Yesterday we drove from Portage Valley to Homer. We traveled next to the Kenai River, considered by many to be best sport fishing river in the world. When we arrived at our camping place on the Homer Spit we got together with our new friends that we met in Talkeetna for a birthday celebration. We were invited to join them in their beautiful motorhome for drinks and conversation before dinner. Our

camper just wasn’t designed for entertaining.

Yes this is a Safeway in Girdwood Alaska.  Full service very friendly, has all the Safeway brands. It has a liquor store and they are the number one sellers of the Deschutes Brewery beers in the state of Alaska. It was a cool store. Don’t know why the name is not outside.

We are taking a 4 day break to attend my granddaughters wedding in Cincinnati. Hell of a drive there and back

We took a hike to the foot or face of the glacier yesterday. I was surprised at how much it had retreated since the last time I was there. It’s been retreating about 35 ft a year. It was many miles longer 100 years ago. The glacier comes from the Harding ice field which has about 40 glaciers. The picture may show a small glacier but look at the group of people on the ground next to the side of the ice and they are mighty small.

On Monday we left our beautiful RV park in Portage to explore the Portage Glacier and the seaport of Whittier. It is only twelve miles from the campground to Whittier but the trip involves a one directional tunnel that is 2.6 miles in length, the longest in a North America. It was exciting!  Whittier is a charming little town on Prince William Sound. Half of the residents live in one big apartment building. We enjoyed a wonderful fresh seafood lunch and Tom bought homemade rhubarb crisp to bring home. Boat trips are available to see Portage Glacier up close but we contented ourselves with the views from the road.

We spent two nights in the lovely little town of Talkeetna. We had wonderful clear views of Mt. McKinley, which locals prefer to refer to as Denali. Talkeetna is located at the convergence of three rivers, the Talkeetna, the Chulitna, and the Susitna. It is the starting point for Mt. McKinley climbers and offers glacier landing fightseeing tours, scenic train excursions, and jetboat trips on the Susitna.
Tom had been looking forward to Halibut Olympia that he remembered from an earlier visit so we enjoyed it twice. We camped next to a very nice and interesting couple from Las Vegas and plan to catch up with them in Homer at the end of the month.

Yesterday on the 145 mile gravel road, which I really love, we stopped at a outpost called Gracious House. A lodge, a restaurant, a repair shop, a super cub plane. When you pull up the sign says honk the horn and we will open up the restaurant.  It took some honks and a lady came out and opened and more people showed up. We sent her husband down the road to rescue a lady with car trouble. The restaurant bar was a old single wide trailer house. Very unique I must say. I liked it. The owners have been there since 1980’s. They want to sell and retire. They go to Yuma in the winter as they bought a home there.