June 13, 2005

This is a rest day for me. I stayed home and cooked chicken paprikash for diner. We had a nice visit from Amy a Hungarian friend of Diana’s. She even brought us Palacsinta, a great desert after my concoctions. Bud came home for lunch and we had an in-depth political discussion about most everything. We seem to agree on most issues, except that Bud is a very passionate person when it comes to his political views and I gave up a long time ago to be passionate about politics that is.

June 14, 2005

Diana and I are trekking back to Talkitna. Great day and we are taking a flight around the mountain Mt. McKinley that is, with the possibility of a glacial landing. I am really excited about this. After all this is my second time here in Alaska and haven’t really seen the mountain yet.

June 15, 2005

	Trude and I took a lovely walk at the Eagle River nature preserve. Beautiful big mountains surrounded the trail, and we criss-crossed the river and bogs on a well maintained trail. Lots of mosquitoes but no problem we had plenty of bug juice. We saw lovely blue flowers by the trail with some prickly roses and blue belles.
The delicate grass we saw is called common horse-hair. It took us about two hours to do the three mile loop and I was quite tired by the time we finished and headed back home with the car. But the reward was simply delicious.

Finally after two weeks I had my first Caramel frapucino from Starbucks. It was heavenly. Diana had a friend of hers, Lisa with two daughters here to visit and I hoped to talk with her a few words about my medical issue. She has been diagnosed with breast cancer about three years ago and had a mastectomy with radiation and chemo. I asked her some questions and she was more than fort coming. I still found it difficult to go into it. Scary stuff! But it is here and I will have to deal with it when I get back to California, but not necessarily today!

June 16, 2005

We are off on our family trip to Homer on the Kenai Peninsula. The ride takes us along the Turnagain Arm Bay. Since I saw it last time in 2002 it seems to be more developed. But most everything is busier and more crowded around here. This time though we have gorgeous weather with sunshine! Our first stop is at Seward. This small town is famous for the start of the Iditarod. We had a delicious lunch at Jake’s, with wonderful views and great service.

Driving toward Homer we passed some interesting fishing practices along the Russian River. It is called “combat fishing”. The fishermen side by side casting their lines while standing in the water some time up to their chest. Does not look like much fun and definitely lack the serenity and peacefulness I like to associate with fishing.

As we got closer to Homer on our right we saw the volcanoes of the Aleutian Range: Mt Redoubt and others. They looked majestic covered in snow. Homer is certainly interesting. The town is not much but the “Spit”, a narrow strip of land jutting out into the bay certainly has a lots of character. Just something I would expect to see with the Alaskan pioneers and early fishermen. Lots of camping on the beaches, and lots and lots of RVs.

Our motel room was right on the bluffs with great views and it was quite spacious. Diana did rather well securing us this gem. For dinner we ate in one of the dining establishments on the Spit. Very good but nothing fancy.