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| Our Kenai Airbnb House |
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| Walking in Kenai. |
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| View from Bluff in Kenai to the Beach and Mountains Beyond. |
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| Kenai Park |
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| Our Kenai Airbnb |
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| Chicken Soup with Toasted Cheese Sandwich at Kenai Home |
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| Kenai Beach Below Us. |
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| Old Russian Church Still in Use in Kenai |
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| Walking Down the Trail to the Beach at Kenai |
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| Darrell's Picture at Kenai Beach with People Fishing |
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| Darrell's Picture at Kenai of Soaring Bald Eagle |
Saturday. 23. We slept in until at least 6am! Lol. We do our regular morning routine exercises and then fix a big breakfast of pancakes with pork tenderloin, yogurt, cottage cheese, fruit and nuts and strong black coffee. We spent the morning working on our computers. Darrell called his mom today. I went to the grocery store to get a couple of items that we couldn’t get at Walmart yesterday. We took a walk around our neighborhood.
Sunday. 24. Church isn’t until 2pm. After lunch we took a walk to Kenai and to the coast overlooking the river beach. It’s a gorgeous view backdropped by snowy mountains. The air is cool in the 40’s but bright and sunny today. When we got back home, I made chicken chili and toasted cheese sandwiches for lunch. Around 1pm we drove over to Soldatna for church. We met all the people there. Diane from Anchorage was there as she had told me she would be for the summer. Between worship and Bible class, I was asking about a friend of ours from 40 years ago in California, Don Bradford, who had moved up here and since passed away. One of the women pointed to a man and said that’s his son David. I was like, Wow! I knew him 40 years ago. I got his attention and we visited for a few minutes. I called Darrell over and we caught up on his life in Alaska after leaving California and our last 40 years in brief. His wife had passed away several years ago. He was feeling his aging and has a good retired life now. We got an invitation from a woman named Barb to come to have dinner with her family gathering on Monday, Memorial Day. We accepted and were tasked to bring a favorite drink of the ‘seniors’, Dr. Pepper, and a watermelon.
Monday. 25. Memorial day. Darrell and I were up before 6am. We did our ‘regular’ morning routine: a DDP Yoga floor exercise routine; big breakfast, and time to relax with coffee and morning reading. Just after 9am we went for a long morning walk. We got to the local beach today. As we were going down a path to the beach, there was an eagle, likely a female bald eagle, flying above us. Later, the white headed and tailed male bald eagle made pass near the beach and landed on the top of a tall tree that we could see in the distance. Darrell got a pretty good picture of it for the distance. The eagle sat for several minutes on that tree. He was still sitting there when we left the area to walk back to our house. We were both hungry when we got back to our house at 11. I fixed tuna and raw veggies with Wasa crackers for our lunch. Our dinner with Barb’s family is at 6pm in Sterling, about a 30 minute drive. I went to the store and got our couple of items plus a few more things on our list. Started a text conversation with our youngest son Samuel. He’s trying to piece together some of his childhood memories and lack of memories with what I remember of certain times. With his questions, my mind filled with wonderful memories of him and being my youngest child. I told him that this was a big assignment because I have a lot of memories of him. One special memory was when he was 9, and Jeremy was 11. They shared a room and Samuel told me that he was finished with me reading to him everyday. Jeremy let me read aloud even though he was older because Samuel was still enjoying getting read to. Once I knew that I was at the end of a very wonderful time with my children, I asked if I could read one more book to them. I read ‘Holes’ and then that ended my Mommy job of reading to my children. It was significant for me.
We enjoyed dinner at Barb’s invitation. When we arrived and saw many of the people from church, I was able to see who was related to who. The dinner was at the older parents home. They had moved to Alaska in the 1960’s for work opportunities. While here, they purchased 120 acres and raised their family. Now, those children are grown and their children are grown with children of their own. There are at least 3 additional homes built on the 120 acres. The grandkids of the original older parents grew up playing together and running around on this family place. Everyone in the family worked at something to have an income and survive here. They are still going strong and enjoying the Alaska life as their family has expanded and been educated in amazing ways and expanded their opportunities here now. We got home about 9:30 pm after hanging out and talking for a couple hours.
