( Writing this from Wells, Nevada on Sept. 21 )

After our family left on Aug 15 , we stayed at a motel for two nights so we could stock up on supplies and organize the truck for our two week trip back to Montana where we stored our camper.   From Anchorage, we camped for three nights back in Palmer, loved that city.   
While there we there we had to make a drive back to Anchorage to buy a new camera.  Our Pentax SLR broke and we replaced it with the Nikon D7100 bundle that Costco had to offer.  With double the megapixels as our old one, we can really see the sharpness in our pictures, especially when I take all the shots out of the truck windows with the telephoto lens while David's doing 60 down the highway.  The day after we bought the new camera we decided to go and break it in.  
We drove to the Matanuska Glacier where we had gone on a one hour hike back in July.  This time we paid to go on the four hour hike with a guide. It turned out that we were the only two people for that tour and had a very knowledgable guide who was finishing his degree in Geology.   I kind of went crazy with the camera because I took over 1300 pictures and saved 900 of them.   I keep saying that I'll take extras to get that one great shot and erase the extras, but then I end up keeping most of them.  It's almost like they're a part of you now and you can't get rid of them.  Wooh, that sounds weird!   Anyway, everyone already knows I'm the camera freek, so I might as well live up to my reputation.    
Here are some of my favorites...

We were looking at this monument in Palmer that shows distances from there to other places in the world, when we saw this listing for Michigan, small world!

It was very unusual for us to be on a road this nice with so much traffic, but we were still only 50 miles from Anchorage which is the largest city in Alaska.

Every few miles the mountains would look totally different.

These five mountain pictures above were taken within a forty mile stretch on our drive from camp to the glacier.
Below is a view of the glacier we will hike as seen from far away on the highway.  The pictures after that are from the hike, one of the coolest things we've done in our life.

Just watching some other group, this was definitely not part of our tour!!!

Back in the parking lot,  we wish it didn't have to end.   I hope the pictures we choose have given you some feeling of what we experienced.

Oh, one more, this is a shot of the road leaving the glacier trailhead!!!   You just hope another vehicle isn't coming around that curve!

Since they didn't have to be at the airport until 10pm, we still had a whole day to site see.

Our last look at the beautiful Turnagain Arm.

Portage Glacier

Town of Whittier on the Prince William Sound near Portage.

Whittier is a fishing community as well as a port for summer cruise ships to dock.

The cruise passengers disembark the ship and board a train or bus to travel to inland Alaska.

We were waiting for a train to go through the tunnel so we could have our turn.  You can only get to Whittier on the land side by going through the one lane, two and one-half mile long tunnel built during WWll.  It is the only tunnel that has a schedule for traveling each way.  Trains, motor vehicles and pedestrians all need to have a separate turn at going through.

Animals and birds that can be released back to their natural habitat are and those who can not are keep and taken care of.   There was a very nominal fee for walking around to see them.  Their living spaces are set up so you can get a very close look, usually right up to their fence.  Great for getting good pictures.  Everything was very clean and organized.

Just kidding!!!    This is one of the stuffed animals at the newly opened Cabela's in Anchorage (opened spring 2014).

After leaving Cabela's we had a good dinner at a Mexican place in Anchorage.  The moose below is real and was feeding right outside the airport fence.

Sadly we had to say goodbye. ( Well, I was sad, apparently Judy not so much!  )     The pictures you have seen for our 2 weeks together are such a small look at everything we experienced.   Can't wait until Judy joins us in the winter for a sunny southwest vacation.

On two separate days, Judy, David and I went to two cities with very informative museums and preserved cabins showing life during the gold rush days.  This is the kind of stuff we love to see.  Here are a few pictures.

This is a city museum maintained  by loving volunteers.

The museum exhibits here are also maintained by the residents.  In fact the whole town is mostly restored homes and buildings from the early 1900's that the residents live and work in.

Learning how to pan for gold .

One of the private residents.

Two fun days.  And of course we also drove along some of the most scenic roads in the world to get to them.

Exit Glacier, located in Seward and protected at a National Park, is one of the very few glaciers you can walk to without a guide or special gear.  This is the view from the bottom with a telephoto lens.   It's only a one hour walk get up near the top. ( A much longer and more difficult trip to the very top with a guide.)

To see the blue ice up close, is defiantly worth the walk up.

Another fabulous day!

First we would like to share Joe and Leib's overnight canoe trip on the Lower Kenia River.  It started with a one hour paddle on very choppy water along the east shore of Skilak Lake to the river's mouth.   Once on the river they fished and then found a good spot to set up their tents for the night.  They continued on the next day, fishing and admiring the view from their canoe.  Enjoy their pictures. 

Joe said this one put up a good fight and then he was released to fight again.

Fireweed gets it's name from being one of the first plants regrowing after a forest fire.

The color and clearness of the water was fantastic

Later in the week all five of us did a river raft trip, pretty tame for our boys, but they liked doing things with us old geezers.   Saw lots of eagles but no bears.

On another day...These photos show some views as we drive west on Sterling Highway and go south along the Cook Inlet to Homer, AK and the Homer Spit.  The Kenai River runs along the Sterling Hwy. and empties into the Cook Inlet.

On the way back to the cabin we do a little wildlife viewing.

First of all...
We are presently camped at Craters of the Moon National Monument, 20 miles south of Arco, Idaho on Hwy.93 .   The park really lives up to it's name, with the camp sites cut into boulders of lave rock.  Every afternoon and evening the rangers offer guided walks throughout the park.  Yesterday we went in the caves of lave tubes.   Pretty cool!

The last blog post had us entering the Kenai Peninsula to get prepared for family members coming into the Anchorage Airport on Aug. 3.
 David's sister, Judy, reserved a 3-bedroom cabin for all of us at Alaska Canoe and Campground in Sterling, AK.  On the main floor, Judy had a room and David and I had the other room, while Joe and Leib shared the loft.   The city of Sterling has a great central location for exploring the east and west coasts of the Kenai Peninsula and is on the part of the Sterling Highway with the Kenai and Russian Rivers running along side.  People come from all over the world to fish these rivers.  Note the freezer provided to store your fish until it's time to have it shipped home.  We also saw that lots of people who drove to Alaska bought a smoker and processed it to take home.

The next day, after they rest up from their 9 hour plane ride,  we are off to Seward at the south-east end of the  peninsula.  We visit the Sea Life Rescue and Research Center, walk the shore line and eat dinner at Nellie's, a very good  restaurant  named after Alaska Nellie.  Here are some pictures of our day.

This bad boy is 1700 pounds and 23 feet long.