Those are our two campers at right of photo. Eric & Marie's car in front
The one & only road out of town
Saw this cute Puffin at the Alaska Sea Life Center in Seward
Anglers line the bank of this beautiful river
Almost shoulder to shoulder
Mama moose with her baby
Halibut & Red Salmon cookies - thanks Marie
Setting Sun taken from campground
Later photo taken from the beach
We have left Seward, now at red X & heading to Homer (circled)
We may have dodged scary tornadoes in Arkansas, and had sub-zero temperatures and snow in Denver & Wyoming, but experiencing our first tsunami warning was even scarier - especially when you consider how close we were to the water (see top photo). What made it even worse for me was that Murray was away fishing, and Marie & Eric had gone for a drive, so when the alarm sounded around 8.30pm, I was by myself. After phoning both parties (who had also heard the alarm), I raced outside (like everyone else in the campground) and was busily disconnecting power and water lines so that as soon as the others returned, we could beat a hasty retreat. It worried me somewhat, in that there is only one road out of town - I eyed the nearby mountain, and thought that if the only road out was congested, we would head up the mountain on foot instead. My sister and brother rang from Australia at the same time as I was unscrewing the water etc. It was with great relief a few minutes later when my brother rang to say the warning had been cancelled, at the same time as the loud speakers were saying the same thing. My brother regularly watches USA TV news headlines, and this isn't the first time he has rung to tell us about a weather alert before we have been aware of it ourselves (we have been on the road and hadn't caught up on the news).
After a sleepless night picturing a wall of water engulfing the RV, we awoke to a stunning day for our drive out of Seward. Murray had noticed some nice fishing spots on our way into town a few days earlier, so he was keen to try them out. Earlier that morning he threw a line into the water in front of our RV at the campground, and bought home a lovely pink salmon which we ended up having for dinner that night.
The drive along the Sterling Highway through Sterling & Soldotna and onto Ninilchik was full of beautiful & interesting scenery. We saw several moose in the wild, and apparently the salmon were running, as we saw anglers lined up almost touching shoulders in some areas. The fisherman often have to compete with bears for the fish, and a distant relative of mine, Sally and her husband Chris, saw 5 bears in this area last weekend. We didn't see any bears, nor did we see the anglers pull in any fish, so obviously the bears knew more than the fishermen!
Ninilchik is a tiny town on a cliff overlooking Cook Inlet that leads out to the Pacific Ocean - it is separated from the Bering Sea by the Aleutian Islands (where the earthquake was 2 days ago). While Murray & I were emptying the freezer ready for the halibut he is planning on catching today, Eric & Marie took a walk across the road & down the cliff steps to the beach. It was quite late, around 11.30pm, and they were amazed at the way the setting sun (I think sunset was 11.45pm last night) put a pink glow on the water and surrounds. Meanwhile, I was unaware they were out watching the sunset, and as you can see from the time/date stamp on my sunset photo, a few minutes earlier as I was closing the blinds, I too had caught a glimpse of the setting sun, and captured it, along with the corner of Eric & Marie's camper. It was still light enough to walk outside without a flashlight.
Well, I am hoping that Murray comes home soon with a halibut for dinner accompanied with lots of photos and fishing stories from his day on the charter boat. Tomorrow we plan to drive as far as is possible to the south, and stay on the spit in the town of Homer. See where I have circled the map.
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