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| Homemade Cornbread along with Lean Ground Beef and Black Beans |
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| Smiles with Granddaughter Esther |
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| Grandson Owen Explaining Something |
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| View from Our Kenai House with the Leaves Starting to Bud |
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| Old Wooden Boat at the Kenai Museum |
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| Kenai Museum Basket |
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| Kenai Original People's Clothing from Early 19th Century |
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| Kenai Museum Baskets |
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| Captain Cook's Book from the 1700's Describing His Alaska Time. I'm almost certain that I saw this book on display in one or two museums in England! |
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| Kenai Museum |
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| Kenai Museum. Naturally Formed Rocks Look Like Sculptures! |
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| Entrance at the Kenai Museum. A Very Large Moose Head. |
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| Lunch in Kenai. Indoors has all kinds of living plants! |
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| We chose the Greek Pizza, and took home left overs. |
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| Taco Day at our House. |
Tuesday. 26. We stayed in our house all day. We talked on the phone with Owen and Esther and their dad, Eric. Of course they always bring a big smile to my face! They showed us cards that they drew for their Nana’s birthday party tonight. Dinner today was baked salmon, asparagus and Tzatziki sauce made with greek yogurt. All delicious.
Wednesday. 27. Around 10am we walked about a mile to the Kenai Visitor’s Center. There’s a small museum and a lot of taxidermy displays. We spent about an hour reading through the exhibits. After we left, we went to Paridisio’s restaurant across the street. It’s a Greek, Italian and Mexican all combined. lol. We ordered a Greek pizza for our lunch. It was delicious with a light crispy crust. We brought the left overs home. Caleb, the preacher at Funny River church of Christ, asked Darrell if he would do the short 10 minute talk after the Bible class. Darrell agreed. Class is at 7pm. I got an IM from our youngest son, Samuel. He wanted me to share my memories of him when he was 8-10 years old. I began writing some of them down on our whatsapp chat. It was sweet to remember my youngest son. My heart has a special Mommy tug and memories of my love and life with each of my 5 sons. My memories are wrapped in extreme gratitude for having children, loving them and the unique relationship with each one.
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| Our Drive to Homer. A House is Being Moved. |
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| Lighthouse Overlooking a Beach on the Way to Homer. |
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| Our Feet on the Beach Stop Outside of Homer. |
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| Darrell's Picture of Some Eagles at the Beach Outside of Homer. There were a lot more there! |
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| At the end of the Homer Spit. |
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| Homer Spit Marina |
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| Sign at Homer Spit. The Halibut Capitol of the World. |
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| Homer Spit Marina |
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| Inside a Bakery at Homer. |
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| At the Bakery at Homer. |
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| The Federal Museum at Homer. |
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| This Walk is Part of the Federal Preserve at Homer. |
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| This One Bird in this Marsh at Homer. |
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| Darrell on the Homer Beach Near the Federal Museum. |
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| Back to Our Kenai House and the Tree Leaves have Grown Alot in One Week! |
Thursday. 28. We drove 1 ½ hours to the end of the road at Homer, Alaska. On our way, we stopped at a beach and saw a bunch of bald eagles. A couple of these eagles were standing close to two fishermen on the shore. Several other eagles and other birds were much further down the beach. There’s a road going out to the Homer marinas onto the Homer Spit. There are fishing charters, water taxis, restaurants and shops on the Spit. There’s a long side walk that people walk out to the spit on or ride bikes out. There were a lot of cars in the parking lots on the spit. We didn’t see all the people for all those cars, so we figured they had come early and gone out on fishing charters. Homer is the “halibut capitol of the world”! We ate halibut for lunch at a restaurant on the Spit. It was very delicious! I hope to eat more halibut as our summer in Alaska continues. After lunch we took a short walk through the marina. We drove to the mainland and to a bakery for coffee and dessert. I got a delicious chai spiced roll. Darrell got a peanut butter cookie, but after we were full from our desserts, we realized that this restaurant makes crepes, both savory and sweet. We loved looking at their crepe menu, but we couldn’t eat another bite! Next we went to the free Federal museum for wildlife conservation. After going through the museum, we took a walk on the boardwalks going through the marshland out to the coast. It was my favorite memory of today. I was reminded of being far away in New Zealand a couple years ago and enjoying the outdoor walking and scenery as a healing and stress-releasing excursion. We’ve been in Alaska about 3 weeks and I feel like I’m rested from the trip, and that I can enjoy the outdoors, the fresh air, and exercise. The weather is getting warmer too. When we arrived in Kenai a week ago, there were no leaves on the trees and now there are definite light green leaves budded out making beautiful shadows with the long daylight hours. We got back to Kenai in the late afternoon. We did some shopping at Walmart and came back to our house. I sent a text to Tawny, our house sit host, about our arrival on Saturday. They are leaving on Saturday early. We went over a couple details and thanked each other for this housesit.
Friday. 29. I called my sister Annette today. I don’t usually call her, but somehow, being isolated in Alaska is getting me connected with my thoughts and those I want to have conversations with. We had a good visit and hope to call again in a couple weeks.
Nomad Notes.
We’ve gotten into a habit of watching TV shows between 7 and 9 pm. And often we have a snack which is usually air popped popcorn with olive oil and salt added.
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