Jen, Stu and the boys, a year in the States 2013, 2014 6 months, 2015 4 months: Kenai Peninsula....Alaska

The evening we left Homer we had a lovely pink sunset overlooking the mountains..

Driving down the Kenai Peninsula we had rain most of the way, and were able to spot a couple of moose,

and when we headed back up it was nice to have reasonably clear skies. We stopped at Russian River for a look and were amazed to see so many cars there including a camera crew!

and the reason was first day of the salmon season... here is a link to the story the TV crew put together while we were there.....
News crew...first day of salmon season
There were people everywhere...lining the banks of the river,

and you had to catch a ferry to get to the side where you were able to fish...and onlookers stayed on the other side.....here's a link to a video Stu put together
Salmon fishing....Russian River
They were pulling so many fish in, continuously....and it really was a sight to see....

We decided to make a trip down to Seward which is a stop that some cruise lines do, although our cruise wasn't going there. The drive down was really pretty....with big lakes, mountains and so green.

Seward was really pretty as well..although even though it was a cruise ship town it didn't seem to cater for RV's, so parking was really difficult....so we had a quick look around

before heading up to a place called Hope. Just as we were about to arrive in the town, we saw a moose on the side of the road,

and as technology is such a wonderful thing (when it works!), we were able to Skype Margaret and show her. We stopped at a lookout ...

and got chatting to a guy who had a pair of binoculars and was looking out to the inlet. He told us a bore tide was due any minute....and before we knew it, we could hear this roar and a wave of water came down...it wasn't terribly high, but it was fast and wide.....and was quite a sight.
The town of Hope is really small and has a population of about 100 people. Unfotunately the "World's Greatest Gift Shop" was closed, so no pressies from there!

A lot of the towns across the Kenai were flooded and semi destroyed after the 1964 earthquake and were relocated a few 100 metres back from where they originally were built. Hope was very picturesque

and you could look across to the Seward Hwy, on the other side of Turnagain Arm.

We spent the night camped on the side of the road before slowly making our way back to Anchorage. On the way we stopped in at the Portage Glacier Visitor's Centre as the rain had come down again.....and this brief interlude with Smoky Bear made Stu a happy man!

Stu went for a walk on a popular hiking track

and saw this sign...

which didn't stop him....maybe he should have been warned about this instead....

We had been keeping an eye on the bore tide calendar and Saturday night was supposed to be a 5 ***** night for the height and ferocity of the wave. So we made our way to what we had been told was the best vantage point on Turnagain Arm...Bird Point, with about 50 other people...

very scenic, but we couldn't see a thing of the tide!

so we became "The Tide Chasers" and followed the tide as it slowly made it's way down the inlet. We came across these guys in the water, who were waiting for the wave..

and then we heard this ROAR of the water and down it came...

Here's a video Stu made of some filming I did....it was really one of the most extraordinary things I have seen....Bore tide....Turnagain Arm, Alaska
The water is freezing and these guys have to wait a month to catch this wave...if they are able to catch it, it is the ride of their lives as it takes them for a few kms, where someone picks them up and takes them back to their car.....and sadly some of them missed it.

It was quite a sight....

So we sadly left Turnagain Arm...one of my more favourite places in Alaska and made our way into Anchorage. I think I could now navigate around Anchorage very easily. It is a lot smaller than I thought and an easy road system. There isn't too much to see as a tourist in the town,

so we were glad we only had one day and night there....we visited the Alaska Zoo and as it was Father's Day in the US, they let Stu in for free and I had a coupon, so I got in for free too. I have to say I'm glad we didn't pay for entry as it was very disappointing.When we travelled around Australia in 1999, we visited just about every zoo there is with the boys, and at the end of the trip, Stu and I said we would never visit another zoo. Well I wish we had kept to our word. Apparently all the animals had been injured and were unable to go back into the wild, but the cages were mostly awful. Anyway, we did get to see a wolf...

and a polar bear...

and black bear....

before we made a hasty exit. We made our way out to the airport where there was a lookout...and were delighted to come across twin moose, crossing the road in front of us...10 mins from the city!