Last week, we saw lots of moose. First, while Ken was off fishing, a moose cow with 2 calves showed up in the lily pads across the road from the RV park. Suzie went out and photoed them grazing in the water’s edge and as they crossed the road and played in the ditch very close to us. Bob called me out to watch them also.

A few days later, Bob and Suzie hosted a fish fry of halibut they had caught the day before, and while we were relaxing in their RV after, I saw a moose swimming across the lake. Suzie jumped out with her camera and took a few pictures of her (this must have been another moose cow, because there was no sign of calves).

 Suzie and I took a day to explore lots of little shops in Soldotna while traveling the Kenai River Quilt Tour.  We picked up a “passport” card with locations and checkboxes for the 15 shops that displayed the quilts for the tour. The quilts were made by the local quilt guild, and displayed in various shops. Suzie and I managed to get to 10 shops. The neat thing was that we would not have visited any of these shops without the quilts on tour. There were boutiques and gift stores, but also a café, framing shop, bookstore, greenhouse, plus the visitor’s center and fabric shop. We only needed to go to 12 of the 15 locations, but 4 shops were not open on the day we tried to complete the tour (the tour runs through July, so there wasn’t a rush.)

Friends (Doug and Rose) from Wisconsin arrived at the Kasilof RV Park early last week, and have been spending time with us. Ken and Doug have been going fishing, and Rose and I have been shopping and browsing the local stores (including the marvelous Kenai Fabric Center). Rose helped me finish off the quilt tour, and we went to the Senior Center in Sterling (with friends Donna and Yolanda) for the "Christmas in July" bazaar. One of the crafters tanned salmon skin and produced beautiful items with the salmon leather (billfolds, key rings, jewelry, coin purses, etc.) I bought Ken a nice key ring for his birthday. Then we had lunch with Donna at the café that was on the quilt tour. Great place for lunch in Soldotna.

We were very busy all last week, and we were visiting with friends or too tired to update the blog at night. So this was a quick catch-up of all our activities.

turning fabric into present - first sewing project of summer completed

I finally sent Ken and the boys away for a walk and took over all the space in the 5th-wheel and set up my cutting mat, ironing board and sewing machine. Our friend Suzie had a birthday a while ago, and I wanted to make her a present using some Alaska-themed fabric. I think this box turned out well, and should help Suzie and Bob remember their trip to Alaska.

Thanks to everyone for the best wishes, cards, phone calls, texts, and presents for my birthday. As Ken mentioned in his post, we went out for supper with friends and had Cajun food - very tasty. It is hard to pick just one place to eat in Alaska, but we like to add new restaurants to our options.
Rosie

Traveling/Fishing/Birthdays and Dog Walks

We have spent the lull in fishing doing things that we won't have time to do once the Reds start running in the Kenai.  Monday we took a ride to Homer stopping at SVRV Park and visiting with Bob, Glen, Bev & Howard.  SVRV didn't open this year as they are upgrading some park systems and working on their house.  We ate lunch at the Caribou Restaurant and Rosalie did some fabric shopping at a local fabric store.  We also drove to the end of the spit and did some other sight seeing.  On the way home we stopped at the Ninilchik General Store for ice cream before taking a walk with the dogs on the Beach.

Since I last wrote I caught another Red in the Kasilof River and we fished the Kenai River yesterday and Bob caught a nice Dolly, but no Reds.  While fishing we did see a moose swim across the river about 150 yards from where we were fishing.

Yesterday was Rosalie's birthday and last night we celebrated it with a supper at the Decanter Restaurant north of us with our friends Bob and Susie.  The restaurant specializes in cajun food, Rosalie had jambalaya along with shrimp and catfish and I had a shrimp Po-Boy and jambalaya.

Today Rosalie did some sewing while I took the dogs for two walks one in a gravel pit and the other on the beach.  The Boys also got to go wading in a small pond to clean their feet.  I am making a venison roast with ranch mashed potatoes and broccoli with cheese for supper and then Bob and I plan to fish somewhere.

With the Boys on Ninilchik Beach

Poodle Butts

In Case You Didn't Know

You can left mouse click on any of the posted pictures to make them bigger and then scroll through the pictures for that post.  Try It!!!!!

