Seward

 

We left Anchorage and drove the Seward Hwy to Seward.  It’s about a 130 mile drive.  There was only about a 5 mile stretch of construction otherwise the road was pretty good.  It has a lot of pull offs.  It’s a very pretty route, but since there are fires very little can be seen.  These fires are far away, but with no rain and very little wind it’s a real “foggy” atmosphere in an otherwise beautiful area.

There are two Seward’s.  Historic (touristy) and the harbor (touristy).

 

 

The above picture is main street historic Seward.

 

 

They paint a lot of things in Seward.  It brightens the city up.

 

Don’t this painted dumpster make you want to throw your crap in it?

 

 

This wall was down by the harbor

 

 

Something about rabbits down here.  I think people use them like country people use goats – cut their lawns.

 

Seems to be a lot of these flowers down by the harbor next to the sidewalks.  They are very colorful

 

 

   City dry camping for $15 down on the road.  It would be hard to buy the view of the harbor.  That’s smoke in the back ground.  They seem to have plenty of sights even on the water.  Electric will run $30 – no thanks.  We have electric for $18 in the military campground and plan to move to the city campground early next week.  We are about a half mile out.

 

 

  This is just part of the harbor.  I tried to take the smoke out of the view, but just couldn’t clear it up.  You got the jest of the views.

 

We will post pictures everyday so stay tuned.  Share our blog with your friends… See Ya……….

Let’s go !

Kitty says it time for some new adventures!

 

Wow, Anchorage broke records yesterday (Wed) with a high temperature of 81 degrees. We are saying, “You mean this isn’t normal ?”. Today I got shorts and a t-shirt on. Their complaint up here is that these high temps bring on a haze and combine that with the smoke from fires makes it look overcast in the distance. It looks like L.A. from the distance – smoggy. The fires in Alaska are pretty normal this time of the year and they are in very dense areas usually. When I take distance pictures I use filters and try to remove the haze with photo repair with some luck.

Today we start packing up for Seward, our move tomorrow. We just got an email from Diane H traveling north from Seward. She said that the road construction was completed when she came thru a couple of days ago. Guess I will give the wheels an extra shine today. The outside of the coach is pretty clean it just needs a little dusting. Up here we travel with our water tank full (100 gal) and empty gray/black tanks. We do this so we can stop and stay wherever we want without worrying about the minor stuff. It doesn’t hurt our fuel mileage and if it did, the peace of mind is worth it.

We bought a Rival fryer yesterday from Target. Anchorage has 3 Wal-marts and at least one Target here in Anchorage. It’s our first electric one. It uses 15 AMPS. I cooked some breaded tilapia fish, breaded yard bird (chicken) and recooked some brought home french fries. It was pretty neat. I strained the oil back into their containers and total loss was about 2 tablespoons of canola oil. I thought it would be a lot more, but it wasn’t. We will probably leave the fryer in Livingston.

Carol is feeling fine and I am getting along. I don’t won’t to shake my head because I might have some marbles fall out.

Time to get to work (play)….See ya…………..

Lazy days continue

Carol & I have just been taking it easy the last few days. Carol hasn't been 100%. She must have allergies and the cottonwood snow is flying. Then I fell about a week ago while chasing our cat. I fell backwards and cracked my head on our tile floor. I get minor headaches and a sore neck just about every day so far. No swelling, brusing or sore spots. I'm sure I don't want to go horseback riding. The fall was funny but wow did it hurt. Hey, I have been told that I'm hard headed and I just had to see for myself. I'm just glad I'm not a mellon head. Carol wants me to go to the Dr's and I say no. I think I would look funny with a cast on my head...smile.

See Ya.......................

Cat’s lazydays

This is where we moose hunt.  It’s about 35 yards away from us thru the woods.  It’s an inactive track based on the rust on the rails. So far just a lot of droppings about 20 feet into the bushes. 

 

This kitty is Patches.  She likes to go out and stay close to the RV on a leash of course. 

 

  This kitty is Rainbow.  She likes to go for long walks on a leash.  She walks the railroad rails for at least a mile each time. 

Both kitties were outside for several hours today and thus are tired.

We did nothing of interest today and we are tired of doing nothing.  Just one of those do nothing days.

 

I am getting read up/testing on the next phase of this blog.  I want to go to larger pictures and have a video clip in addition to the larger pictures.

People have asked what kind/model of camera I use.  It’s a 1.2 meg pixel Kodak digital camera with a 512K card.  NOT!  It’s a Nikon D90 with several lenses to include a 150-500mm lens.  I named the big lens the “Whale”. I have several filters that I play with and two tripods that I have never used.  I use an 8 Gig card which will hold about 1100 pictures with the JPEG on fine.  I have RAW available, but don’t use it. It’s probably a step up from JPEG, but it’s used more in the commercial side.  People who have helped me are numerous but do include Mel & Evelyn Nobis, Sharon Del Rosario, Diane H, Nick Russell, the girl at the camera shop in Anchorage and Ebay.  Of course, Steve  O’Bosky too.  Ahh, I forgot the most important one, my wife of 2 weeks (NOT), Carol.  That should get me a few points and a good dinner.

