Northern Lights

Have to interrupt my travel adventures to share with you an awesome couple of photos.

The last two nights Northern Lights have been visible from here.  We did not know about it on Tuesday.  But I reported it to Curtis and he kept watch on the computer.  And it looked like we might have some last night.  I went to bed, since I had to work today and 4:45 comes way too early.  But he picked up Kirsten and they headed north out of town and this is what they saw!!!!

Pretty amazing!!  It has been quite a few years since I have seen them.  Busy day at work and going to put my feet up.

Kodiak

Kodiak is on an island southwest of Anchorage.  It was cloudy when we docked and I was hoping it would clear.  But, oh no, it poured rain.  This is where a lot of people fly in to see the big Kodiak bears.  All the flights to go see the bears were canceled because of the poor visibility.  We had nothing scheduled and therefore just took the shuttle into town.  The shops were quite a walk from where we got dropped off and it was just miserable.  Would like to go back here to explore further.  

 These first two photos are leaving Homer

 You can see from the sunrise, why I thought it might clear.

 Very much Russian influence here.

 There is a huge skeleton of a grey whale in their little museum.  Very impressive. 

Not many photos from here.!!!

Homer

From Anchorage we headed south for our return.  The next stop was Homer.  I don't think we got to appreciate the full beauty of this location.  It is supposed to be totally surrounded by beautiful mountains.  But it was a very grey, overcast day that turned into drizzle.  And with the clouds so low we didn't see much.
Homer is home of the TV show- "The Deadliest Catch"!  Famous for halibut fishing here.  Homer is still on the Alaska mainland south of Anchorage.  I had wanted to take a boat out to gull island here to see puffins, but the weather was not conducive to that plan.  It cost to take a shuttle into the town.  But there is the Homer Spit where they have lots of little shops and restaurants and you could ride the free shuttle.  You can guess what I opted to do. 

 Lots of sea gulls here.  On the docking ropes of our ship

 I walked along the beach here and found sea glass and a fossilized shell for Harlee

 Saw lots of people camped out on the beach

 Some of the shops and eateries

 One of these was a store that featured native art.  Beautiful but expensive!

We are supposed to warm back up today.  Maybe if the grass dries out it will get mowed.  We had almost 4in. of rain this past weekend.  The mountains had SNOW!  The air had changed and is more fall like, even though it is still Aug.  The early mornings when I am out walking are brisk, in the 40's.
This afternoon I get to go to a knitting class.  How to knit socks on round needles from the toe up.  Looking forward to this a lot. 

Anchorage

After a day at sea, we reached our next port - Anchorage.   I have to write about the evening at sea.  Curtis and I were out on deck after dinner and there were hundreds of puffins on the water around the boat.  When they move it is almost like they were running on the water.  It is hard to distinguish them without binoculars or a big lens on your camera.  Curtis has the photos of these!!!
In Anchorage I had arranged for us to rent a car for the day.  We took the shuttle to downtown.  It was fairly quiet being a Sunday morning.  We walked to the car rental.  It took a while to get our car and then we were off.  We headed south on the main road out of Anchorage.  It goes to Whittier and Seward.  We didn't go that far.  We just headed around the inlet to Hope. The day started out fairly overcast.  And stayed pretty cloudy with periods of sun.  And it was fairly warm here, which was nice.

 A couple of cool wall murals

Our first stop was here to see if there might be a cool bird or two.

 Didn't really see anything.  But the Alaska train went by.  And I remember going through this area 5 years ago when we rode the train to Denali. 

 A little fall in the air. 

 This is where we stopped for lunch in Hope.  I had yummy halibut and chips.  They had great home made pies here and I took a piece of blueberry/peach with me. 

 Here was the price of gas for anyone interested when we stopped to fill up. 

More From Icy Straight

Today has been a miserable day out.  It has rained and rained and rained and poured at times.  And the temperature has not got out of the 50's all day.  Put the oven on for dinner and it sure was pretty yummy.

Kirsten and Tim were supposed to be at a car show today, but it got cancelled around noon.  So miserable.  We had the munchkins until then.  This afternoon I have been cleaning out the closet in my scrap room and reorganizing.  Although you would never know, looking in the room, except I can close the closet doors now.

This was sunrise that morning, as I took my stroll around the boat. 

 This is where they bring the tender boats. 

There used to be a canning factory here, but now it is a museum and a gift shop. 

 Our ship the Ms. Amsterdam and you can see the tenders along the side.

 Lots of fireweed blooming

 You can see the fog coming in around the ship and some fellow cruisers in kayaks.

 How beautiful is the scenery?