We've moved

As previously mentioned we moved last Wednesday from Seward to Kasilof, we now are at Kasilof RV Park http://www.kasilofrvpark.com/ south of Soldotna about 12 miles.  It is a nice small RV park, but there are a lot more mosquito's. We are seeing many more moose, but still no Grizzlies.

Since being here I went fishing on the Kasilof River Friday, hooked two and landed one.  I didn't fish Saturday and Sunday because of the competition.  We stopped at Crooked Creek and were able to see many King Salmon swimming to their spawning grounds.  We cannot fish Crooked Creek, but it is fun to see the big fish swimming up river.  I plan to try fishing again tomorrow and may scout out the Kenai for Reds.

We have made two visits to our Friends Jim and Donna Meacham near Sterling and helped them with some spring clean-up chores.  Donna prepared a very tasty steak supper for us last night after getting our chores done.

The last two days have been very pleasant with temps in the low 70's and only a few sprinkles.

The view from our picture window at Kasilof

Look close and you can see King Salmon in Crooked Creek

More Salmon

Residents of Alaska can Dip Net and it is a family event

More dip netting in the Kasilof River where it meets Cook Inlet

Before and After

Yesterday we took the dogs to a self dog wash and they got baths.  The owner then let us use her shop to groom both boys.  After 4 hours they look much better.  Today we cleaned their ears, so they are all set for a couple of months.

A day filled with fishing

Yesterday I got up at 4:00 a.m. to go halibut fishing with our RV park neighbor Ray.  Like last week we got out to the open sea and found it too rough to fish. We headed back into the safety of the bay and found a couple of spots to try for halibut without any luck.  Maybe next time and Thank You Ray for taking me out on your boat twice, I had a nice trip both times and being able to see Seward from the Resurrection Bay.

A view looking northeast across Resurrection Bay

Close up of above, we salmon fish left of the white bldg.

some Kayakers

South side of Seward in the foreground, city in the background

After I got back to the trailer we walked the dogs and then went to the fishing hole, but didn't have any luck.  After another dog walk we went back to the trailer for a nap and supper.  Then after a short rest we headed back out fishing at 10:00 p.m. to fish the late high tide at 11:28 p.m. and try fishing under the midnight sun, except it was cloudy.  We were about to give up with no bites and then at about midnight Rosalie hooked a fish, but it got off, we kept fishing and then the action got hot and heavy and we successfully landed 6 fish in about 40 minutes.  Here are some pictures of salmon fishing in Seward at about 11:30 p.m., the fish picture was taken about 12:45 p.m.

After cleaning the fish on the beach we headed home for the final cleaning, packaging and freezing and finally off to bed at 3:00 a.m.

 

What We Have been Up To

We are still at Seward and continue to fish almost everyday.  The weather the last 3 days has been very nice, with temps in the 60's during the day and 40's at night. I don't think we have had a day for over a week when it hasn't at least rained a little bit.  As I write it just started sprinkling again.

Yesterday we took a day off from fishing and did some house cleaning and tidying up.  While Rosalie cleaned I took the dogs for a walk and found a new place along a beach where we can walk.  We tried it out this morning and while I fished Rosalie walked the boys.  I didn't catch any fish in the new spot, but we went to the old spot where I landed 2 more Reds bringing our total to 34.

Tonight we were joined by our new friends Bob & Susie and went to Christo's in downtown Seward for supper.  Christo's Palace www.christospalace.com/ is a nice supper club that we haven't had a bad meal at yet.

Early tomorrow (5am) I am going out with Ray (another camper) to try our luck at Halibut fishing again, hopefully the weather cooperates.  Wednesday we pack and hook up and make the 100 mile move to Kasilof for the Kenai and Kasilof Red run.

The view out of the window by my computer desk

Another place we can walk the dogs on the beach

Glacier we can see on our beach dog walk

Close up of the same glacier

Makes Sense

A little bit of everything

Today we took the dogs for a walk and then picked up some groceries, my reel parts at the post office, got fuel, stopped at the hardware store for boots and then had lunch at Red's Burgers in Seward (http://www.yelp.com/biz/reds-burgers-seward we then came back to the trailer to relax before heading out to the fishing spot. Ken was lucky enough to catch another 3 salmon to bring the total to 25. Here are some pictures during our travels.