Alaska's state flower is the forget-me-not:We hiked to Exit Glacier, when we were in Seward.

This Sea Otter was swimming right in the bay, and just in front of the motor home in Seward. He would dive for clams and oysters and then lay on his back cracking them with a rock.

There are many large ships and ferries in Seward. This was taken from our RV park.

We got to Jim's and Jerry's Fish camp on Tuesday. We camped in a public drive-through and drove to their camp. There camp is out on beach, on Cook's Inlet, in the Kenai area.

They are launching one of the two boats to go pick their nets. It is about 8 PM and they will return about 9:30 pm. The water was quite rough. Wilbur went out with them in the morning and the waves were not as high. They go out about 1.5 miles and we could still see them from shore.

The return is always exciting, to see what the ocean bought into their nets.

The guys got one large King Salmon of 32 pounds.

We had delicious fresh salmon, made on the grill by Shelly.

We got to know Shelly, Ansel and Finn Brenneman(Jerry's Family) this past week. Shelly made us so welcome as we were visiting the fish camp. We enjoyed a delicious salmon meal, cooked on the grill. Pictures later.

The following are some photos of Homer. This kite surfer was right off the beach where we were RVing.

This is at the end of Homer Spit. Many, many birds and lots of fishing boats also.

We were up on the mountain to get this photo of Homer spit.

We went to Exit Glacier, close to Seward.

Sunday, July 5th

Sunday was our daughter Beths birthday, she was born in Athabasca, Alberta, one of the stops along the way for us. Here she is with her daughter Lauren on the left and her niece Grace on the right.Sunday, we ate breakfast at our friends home, Gary and Kim Martin and sons, Simon and Avery. Yum! We went with them to the Mennonite church in Anchorage and after church we went to Flat Top, a beautiful view of the city. We had a great walk up the short mountain and the view of the city was impressive but hazy. If you look hard, you can see Cooks Inlet. The Anchorage port stays open year around. The tide moves at least 30 feet every 6 hours. I finally got my eagle in flight, while we were on Flat top. I hope to get even closer. We went to a downdown market in the afternoon, then said our goodbyes to Gary and Kim. We then drove on 4th street in downtown Anchorage, where the Iditorod begins every March. Yes, Wilbur was excited to see where it begins. Several days ago we were in Willow and that is where the Restart is held for the race. He has been getting his Ititorod fix. Alaska is celebrating 50 years of Statehood.We went to the home of highschool friends Nelson and Margaret Gingerich in the late afternoon. We enjoyed their lovely home in a lovely setting. It was so good to reconnect with them. Later we went out for a delicious dinner in Anchorage. Today we are off to Seward, another port. I will blog when I can get on the net.

It is very hard to select a few pictures that show the beauty of Alaska. I bring you a variety of scenes and hope you get just a little glimpse of how huge and beautiful this state really is. It has so much fluctuation in weather, because of the large geographical area. There are wonderful sea coasts, high mountains and everything in between. The above picture was taken at 11:00 PM on a night time gravel road drive. Ah!!!! Beautiful

Some of the pictures are self-explanatory.

We love the gravel roads and the Jeep has been great for those outings. this road just opened on July 4th, which is the day we are on it. This is Hatcher Pass, close to Palmer.

A typical sight on any lake.The flowers on the tundra are so small, as you can see by the comparison to my finger. In the next picture, the puff ball flowers are about the size of a quarter and the fuzz feels like cotton.

This is in Valdez. It was quite hazy but the port is open year around. You can see the storage for oil from the pipeline across the fjord.

I hope to catch an eagle in flight but so far this is the best I could do.

Another Valdez shot, the fjord is surrounded with mountains and this was a clear moment.

Horseshoe Falls

One of the many glaciers, we have seen and photgraphed.

Is this weeds? It is quite beautiful and there is a lot of it.