I am the only person to ever receive the moose as often as I did!!!

I was very happy when my 'living under the wire' friend Marie was awarded the moose tonight!!

While in Seward we visited an awesome Sea-life Center and were privy to a 'behind the scenes' informative/interactive display of some of the Alaskan birds.....

That afternoon the gals and I went up to EXIT GLACIER and did some hiking.

We also went to Kenai Fjords for a 5.5 hr glacier tour and saw some amazing wildlife!

Cindy and Wendy!!

There were a ton of places on our trip that we watched salmon spawning. Rather than slap the pics in everytime we saw them, I will put the finest pics in now..............enjoy!

From Seward, we mosied on down to Palmer, Alaska. We toured an old colony house, ate at a restaurant called the "Noisy Goose" and then went to a Musk Ox farm.

That was most fascinating. The fur from a Musk Ox is called quiviet and is about the warmest yarn around.
My friend, Marie, bought a couple of skeins of quiviet to knit me.......I mean herself.....a pair of toasty mittens.
These will be very handy in her California home!
While dining in the evening there was an earthquake! I personally did not feel my bulbulous butt jiggling but one of the RV'ers came out of his rig and told us that things were a'shakin !
Glad I missed that!

Here are some pics of our journey from Seward to Palmer...............

Valdez (Pronounced Val-deez) was our next stop. We again went on a boat ride but this time it was a 9 hour trip and it was AWESOME!
More whales and various forms of mammal seal-life!
I say it this way, because I can't see the pics on this new computer program of mine, so will have to pull the pics up blindly (until I can get the 8.1 for dummies!1)......... but suffice it to say that they are either harbor seals, stellar sea lions, dall's porpoise, orca's, or humpbacks!

Me and Jonnie

Ted and Linda

Uncle Bob and Auntie Kay

INCREDIBLE!!!
We saw them breech, dive, swim past...............all to the cries of fellow boaters......."Show us some tail!!"

We visited fish hatcheries and saw the salmon struggling to get up the fish ladder...........as depicted in previous pictures

Just outside the fish hatchery was a stream and the salmon were there as well. This was a spot supposedly well known for bear activity. We went there several times however did not have the pleasure of seeing any bears......
We were lucky enough to see a coyote stealing fish though. I had some fantastic pics of this guy grabbing fish after fish, but due to a slight computer snafu, I accidentally deleted all of them.

My friend LT......

........................... was kind enough to loan me some of her FABULOUS pics.

Our next real stop was to Skagway...........from here we took a boat to Juneau (only accessible by boat or air) and were wowed into oblivion by the Mendenhall Glacier......

There was a brave........crazy......brave......crazy guy swimming in the glacier water.

(This is the true definition of 'retraction'! YIKES)

We had a few long, long, long, long..... travel days in between all these trips...............so tiring!!!!
I am pretty sure that I can speak for many, that it will be nice to be in a spot were we can put our feet up for awhile.

Emerald Lake was an AWESOME sight!!!
Take a gander at this............

,

Since it has taken so long to be able to write this little ole blog (No internet service) I am kinda just jumbling in pics etc, so forgive me, but do enjoy!

When we were 'glacier hunting', we were so blessed to see some awesome calving of the glaciers.

And one of my most exciting sightings........the grizzly bear at Hyder catching salmon!!!

Today is the last day of our adventure and I will be heading for Arizona shortly...........
What a ride folks! Hope you all enjoyed tagging along! I sure enjoyed having you along!