Linger Longer

Take It Easy

When I was boxing in the ring
In 'Frisco back in ninety-seven,
I used to make five bucks a fling
To give as good as I was given.
But when I felt too fighting gay,
And tried to be a dinger-donger,
My second, Mike Muldoon, would say:
"Go easy, kid; you'll stay the longer."

When I was on the Yukon trail
The boys would warn, when things were bleakest,
The weakest link's the one to fail -
Said I: "by Gosh! I won't be weakest."
So I would strain with might and main,
Striving to prove I was the stronger,
Till Sourdough Sam would snap: "Goddam!
Go easy, son; you'll last the longer."

So all you lads of eighty odd
Take my advice- you'll never rue it:
Be quite prepared to meet your God,
But don't stampede yourselves to do it.
Just cultivate a sober gait;
Don't emulate the lively conger;
No need to race, slow down the pace,
Go easy, Pals - you'll linger longer.
                                      -  Robert Service


We have so enjoyed slowing down our pace and lingering in Alaska.  It truely is a gift to be able to not stampede forth with the business of everyday work and responsibilites. This is our last week in Homer.  It is bittersweet to think about leaving.  So many wonderful memories and new friends which we will have to say goodbye to, but still so much more to look forward to.  We feel like we have seen so much of Alaska, and yet we still have the Inside Passage to come!

Well - for an update on this week....yet again, it's been great.  We have really enjoyed all the company, who also were able to slow the pace and enjoy the intimate relationship with nature that abounds here in Homer. Luckily, after 3 days of cold and rainy weather things finally started to improve. It's funny how one cloudy, rainy afternoon we were all hanging out on the Spit and we decided to go in to the Salty Dawg for a beer.  By the time we came out , the sun was shining. Colton and Ethan now are firm believers that a beer at the Dawg can change the weather, or maybe that is , it can change your attitide about the weather?  Ah, the benefits of lingering!  Anyhow, we ended up having a lot of fun in the sun.



The mighty beach walkers



First we capitalized on the warm weather by heading down to our favorite beach, Diamond Beach. The boys and Carolyn had fun panning for gold in the creek, and they all agree that Carolyn had a gold flake, but then Colton went to check it and that was the last that it was seen. Oh well. While the Carolyn & kids panned (with Mark & Tim supervising), Anna, Gail, Kate and Pete did the beach hike up to Bishops Beach. It was great for the first 6 miles, but then after having to back track a bit and feet getting sore from mud boots, they were all glad to catch the short cut and get picked up by Tim and the boys who were just on their way home.



The eagles were really chattering it up on the beach.

 Mark and Carolyn also decided to do the hike, but they left much later, which meant the tide was much higher.  The part that Anna had to back-track (the tide was still not out far enough to get across with out swimming), Carolyn decided to take. Bad choice. She didn't quite swim, but was wet almost to her butt.  Her boots took 2 days to dry out! All in all it was a beautiful evening to be beach walking. The eagles were out in full force but the tidal life was minimal.  We did however see 2 jellyfish on the beach and we also saw half (yes that's right, HALF) of a seal. The other half looked like it had been bitten off by a shark or whale. It smelled pretty bad, but Anna was relieved to eventually realize that the smell was from a dead animal, and not her father- in-law, whom she was walking behind.

One more juveneille Bald Eagle



Pete and Gail with the Katchemak Range and Bay.
Lingering.

We also finally had a chance to go check out the town of Kenai.  It is at the mouth of the Kenia River and we were interested to go and check out the dipnetting season. There wasn't much of a 'city' to see, but we did enjoy watching the dip-netting action.

Residents of Alaska are allowed to 'dipnet' for Sockeye Salmon. A dipnet is a 5 feet diameter net attached to a 20' long pole.  They are allowed 25 salmon for the "head of household" plus 10 more for each additional family member.  You know the season has opened when you start seeing huge nets riding on tops of all the Subarus in town.  The beach at the mouth of the Kenai River turns into a "tent city"  with everyone in the family participating.  Mom and/or Dad are out to their chest in waders in the 38-40 degree water with the net and the kids are on the beach playing or whacking the fish with a club as they are thrown from net.  I guess when a family of 4 can put up 150-200# of prepared salmon in a day, it makes for a great family vacation while filling the freezer for winter.  We're told that many Alaskan families plan their summer vacation around the dipnetting season and clean, package, and/or can (jar) their fish right on the beach.

A perfect fish cleaning station!



Dipnetters on the Kenai



Got one!

Beautiful small old Russian church



2 Otters hamming it up.



Puffin!



The next day Pete, Gail, Mark and Carolyn took a glacier viewing flight seeing trip with the same pilot, Charlie, who took the boys on the fly-out fishing trip. They flew right over the boat that Anna, Tim, Kate and the boys were on as they were heading across the bay to Seldovia for the day. We also saw a tonne of otters on the trip not to mention a few puffins. The boat trip across was beautiful as it was another glorius blue sky day.  It included yet another tour of Gull Island, as well as a cruise through Eldridge Passage, which passess by 3 islands, and we went by Elephant Rock. It's amazing; when you view the rock from one direction the trunk is down, then a moment later, the trunk is up. How does it do that? 

Elephant rock with it's trunk down

Elephant rock with it's trunk up!





Pete, Gail, Mark and Carolyn flying over Gull Island





Beautiful Blue Poppies

Seldovia is a quaint little fishing villiage with a historic boardwalk, a few little restaurants and not much else. We did enjoy the walk around the boardwalk.

Kate enjoying the boat ride over to Seldovia

Treasures on the boardwalk

Pete, Gail, Mark and Carolyn took a water taxi over to meet us in Seldovia after their glacier flight seeing tour, but unfortunatley their time was cut short as the water taxi forgot to call the road taxi and they waited for over an hour for a pick up from a deserted beach. They too finally made it into the small town of Seldovia, and before you knew it, it was time to go back accross the bay. It was a good ride to rest on, and the boat captain had a little rest while Ethan took the helm and guided us back to the spit.

Ethan sitting up front with the Captain

I know, 2 entire days with no fishing! Yikes! Tim was starting to shake,  so the following day much of the clan went fishing back on the Anchor River for Pink Salmon and Dolly Varden.  Kate and Carolyn stayed in town to explore Homer and Anna was off to Anchorage for a dinner program.

On Friday, it was already time for Pete, Gail and Kate to head back to Vermont.  Everyone drove up to Anchorage on another beautiful day. We did have time to hike part of Flat Top Mountain.  It was amazing that you could see Denali (Mount McKinnley) from Anchorage. That means we have seen this same mountain from Anchorage, Faribanks and up close in the National Park. That is an area that spans over 400 miles.  That is one big, impressive mountain!  We also had a chance to check out the Alaska Aviation Hertitage Museum.  It is located right near the take off points for all the float and bush planes.  Even more impressive than the museum was seeing hundreds of planes docked along a pond, and hundreds more in the field ready to go to work.




See Denali (Mount McKinnley) in the background?


As we begin to pack up and ready ourselves for the next leg of our journey we are noticing changes all around us. The lupine are now past their prime, the fireweed is starting to come out, and the days are getting shorter. Only 18 hours of sunlight this week. We even have seen the moon - twice! This is the first time in over three months that it has been dark enough to see the moon. Still no stars. We do look forward to the clear, dark nights of Vermont when the sky is lit up with constellations and moon glow.  Until then, we will continue to "cultivate our sober gait" and linger just a little bit longer.