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| Thunderbird Falls with Partial View from Platform |
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| Reagan, at Palmer Church, Showing Her Pendant with Russian Word for Sugarpie. Her Mom is an Air Force Linguist Specializing in Russian |
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Nice View of the Mountains Near Palmer, Alaska
Saturday. 15. Called my sister, Annette. We drove 40 minutes to Anchorage to exchange our rental car. The car we had was a Rav4 Hybrid and got great gas mileage. We would have liked to keep it for the rest of our stay here, but it needed service and this is how the company deals with our uninterrupted service. They did give us another Rav4, but not a Hybrid this time. We went out for lunch at Texas Roadhouse. On our drive back to Palmer we stopped at a forest walk to a waterfall. I made later plans with Susie, a friend from the church here. Sunday. 16. There is cloud cover around the mountains that we can see from our place. Today I look forward to worshiping with others. I think of last Sunday in Valdez and I want to send a text of thanks to the two women we met while there. We are at our airbnb until 9:30am. We leave for worship in Palmer, a 15 minute drive from here. We plan to come back to our airbnb for lunch. I have a visit with Susie at her house after lunch. After that Darrell and I have a video call on Whatsapp for a month long housesit application that he submitted. Our interview for the Oregon housesit went well. Hopefully we will get selected for this sit that is on the calendar for late May-June 2027.
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| On a Call with Grandkids, Esther age 3 and Owen, Almost 5 |
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| Chicken Vegetable Soup That We Make With Whatever We Have |
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| Darrell Holding Indy at His Home in Palmer, Alaska |
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Indy, in Palmer, Alaska, Jumping in His Jumping Seat
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Monday. 17. We had a fun conversation with Eric and our grandkids, Owen and Esther. They were playing with a huge box of Matchbox cars and other brands that they had gotten for free from a neighbor who was moving and ready to pass it on. Owen was enjoying showing us several of the cars and some of their features. This may lead to an idea for his upcoming birthday gift! Lol. I texted friends from church here, Michelle and Susie. We set up something to do today with Michelle and tomorrow with Susie. It’s rainy and colder today in the 50’s. We went out for a cappuccino and a quick grocery run. Fixing chicken-veg soup for lunch. This quick meal varies with whatever we have. Today, we put in a ½ pound of chicken tenders, cut up, a couple of ounces of cut up salami slices, mushrooms, zucchini, carrot, onion, and fresh garlic. Darrell chopped up everything into the medium sized pot. I added 3 cups of water, dried basil, black pepper and some bouillon. We let the whole pot cook on boil for about 20 minutes.
In the afternoon, we made plans to pick up groceries for Michelle and then visit with her and for a while, hold 3 ½ month old son, Indy. She was planning to cook several meals for Leanne, from church, whose husband, Ralph, fell from a ladder on Saturday and was in the hospital in Anchorage. When we got to Michelle’s house, she asked us to stay for dinner. We accepted and enjoyed the afternoon and evening with her, Indy, and husband Rhett when he came home from work. Michelle made a Mustard Chicken recipe that was very delicious! It had chicken thighs, olive oil, mustard, sage and salt, then baked in the oven.
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| Driving South of Anchorage to Kenai Penninsula |
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| Big Chocolate Waterfall in Candy and Gift Store in Anchorage |
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| Seeing the Blue Ice of a Glacier South of Anchorage, Near the Turn to Whittier |
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| Rainy Day Driving South To Homer |
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| The Unpaved Road to Our Homer Stay |
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| Inside Our Homer Stay. |
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| View From Our Homer Stay has Clouds Blocking Any Mountains in the Distance |
Tuesday. 18. I slept pretty well, but woke up before 5am. I tried to go back to sleep, but by 5:30 Darrell was awake and we soon got up to exercise. This is our ab day. I was (oddly) looking forward to the workout! Lol. After that we fixed our big pancake breakfast. I spent some time in prayer and then some texts with friend Michelle and our daughter-in-law, Andrea, living in Moscow where it is early evening during our early morning. She sent us pictures and a school update about Quinn, our soon to be 6 year old grandson. He’s learning to rollerskate, and that gives me and him big smiles! We have several to-do’s today, including: a call to my sister Linda, do our laundry at a nearby laundry mat, 10am online Bible class with church in Kent, and coffee later with church friend Susie.
