The final shots of my excursion north towards Anchorage

The final shots of my excursion north towards Anchorage...Portage Glacier...on the road into the Glacier area

No that is not water....it is SNOW! does not leave this area at all during the summers few months

Turnagain Arm tunnel leaving the Portage Glacier area

I had forgotten (last time I drove this was 1981) that from on up was all along the water...you can see some of the traffic in the lower right hand corner....click on all images to enlarge for better views

Tide was out so lots of mudflats...and the kind you do not walk on as it is like quicksand, many have died by getting sucked in and then the tide comes in an bye bye...

I am getting close to the outskirts of Anchorage and this is as far into the city as I want to venture soooo....looking for place to get off and head south again.

Now all who know me well as saying..."what??? Bon not going into a city???" as they know I love cities....but..ehhhh...I like OLD cities for the wonderful old architecture mixed with modern.

I was just not into city trip this time, maybe if snooky was with me....ahhh oh that's right he hates cities!! Missed on this trip snooky and all trips for that matter.

 

you can see all the houses dotting the hillsides...it's a bit blurry as this was when I just held the camera up and shot pictures!! too much traffic!

hahaha not many came out as I have never done this before. the thing in the bottom of the photo is the car door edge with the guardrail just above it.

whew...turned around and headed south...back to the semi-wilderness....

More pictures from my escape ride up north towards Anchorage

Last night shortly after I laid down the loons were sounding off their beautiful songs to each other. It was wonderful to fall asleep by.

About a half hour of listening all of a sudden they started the alarm sounds. I hopped outta bed and looked out the window to see what was bothering them.

Sure enough about 5 min's of watching here came that big 'ol eagle, swooping down and trying to get the baby loon. 

They dodged and went under water to avoid the eagle heading towards cover of the lake edge underbrush.

this went on for about a half hour until the eagle finally once again gave up the chase.

Woke up to a really rainy day again today, 52 and cold, 'lil blue has a good heater as the windshield kept fogging I had to run it.

Lots to do with appointments and stuff. 

Called snooky to see how things were going back at the house...not good all around. 

Hot, kitchen is still not finished as they ordered the wrong molding and a bunch of other stuff.

We have talking a couple times a day as it seems we have once again had the proverbial invisible bulls-eye tacked on our foreheads!  

Still haven't seen the guy who is suppose to clear the land for us! crapweasel....time is running out. 

I am glad I got away again yesterday, away from all the stress crap. 

 More pictures from my escape ride up north towards Anchorage!

  

Most all the road is either along a rivers edge, lake edge or the ocean inlet.

A 7% grade hill! I can see now how people flip motor homes on their sides or flip a trailer and vehicle they're driving....going to fast and even the tour buses had to pull over as their brakes were just a smok'n half way down.

Portage Glacier! it was wild wind, hurrican force and driving rain...but I had to walk down an take several pictures of the small iceberg! No longer can you see the glacier like you could back in 1981.

 

I still have more to post and will do maybe tomorrow. I have a couple of meetings scheduled and will be on the phone with hubby a few times again tomorrow.

Looking forward to getting home with him and Rosie...but still lots to get done here first.

time to unwind...headed towards Anchorage today

Woke up to a rainy day. That kinda gentle rain that you don't really get wet in if your out a short time. 

What to do today...hummm...I had planned on staking an running my newly purchase florescent rope with the no trespassing signs the length of our property line that the idjit neighbor has encroached on....

Decided I should wait and talk with the Borough Office and a lawyer first though.

Really has pissed me off when someone thinks they can just steal property by placing a structure and junk on it and clear cutting it.

Time to legally seriously kick some idjit arrogant Alaskan butt...he has pissed off Momma Bear! 

So instead of sitting around getting angrier I decided to drive. Drive baby drive, grabbed the camera gear, cranked the tunes an off "lil" Blue and I go....

Decided to head north Anchorage way. 

Long drive just to get off the Kenai.

As there is only one road to get off the Peninsula, some of these shots are areas you've seen before but it changes constantly. 

The fireweed is in bloom now so it adds some nice color to the photo's.

But oh the traffic!

Yup...the one and only road to get over to the connecting road to go to either Seward or Anchorage

This is the "major" intersection! hahaha...go right to go to Seward and left to head to Anchorage....see all the traffic backed up??? 

So I decided to pull over in the turn off area and take some pictures hoping the traffic would thin out a bit.

 this trip over the fireweed is out! Makes the locals grumble though as it is a sign that summer is coming to an end.

Sure wish you were here on the trip with me Dan!

