Anchorage Tourist Traps

Marty and I returned to Anchorage with some time to spare before his flight. We made the mandatory rounds of the downtown tourist traps and took the mandatory tourist photo.

With that, our week together came to end. It was the first time I've traveled with my "brother" Marty, and I hope to do it again soon!

I'll be hanging out in Anchorage for a few days, waiting for my good friend Rob to arrive. He and I have quite the itinerary planned for wrapping my my Alaskan Summer travels... Stay tuned!

Kenai: Salmon Fishing

Next up for us was fishing on the famous Kenai river. We met our guide at the ridiculous time of four o'clock in the morning and set out for an entire day on the river. Catching wild king salmon is not easy, but our hopes were running high because of the success that others had on several previous days. I had seven "hits" and got four fish to the boat. I couldn't keep three of them due to rules, but the one I could keep was a pretty nice fish. Sadly, not everyone in the boat got a fish.

On the way back to the camper, Marty shouted "Stop!" and jumped out of the truck while it was still moving. He crashed a ways into the woods and took the moose photo you see here. He was so excited to see a moose, almost up close and personal. You can tell you're with an avid hunter when his very next photo is of the poor animal's scat!

Kenai: Seldovia

We decided to mix some touristy stuff into our outdoor theme today, and started with a water-taxi ride across the bay to Seldovia. We made an unexpected but enjoyable stop along the way at a tiny, remote island so a guy from the power company could read the meter at the only cabin on the island. The cost of the reading had to be as much as the bill!

At the pier near Seldovia, we got a ride into town from a local guy who is just as loony as they come around here. I thought Marty was going to bust a gut trying to keep from laughing! Seldovia is pretty much a dump, frankly, despite being the chain saw sculpture capital of the world. (If you're in the area, you're far better off visiting the truly charming and delightful Halibut Cove instead.) The best I could do in Seldovia was get thrown in jail.

We took a short plane ride back across the bay, augmented by a very nice fly-over of some nearby glaciers. Thankfully, the pilot was a normal guy!

Kenai: Homer & Halibut

My "brother" Marty in Pennsylvania is an avid outdoorsman and hunter, so I invited him to join me on the Kenai peninsula for some fishing and other shenanigans. After an arduous set of flights from the east coast, he arrived in Homer just before midnight, astonished to see that it was still quite light out. Despite the time on his "body clock" he was good to go for a beer at the Salty Dog Saloon, and to add his dollar to the literally thousands that are tacked all over the inside of the joint.

We headed out this morning for some halibut fishing, for which Homer is world famous. We had pretty good luck, though that's not saying much because catching Halibut in Homer is pretty much an automatic. What happens in Homer stays in Homer, but I will report that Marty didn't quite catch all the fish you see him with here!

Homer, The Moose!

I pulled into my campground in Homer, Ak, and look who came by to greet me! As we often say in Alaska, "You can't make this stuff up!"