July 4

SOLTESWEB.NET ALASKA TRIP 2005 - JULY Page 4

Friday, July 15 - Seldovia

Weekend again. We, with two other SOWER couples, decided to run down to Homer (see Map 7) for a cruise to Seldovia. We bought a 2-for-1 travel booklet that will enable us to take several cruises in Alaska at half price :), and this will be our first.

We saw puffins and otters and thousands of sea birds on the cruise to Seldovia. On Gull Island, there were so many birds, the cliffs were white.

That's Ed, Patty, George, Nell, Sue and Ed on the cruise boat. Seldovia slough in the picture on the right.

More sights in Seldovia. Poor dogs there must be confused...

How about this fellow on the left? There are many chainsaw sculptures everywhere in Alaska.

We also saw a bright red jellyfish in the dock area.

Of course, the dock are will have some fisherman with fish.

Homer

To get to Seldovia, you have to cross Katchemak Bay from Homer. Homer is the halibut capital of the world, and the fish were running. The first picture on the left is an average afternoon's catch (halibut on the rack, and rock fish on the floor). Some halibut are over 200 pounds, with occasionally a fish over 300 pounds. Then, the "buttwhackers" filet the 'buts for you (pack 'em, rack 'em, whack 'em, hack 'em and sack 'em). That's me on the right with my salmon. Yea, sure!

Homer has a spit (land jutting into the bay) four miles long, and the spit is loaded with cruise and charter offices, fishermen and sightseers. We stayed in Homer for a few hours to sightsee (had halibut for supper, of course!) then drove around the area before heading towards home. It was after 10 pm, and still light, when we decided to stop about 25 miles from home and spend the night in a rest area.

Saturday, July 16 - Malfunction Junction

Time for Saturday shopping, water and sewer dump, and library for internet. We then stopped at a small shop called Malfunction Junction, and saw these flowers. What are they? By the way, the name of the store comes from a women's club started in the 1940's when times were tough on the peninsula. They called themselves the "Malfunction Junction Stitch and Bitch Club".

Patty got to say "Hi" to the bears. (That picture is about as real as my salmon catch!).

Ninilchik

Quaint old Russian village, with church and cemetery.

Later in the evening, all five couples went to a high school melodrama (loads of fun) before settling in at Sourdough Sal's in Soldotna for coffee and dessert. During the melodrama, we got to "boo" the villain and throw peanuts at him (he threw them back!).

Sunday, July 17

Back to Soldotna Bible Chapel, where we had a guest evangelist Steve Hale talk. After church, we had enjoyed Sal's so much the previous night that we returned for lunch. Tonight, the SOWER women are cooking up a salmon dinner for us, complete with homemade strawberry/rhubarb pie and pasta salad.

Monday July 18 - Work at Camp

Well, the guys had expected to start erecting the building this week, but it is delayed for awhile. We finished the base, as you see, and this was going to be a small chapel, made out of a log house kit.
This little log cabin on the property shows what it would have looked like.