Thu. June 24: Breakfast out in the Mountain View restaurant was a real treat this morning. Shelby, Marv and I each had the Alaskan breakfast with reindeer sausage. But Ann had their house specialty Blueberry Stuffed French Toast, which was really more like bread pudding. It looked delicious, came with blueberry butter and was a huge piece so she had half leftover for another meal. Our waitr congratulated us on being members of the 30% Club, for seeing the mountain. Everyone boarded the motor coach at 8:30 to drive about three miles to Anchorage. Along the way we passed through Wasilla, home of Sarah Palin, and saw Susitna (Sleeping Lady) Mountain. The legend says that two lovers were to be married when he went to make peace with some warring tribes. She vowed not to rest until he returned. But when he was gone many days, she lay down and fell asleep. He was killed and when her friends came to tell her, she looked so peaceful they decided not to wake her. And so she sleeps until there is peace on earth.
We arrived in Anchorage at 11:3 and were given 2 hours to explore and get lunch. We went to the Snow Ball Café and got sandwiches to go. There is a nice walk along the shore of Cook Inlet which we followed a while stopping at a park to enjoy our sandwiches. Having snorkeled in Cook Bay in Hawaii in April, it was very interesting to us to see another example of the vast area the intrepid Captain Cook charted for the western world. We returned to the bus with a six pack of Alaskan Amber to enjoy at the Kenai Lodge and the two bottles of wine we are allowed to take on the cruise ship. Leaving Anchorage we saw two moose in a marsh area caused when they put the Seward Highway next to Turnaround Inlet, so named by Captain Cook when he gave up on the water way being the elusive northern passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic and told the pilot to “turn around”. Seward Highway is absolutely breathtaking, with views of the close looming peaks that still have snow trails running down the sides. We passed by some construction where the highway commission is replacing the guard rail destroyed by a big avalanche that also broke many trees like match sticks. The highway runs all the way around the inlet, which was at low tide then and, at 38 feet, has the second greatest tidal change in North America. We saw bald eagles feeding with the sea gulls in the mud flats. The three hours passed quickly with the stunning scenery to enjoy. The Kenai Princess Lodge is the smallest one we have seen yet with only 86 rooms. It is beside the turquoise-colored, glacial Kenai River which feeds into the 24 mile long Kenai Lake. It looks much like a camp with rows of connected but cabin-like rooms climbing the mountain side and completely surrounded by peaks with snowy veins coming down the sides. Ours is one large room with a big handicap accessible bathroom, a king size bed, a porch overlooking the woods and cabins below, and, best of all, a small, stocked wood burning stove! It’s going to mean a lot of hill climbing but is a lovely setting. Our bags hadn’t been delivered yet so we explored a bit and then walked down to the Princess RV Park to get ice cream. We went out on the lodge deck to look down at the river and saw a bald eagle perched in a nearby tree.
Back up at our rooms we found that the bags had been delivered so Marv and I took some of our food down to Ann and Shelby’s and we shared a simple supper. Then we walked down (and I do mean DOWN) to take the river trail. We had been amply warned about the active animal life at this lodge and, sure enough, as we made our way along the river side we were startled by a white van that pulled close to us, honking and urging us to get inside quickly. It turned out that the last hikers down the path had reported seeing a small bear. And where there is a baby bear there is nearly always a mama bear. So they drove us up the hill and closed the path for the rest of the evening. Marv and Shelby opted to rest and read and Ann and I chose to enjoy the third hot tub of our trip. When I returned, wrinkled and relaxed, to the room, Marv had a fire burning and we enjoyed it and music on the ITouch while he read and I updated the journal to add to this blog in the Lodge tomorrow.
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