What a year it has been.  Between COVID-19, lockdowns, and an election, I'm exhausted and ready to hibernate for the coming winter.  But before that, I just had to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Let me tell you about the one I had. It was as unusual as 2020 has been! For several years, I have hosted Thanksgiving dinner for a group of friends; usually about 7 of us gather to eat and chat. I'm the host because one of my favorite things to do is cook Thanksgiving dinner. I enjoy cooking, especially when there are people who enjoy eating it.  As my sister described on the phone ..read more

From Homer, I went to Seward for a few days.  On my last trip here six years ago, I had spent a very long time in the Seward Aquarium, and I was looking forward to a return visit.  It did not disappoint.  The section I looked forward to most was the sea birds.  They have an enclosure, sort of like a butterfly exhibit at zoos you might be familiar with, but this one is full of sea birds.  According to the caretaker, there are 64 birds in the enclosure of at least six different varieties.  They have both horned and tufted Puffins, Kittiwakes, Murres, Pigeon Gulemots, Black Oystercatchers and ..read more

Boy am I ever far behind on blog posts.  Now that I have some reasonable Wi-Fi, maybe I can get caught up!  Seldovia is a very small town across Katchemak Bay from Homer that can only be reached by boat or plane. That meant a day trip was in the cards, and Rainbow Tours had just the trip. It included some wildlife viewing on the way to Seldovia, then several hours in the town, and a faster ride back to Homer.  View on the way The ride there included a fascinating, up close view of Gull Island, a bird sanctuary, and we saw thousands of birds, including Puffins, Murres, and Kittiwakes. The M ..read more

About five years ago I discovered the Explore.org wildlife cameras, specifically the Brooks Falls, Katmai National Park, bear cameras.  There are several of them focused on different areas of the river and falls (you can find them at https://explore.org/livecams/brown-bears/brown-bear-salmon-cam-brooks-falls), and they can be addictive.  I'm living proof of that!  Over the past 5 years, I can't tell you how many hours I've spent watching those bears do all sorts of silly things.  I can tell you who some of the bears are (many of them have names given to them by the rangers or by people who com ..read more

Six years ago I did my first driving trip to Alaska, and enjoyed it so much that I knew I wanted to go back again. One of the reasons was that I didn't really get to do everything I wanted to do.  There is a very small town in the middle of nowhere, at the end of a 60 mile gravel road, that I wanted to see. It's called McCarthy, and it is the location of the fictional town of Niniltna that is the home of the heroine of my favorite mystery book series by Dana Stabenow. It was NOT recommended to drive a car there without a lot of precautions that I was unable to meet, and for that reason I didn ..read more

Almost 2 weeks? Has it really been that long since I last blogged?  Shame on me…. As of the last blog, I've come a long way in miles – now I'm in Glennallen, Alaska, at one of those 4 favorite campgrounds I blogged about earlier. This one is Tolsona Wilderness Campground, and I got a spot to die for!  Right on the creek, with my picnic table looking over the water to a rustic bridge; if only there weren't so many mosquitos, I'd be in heaven! Luckily, I found a mosquito repellent in Canada that works really well, and I'm going to stock up on it on my way home! Muncho Lake -- passed it on the wa ..read more

Whistler continued to be a source of fun new experiences.  Although I had ridden the gondola before, I had never seen a bear on the mountain.  This trip I saw three of them, although I only got a photo of two. They were feeding right near each other so I was able to get both bears in one photo! The scenery from the mid station of the gondola is spectacular, with snowy mountains, lakes, and pretty valleys. The town itself was quite crowded with people because it was a long weekend for Canadians – Canada Day.  Sort of like our 4thof July (which is today!).  Bears!!View from top of Gondola The n ..read more

I had been looking forward to visiting Tofino, Ucluelet, and Pacific Rim National Park.  I had been there 25 years ago and was entranced by the scenery. Sadly, those 25 years have played as much havoc with this part of the island as they have with me! Gone were all the pullouts on the highway to revel in the beauty; in their place were huge resorts with plantings of tall shrubs or trees to provide privacy for their guests. Tofino had become streets full of shops and restaurants, without much beach to see.  I did find one beach in Ucluelet that I remembered, and it was just as pretty as before ..read more

I hardly know where to start describing this beautiful place!  I've been here for a week now, and haven’t even had time to write a blog!  I've been camping in Provincial Parks, the equivalent of our State Parks. They have all been beautiful, but primitive – pit toilets and no showers (I've managed to find places to shower, though!).  The first was China Beach on the southern shore of Vancouver Island. It's a relatively new park, and although it says it's on the beach, the beach is down a cliff about ¾ mile away.  It's not the ¾ mile, it's the cliff – all 289 steps, plus lots of other uphill pa ..read more

Note:  I've spent way too much time trying to get the layout of this blog just right, and I can't do it.  So I hope you can relate the photos to the text --  sorry..... For nine years I lived in the Pacific Northwest, only a 3 hour drive from this park, but this is the first time I've been here. I decided to give it the full treatment, spending a whole week here. I had a list of things I wanted to be sure not to miss, and I've been going through them pretty systematically.  These guys were fishing on the way to my first stopThe first on the list was Cape Flattery – the northwestern most point ..read more