Moose – Where art thou !

 

Since there are no moose by us that we can find we  decided to go downtown.  We started at the weekend Market Place above.  No moose!

 

Then we looked downtown the street and didn’t see any roaming.  They used to in the old TV series Northern Exposure.  I guess what they say about Anchorage is true.  Alaska starts about 3 miles from the city limits.

The Iditarod starting line is across from the yellow building above.  We think it might be still a few months away thank goodness.  Don’t want to get in their way standing in the road.

 

Then we went to the Anchorage Visitor Center.  Notice the sod on the roof.  Seems like us people down south have a little more land where we don’t have to use our roofs to grow things.  Carol says you should notice the flowers.  The people in the visitor center directed us down the street with smiles.

They were pretty sweet in the visitor center and sent us here to this guy below.  We know he wasn’t real because moose don’t fish.  Then he sent us down another street to our next “moose”.

We knew this “moose” wasn’t real because he couldn’t give any poo to put in Carol’s bag.  Moose are always pooing.  He tried to take candy out of Carol’s bag too!

 

Then this “moose” wasn’t real either.  He wanted Carol to dress him.

 

 

We thought this “moose” was real at first.  Then we realized it had the head of a rhino with antlers.

 

So we just decided to return to base and take pictures of these stuffed moose.

These MOOSE must of been on rails because they kept moving around.  We can’t figure out how they moved them thru the woods. It was like being at Disneyland.  Oh well, maybe we can find some moose another day.

Hey, Happy Fourth.  Anchorage shoots off fireworks at dusk.  Dusk is MIDNIGHT!

See ya………….

Walks & Sites Around Anchorage

These two pictures are of a moose which was probably  killed/died over the winter.  This was about a 100 yards from our campsite in thick woods.

The jaw bone above appears to be upside down.

   

 

 

This is moose poo.  We have it all around here but can find that doggone Bullwinkle.

 

This is our present site at Fort Richardson campground at $18 FHU.  I water (soak) the dirt about three times a day if I am here.  These “Campers” just don’t know what 5 MPH signs mean.  So what else is new!  

 

 

This picture is my computer and my all time favorite desktop screen.  I just took this pictures a few days ago at the Alaska Zoo.  It is VERY detailed.

 

 

 

This morning we went moose hunting and this bear was eating garbage next to a back road about 3 miles from our campground.  I got about a half dozen pictures before he had is fill of us.

 

 

 

The mountain above is Eagle Peak and stands a gracious 6906 feet.  They will let you hike to it.  I declined – I had a headache from sniffing the moose poo.

 

Then we are in a state park at the head of a hiking trail and see this handicap parking sign next to the trail head.  What Einstein put that on a “vigorous” trail head.  It just don’t figure sometimes.  If the person is handicap and wants to hike then he/she should just do it.  Handicap Parking here is a waste of time and money in my opinion.

 

This is a sign I had to turn around and go back to get a picture of it.  It made us smile a lot….

Need I say anymore – let your mind think of all the things that could mean!

 

 

Did I mention that this Army Base is next to a Air Force Base – Elmendorf.  Yes, we got use to the fly over's.  I am too slow to catch the jets thru the trees.  This big lug of a cargo plane waited til I went in and got my “whale” lens set up and came back out.  Since it waited for me it deserves to be in the blog.  You can see they stopped the props in mid air so they wouldn’t be a blur.  They even stopped the landing gear from coming all the way down especially the front gear.

So, see ya and a bg thanks to those that are helping with ideas and suggestions on this blog.  I really need help I have been told……Dennis

New test

Now here are some pictures of some animals we saw at the Alaska Zoo.

Aren’t they cute….

Basically testing for changes to the blog

 

I am learning how to get more than four pictures on the blog

Animals are pretty neat too.

This is the end…

Well, several people wanted to see my new haircut so here it is. The cost was $11.25 on base here in Alaska which I think is high for a military base. I think my last haircut was in March. I don't care that much about getting a haircut except I hate paying for it. This one should do me until November or so.

The above picture of the duck I think is neat. It actually caught the duck head under the water.

Seems like there are a lot of sea planes here in Anchorage. It appears if you have land on the water you have a seaplane. They were all around this lake near the Anchorage Int Airport. Small land planes were everywhere. It looked like SKPs at a free buffet - they were everwhere.

We watch them take off and land for about a half hour and got a bunch of pictures with the "whale" lens.
See Ya.............

Anchorage Zoo

We visited the Anchorage Zoo today. They really knew how to display the animals and most of them were pretty active. We went there around feeding time. Some of their animals are rescued. The zoo had a little story about where, why and when they got the animal. I posted the 4 below pictures because we liked the animals more than the actual shot.


The Golden Eagle had a permanent wing injury. He looked great and I think I got his magnificent look.




Then this picture of a snow leopard is pretty good also. This was shot thru a plastic shield.

This poor Dall Sheep evidently lost his horn, but he was still fighting with another guy.

This is a grizzly bear that was playing around and eating at the same time.


I took 228 pictures and probably deleted about a hundred or so for various reasons.
See Ya............................