Kenai Friends

Come on! Let's get out of Anchorage and head towards the Kenai Penninsula, here known only as Kenai. It's like the end of the road, there are only 2 highways and each of them dead end! In the beginning, the mountains swallow our path....

and seemingly ever changing as we advance closer to our destination.

We nestled in to a beach front spot in Ninilchik at Deep Creek Recreation area

With outstanding views of the 3 active volcanos across Cook Inlet.

My life long friend and childhood neighbor Chris, along with her grandson Dustin are about to give me a thrill I will never forget. 

Here I am sporting my attractive attire as we ready ourselves to Fish the world famous Kenai River!

Chris is a veteran when it comes to catching these frenzied beasts.

Dustin proudly giving the high 5 for his catch!

OK, here is the obligatory picture. I actually went skunk but the thrill to have one of these sockeyes fight at the end of my line was exhilerating to say the least! Chris and I are joking around while her husband Steve prepares for the filleting of  9 salmon!

Deep Creek meets the Cook Inlet at 2 o'clock in the morning. It's too beautiful to sleep!

 The phantasmagoria tides provided phenominal views from our campsite, while Mount Redoubt dominates with greater influence.

Steve and Chris just chillin' and visiting.

Sunset over an active volcano.

The sign says it all.

Most of the fishing vessels are still out to sea, with just a few remaining in the port.

One of the tourist attractions in Homer.....and I wasn't thirsty! Let's just go inside to take a peek...

Thousands upon thousands of dollar bills were signed and attatched to every surface imaginable, except the top of the bar and tables!

For those of you that watch The Deadliest Catch, this is the official store!

uhhh, do ya think we ought to get on out of here?

Anything goes in Alaska. Here we have what appears to be a home made camping apparatus completely outfitted sliding windows!

This is a home with 2 bubble-like structures on each end.

Dipnetting at the mouth of the Kenai River. For two weeks in mid to late July native Alaskans are allowed to net 25 salmon per head of household and 10 salmon for every family member. This is called substanence fishing. The idea of this is to walk a huge net downstream in hopes that the fish will get caught while swimming upstream. This activity is also done by boat. Sounds like the fish don't have a chance, but the run on any given day can be up to 20,000 salmon per hour! Yes, that's what I said, an hour! Fisheries expect slightly over 2 million spawning salmon this year alone! Plenty of Alaskans plan their vacations around this eventful time!

Watch out for the mosquito Rosie!

....On to Seward where we obtained internet.