Wednesday. 19. We had our morning routine: exercise and breakfast. We packed up and checked out. We drove to Homer today, stopping for lunch in Anchorage. We went to two places recommended by Susie. One is Alaska Wild Berry Products where we viewed a huge chocolate waterfall and bought a bag of hard candies made in Indiana! Lol. Next we went to lunch at a top US rated pizza place, according to Susie, called Moose’s Tooth. We enjoyed a bowl of Hungarian Mushroom soup and a slice of pepperoni pizza. We drove on south with a stop at Girdwood for gas and a coffee and a pastry. Darrell drove the whole way. This is a familiar highway to us from our time driving back in May. The weather changed between towns and mountains with clouds and misty rain and clearing. We stopped for a few groceries at Soldatna, and arrived to our Homer vrbo between 4-5 pm. It’s a very nice one bedroom place. We quickly found out that there is no table at all in the place. We ended up eating on our laps at the couch. I used a pillow for my lap table and Darrell balanced his plate on his lap! Lol. We slept great in the comfy bed.
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| Skyline Drive Above Homer with a View of the Spit and Mountains |
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| Close Up View of the Homer Spit and a Glacier or Two in the Mountains |
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| Beautiful Beach Walk at the National Wildlife Center in Homer |
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| Enjoying a Beach Walk in Homer |
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| Mountains in Homer with Clouds |
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| Darrell on the Beach at Homer |
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| Darrell on the Beach at Homer |
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| Fresh Flower Decoration at Crepe Restaurant in Homer |
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| View from Our Table at the Crepe Restaurant in Homer |
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| Our Crepes in Homer |
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| Cloudy Cover Over Mountains in Homer |
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| View From the End of the Homer Spit |
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| Walking the Perimeter of the Homer Spit |
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| View From Homer Spit Beach |
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| Homer Spit Marina with Reflections |
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| Darrell Found His Spot in Homer |
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| Got Our Picture Together Thanks to Another Tourist |
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| Drive to Our Homer Stay with Some Sun and Mountains in the Distance |
Thursday. 20. Spent our morning at our place. After lunch we took a scenic drive overlooking Homer. The clouds had cleared enough to see the glaciers in the mountains around Katchemack Bay. The view of Homer Spit from the mountainside is amazing. We also went to the walk down at the nature center beach.
Friday. 21. Darrell called his Mom after breakfast. Then we went to a crepe and coffee place for lunch. After that we drove to the end of the road at Homer Spit. We parked there without any fees or limits. We walked around the perimeter of the end of the spit and followed the beach back to the end of shops, or the beginning of the shops. We walked up to the road from the beach and followed the road back by the marina and boardwalks while shopping along the way back to the beach and around to our car. It was lovely!
Nomad Notes: I woke up Saturday morning with this thought: 1. The scripture: 2 Corintians 1: 3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
After visiting with a couple of the women from church yesterday, I was processing their sadness and praying for them. And praying for myself and my grief. There is grief in life to let flow and give to God. It is burdensome and can go on and on at times. It is the end of Saturday and I am still processing and feeling sadness about many things. I’m letting it ebb and flow with the Father of mercies and the God of ALL comfort. My prayer: Help me and encourage me to help others to keep living and loving life, encouraging new growth and finding joy in all seasons of life. Amen.
Sunday I woke up feeling rested and thoughtful; not ‘sad’ but thankful. I often wake up with a thought of scripture or a hymn. Sunday I woke up thinking of this song: “My Faith Looks Up to Thee”... I thought and prayed for my friends that have stopped looking up in faith, and then for my friends who still ‘keep the faith’ and look to Christ. I enjoy the early morning and the quiet time to think and pray.
My Monday early morning thoughts are of gratitude. I continue my thoughts into prayer and grateful praise to God. Darrell and I are continuing to discuss our impressions of Alaska for a full 4 months, and how our experience is shaping our thinking for our forward travel plans. This discussion is ongoing and part of creating our future travel plans.
Talking with Darrell’s Mom on Friday morning, we were quite clear that we were ready to finish up our time in Alaska. We have had our time, but we have both faced some boredom. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just an adjusted perspective. Lol.
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