A new day.....a new town.

Woke up to a glorious, if a little cool day. After a slow start, Mark and Chris came round, and we went off together to the visitors information centre, just across the road from the campground. The lady there was a mine of information, and we left laden down with brochures and leaflets, and our heads buzzing with all the info she gave us. The information centre is right on the bank of the Kenai River, and when we left, we stopped for a while and watched several fishermen fishing for salmon. One guy there said you should get a fish every 10 or so casts, but today that was not the case, and there were not too many salmon being caught the short time we watched. We left the river bank, and continued our walk into town, intending to go to the Post Office, but when we were almost there, we realised it was Saturday, and that they probably closed for the day at lunchtime. Lunchtime did we hear??? and a McDonald's and a Starbucks right in front of us? A decision was made, food as well as coffee was needed, so Macs it was.
We all had a disappointing meal, why I don't know but the food was not up to Macs normal standard, and the staff were more interested in talking to their friends than doing their jobs, perhaps that was the reason. Anyway, the food was cr... When we left we continued our walk along the main street for a while, with the girls stopping at an occasional shop to do what they do best, before turning round and heading back home.

Kenai River, Soldotna

Following our return home, we all piled into Marks car, and headed out towards the town of Kenai. We hadn't been going long when Mark shouted "Moose", and sure enough, on a gravel parking lot, was a mother and her calf. We drove into the car park, and watched them a while, before they went off on their way.

When we arrived in Kenai, we drove round the small town a while, saw the Russian church, complete with the little baubles on the spires. From there we drove down to a small town by the name of Ninilchik. We were told a family of eagles were nesting there, near to the small fishing harbour. On the way we saw yet more wildlife, a small herd of caribou.

On the beach at Ninilchik, we went for a coffee in a small cafe right on the beach, from where we could see Mt Redoubt volcano. Its supposed to have been belching smoke for the last few days, but it seemed pretty quiet when we were observing it.

We left there and drove along the coast a while, stopping at a state run campground, that overlooked Cook Inlet. No hookups, but for $10 a night, what a view.
Fishing charters were run from the beach next to the campground, and we watched a fishing boat return to the beach, at almost full speed, drive up onto a trailer that had been reversed into the sea water by a front end loader. An amazing sight.
A few more stops at some photo opportunities, but despite our efforts, no sightings of any eagles, so we headed for home. A superb afternoon out. Chris then served up a great tasting dinner, and after making tentative plans for tomorrow, Jane and I headed back to our RV and bed.
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