Kenai Peninsula

We've left Anchorage. Early Friday morning, we got up and headed out of town. It is considered to be one of the most beautiful drives in America, and it proved to be so. The highway was along an arm of water with mountains on both sides. The mountains past the water were all snowcapped with thick layers of white fluffy snow. There were turnoffs along the way to enjoy the views. It's not the right time of the year, or we might have seen baluga whales along the route; they follow the salmon as they go upstream to spawn. But that doesn't happen until June through August. Instead, we saw beautiful mountains, lots of birds, marshes, valleys, etc.

We drove all the way to Homer on the Kenai Peninsula. We stopped at a high pass where snow was still about 4 feet thick on the ground. And we stopped to have lunch in a local diner on the way. They served us smothered chicken, mashed pototoes, gravy, roll, and brownie with whipped cream. It's one of the best lunches we've had so far and was a bargain at Alaskan prices. All that was only $10 with taxes and tip.

We are staying in a Homer. We took that. Then we took another drive called the Skyline Drive with views down over the town and across the way. There is a long, thin strip of land that goes far out into the water that was left by a glacier that stopped at that point and then started receding that is called the Spit. We drove out it. We went to two museums, a small local museum specializing in natural history and another new and modern museum operated by the state wildlife department. They both had interesting exhibits telling about the area, showing what life has been like here for people, with samples of local wildlife--both live and dead--etc. We also went to three galleries, since Homer is an artists community somewhat similar to Rockport in Texas. It was a nice day of exploring.

We are off today for Seward. It's another coastal community. The drive to there that isn't a part of what we traveled yesterday, is also supposed to be dramatic. It's nice being out in nature now and seeing such beautiful scenery.