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the above and below are looking back towards the "one and only" road...pulling over was great for taking photo's but took me a long time to get back onto the road. The pull off is so close to the intersection and it was backed up with cars, motorhomes, camper etc...see all the ones coming?? Finally someone let me in the line.

 I go left towards Anchorage...this is about a 3 hour drive on a good day with no traffic but I am in prime vacation time. Older people driving 40ft motor home who have no clue should be required to have a special license! Especially the ones towing a 20ft boat behind the rolling home on wheels!

This looked interesting for a longer stop to stretch my legs than previous stops for photo's. 

I have lots more photo's of the trip....I drove for a little over 9 hours round trip...lots of photos.

As it takes time to download, then upload into the pro. program, time to render 1.1, then sort and process....another 6 min each photo to download onto this site for the blog....highspeed DSL my butt!...I will share the trip photo's over the next few days.

Tomorrow is a very busy day....first thing is the Borough Office regarding the encroachment...then the Lawyers office....

I am going to go back an check out a builder who builds small cabins and houses down on Bridge Access Rd...Saw a great little house sitting there today but he was off fishing!

I can picture snooky and I living in one of these houses....plans keep changing with what we are doing.

The lake and property are beautiful but  having to live next door to an idjit was not in the plan.

Well it is late and before I fall asleep on my keyboard I will sign off....impression of keyboard keys on the forehead or cheek from the laptop are not pretty in the morning!!

Set the alarm for 4:30 a.m. so I could get things done...lots to do! Was on the phone with snooky early this morning! yayyyy!

Don't even want to think about the land crappola as that is what I dealt with all day.

Every day there is this eagle who is trying to snatch the baby ducks or the baby loon. 

Today was no exception, the loons sound totally different when protecting their little one.

In turn the ducks head for cover under the brush on the banking's of the lake.

Finally got one shot of him.

Last night we went visiting and heard stories of how the bears trashed the fish camp over in Egegik. Tons of laundry to do, replace windows, wash everything down....I didn't know that bears lick and drool all over everything and that ends up being the texture of fruit roll up very hard to get off of stuff. Plus they pee'd on everything!

Well on the way over to visit, we stopped and checked out Bishops Creek...tons of red salmon running up, so thick you couldn't see the bottom of the stream! 

The sound in the culvert under the road that they were swimming through was unbelievably loud splashing. 

Too dim a light to take any good pictures so I went back today.

Just finished feeling out the neighbor who has done encroached improvement of our property. Needed to let the conversation "marinade" in the mind a bit so I went and watched the salmon running for an hour or so.....dang the misquotes were bad! Left eye is about swollen shut and itches for being bit! Reminder: take netting hat next trip.

See the blueish white splash....in each picture that is a salmon coming up stream, click or double click on pictures to enlarge.

they finally make it into calmer water on the other side of the culvert

An of course momma moose and baby

Will go back and take more of the salmon as it is such a spectacular sight to see.

Hoping to see some bears. 

The people we visited have been in Alaska since 1948 an living in this spot way, way, way, out past the Crick of salmon. 

They see grizzly, brown bears and eagle feeding out of this crick all the time they tell me most every day! 

Just gotta be there.... soooo one day soon I'll take "V" with me loaded with Backpacker specials and hike out a bit up the crick and set up the tripod/camera. 

There are usually some "fishermen" up the crick too. The two legged kind.

Well it's late here so off I go. 

Hope the loons sing tonight. Some nights they do but not often. Usually every morning I wake to the loons talking with each other. 

Beautiful music to my soul!

I hopped outta bed and quickly made coffee...chugged one down and headed out the door to go call my hubby. New time is 7:30 a.m. my time....11:30 a.m. his time. 

I have to drive abut 2 miles to get cell phone reception. 

Just as I crest the hill...Mt Redoubt was out in glory...sun shinning brightly with a brilliant blue sky all around. 

Did I grab my camera...NOoooo! Not enough coffee! That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

I know C.C. slacker....as I am dialing Dan I realized that the white on top of Mt. Redoubt is not a cloud cloud it is volcanic activity!!

So after I finish talking with snooky I head back to the cabin to grab the cameras.

By now the mountain is clouded in...so off I go to meet with one of the contractor's regarding building the house for us.

By the time I got down to a good spot to take pictures the clouds had separated so that the mountain could be seen again. 

Here are quite a few shots of Mt Redoubt puff'n away.

 

This is what the mountain looked like earlier in the day.

So that's what Mt Redoubt looks like today puff'n away. will take the camera tomorrow morning an see if there is more volcanic activity.

Miss you hon...wish you were here to be hiking around and traveling with me but this will have to do....photo's of what I'm seeing.