Okay, let's see, you already know we got safely to the house in Nikiski and that everyone loves it. We spent Friday and Saturday nights there, on inflatable mattresses in our own rooms. Thanks to the abundant supplies Judie and Joseph left for us, we didn't have to buy much, just a few groceries and the air mattresses. We saw nine moose by the end of Friday, five of them in a small herd together. None of the three of us have ever seen more than three together before, so that was pretty cool. We also went over to see our property on CharVic lake, and walked our new road.
On Saturday, we stayed in town (well, the nearby towns) and shopped until Jim dropped, LOL. We went to the Trustworthy Hardware Store, the bookstore, the kayak store, the main grocery stores so I could comparison shop, the Horn and Antler store, Alaska Chainsaw Carvers, and whatever touristy shops caught our eyes. We ran into our neighbor Pete from CharVic Lake when we were at the hardware store, and a little while later, ran into his wife Linda and daughter Maggie at the bookstore. We decided to meet up for an early dinner, and afterward, they followed us back to the new house to let them look around. They approve, but they also seem to want to make sure we do build the house next to them on the other lake.
Sunday, we cleaned up the house and got it ready for six weeks' emptiness. We decided to go to the beach at Captain Cook State Park, which is only 15 minutes from our house. Since the tide was in, we could walk right up to the water, and of course we had to pick up some pretty beach rocks! We then went back to the house for lunch, packed up our suitcases, and headed out for a little more shopping and then a meandering drive back to Anchorage. We saw three more moose on the way up, bringing our weekend moose total to an even dozen. The sun was shining and the tourists were out in force - bicycling or hiking along Sterling and Seward Highways, watching dall sheep with binoculars, and birdwatching along the coast. The view of the mountains was just breathtaking. Once in Anchorage, we ate at Gwennies, shopped at Alaska Wild Berry, and headed to the airport to wait until our early-morning flight out. Our plane leaves here at 1:20 a.m., and it's now 8:30 p.m., so we have some time on our hands. Fortunately, we all have our laptops with us and have games and things to do on them to keep ourselves entertained.
Monday afternoon, we'll be home and will have to get right back in the groove of Texas real life as soon as we land. But this time, coming back from Alaska, Jim is not in a deep blue funk. Because our next trip to Alaska will be for good.
Not really deep blue, more like Kenai turquoise blue. And, no, I'm not in a funk. I own a house here, and I've been here twice in three months. Hard to be unhappy about either of those things.
ReplyDeleteThe Kenai/Anchorage drive makes me happy. More happy going TO Kenai, but the scenery is better driving into the mountains than onto the plains. And the day couldn't have been more stunningly beautiful If I'd custom ordered it. There were picture opportunities every few hundred yards in places, but I had to be relentless and drive by the vast majority of them.