Chapter 5: Homer, Anchorage, & Home

26 May.  Well today did not start off well.  At 0430 the fire alarm begins blasting.   We throw on some clothes (it is 42 degrees), head down the stairs, and outside.  The sun is already up and about 15 minutes later that call the false alarm and back to the room.  Only problem is no one seems to know how to stop the alarm.  Eventually they do, but we’re up, might as well pack up and head out, but first Starbucks – yeah, I got a monkey on my back!!! 

The drive to Homer is really nice.  We go back North  on AK 9 until the turn off back South on AK 1, really the only two major roads in the area.  We weave through more mountains with all the same great views, mountains, lakes, streams, & rivers . . . . yawn!!!!.  All of a sudden the entire terrain changed to stick-trees, some with a small amount of green on the top, and in some places acres and acres of trees leaning like a hurricane came through.  It looks like it could have been a fire, but there’s no sign (that we can see) of charred earth or trees.  We asked some folks about it when we got to Homer and it was the Caribou Lake Fire in 2019.  It was believed to be caused by humans and dry conditions combined with high winds resulted in almost 1000 acres being burned. 

It's Memorial Day and it looks like everyone is on their way back from Homer so we’re definitely moving in the right direction!  An hour or two later and were on the outskirts of Homer and coming into Kachemak Bay.  To the East and Southeast is a collection of National Parks and Reserves that are basically the north/northeastern part of Alaska the turns into the Aleutian Islands. Across the water everything is beautiful.  Here’s a couple pics and a video – much better than me trying to describe it in words.

Much more lush greenery here & terrific vistas (you know views!)

Beanie has us set up in a place called Ocean Shores, about a mile or so from “Downtown” Homer.  It has great views, a wonderful couple, Mike & Vickie, that keep the place running like a finely honed machine, and the housekeeping “staff”, I think it’s one person, is very good and has a fabulous sense of humor.   The room is nice, A flat screen TV that is well over 21”, great views, and a couple of queen bed so snuggling will be required.  Ocean Shores, https://www.akoceanshores.com/.

Been a while since we slept on queen beds - it's like camping!!

Ocean facing patios

Path from the back patio area to the bay

Like many places in AK, Homer has crazy tidal swings, but here low tide seems to be a social event.  The further out the tide, the more people you see walking around on tidal areas.  The views are of course fabulous and Mike and Vickie also have an RV park next door.  Just how good is this for an RV slot?

Still has to be one of the best camp sites in Alaska!

Here’s a short video from our room to the National Parks and Reserves we mentioned earlier.  Unfortunately my 3-year-old Apple phone video is somewhat limited do this is the best I can do.

View of room from the water looking back - weather looks good so should be good views

We got unpacked and decided to check out the area.  There’s a water access path just a few yards from our patio and we’re off. 

More greenery and that's about as high as the tide will get

Homer has an area that is called “The Spit”, which is basically an peninsula that juts out from the shoreline – in the case about 4.5 miles.  It’s a major attraction with many really good restaurants, harbors, and shopping.  This pic shows the great backdrop with the spit being the land further out with all the ships masks.

The bay showing the spit - we'll check it and hopefully, the bay out

Lots of other scenery to take in.

Another hour and all these rocks are under water

We walked for about an hour and a half and decided to stop by Safeway for a few essentials before returning to the room – okay, wine and beer!  I looked thru the selection and picked up a nice local IPA and Beanie grabbed a 4 pack of chardonnay.  I put the beer on the counter and Beanie did the same with the wine.   Here’s where everything got stupid.  AK has a state law that all liquor purchases must be verified with an ID.  Well, Beanie didn’t bring her wallet with her so she didn’t have an ID.  I said, no problem, I’ll just buy it, but NOOOOOO!  She put it on the counter so she has to have an ID.  After a short chat on the moronic features of this incredibly stupid law, I said, I’ll just leave the store and come back in later, grab the beer and the wine, and buy it, but NOOOOOOOO!  That doesn’t work either.  After a little more conversation on this even more moronic feature of this truly moronic law, we headed back to the room . . . . empty handed.  We got to the room, jumped in the car, drove back, ID cards in tow and were finally afforded the privilege, as a couple of 70 somethings, of being able to purchase alcohol.  Oh we just laughed and laughed, not really.

We decided to eat in so I went to Fat Olives, a local pizza restaurant and picked up some take-away for dinner.

Just to put a great ending on the day, as the sun set a couple folks riding horses along the beach walked by – not a big horse fan, but the optics were just about perfect!

Steps:  11,748

27 May.  Woke up to a really nice-looking day.  The tide was even further out, 100s of people doing the low tide shuffle thing and dogs enjoying the chance to run around.

Today we’ve got no hard plans, just heading down to the spit and check things out.  We parked at a public parking lot near the Land’s End Resort at the end of the spit.  Summer is coming into full stride, sea birds are everywhere, and most of the shops and restaurants are now open.   Here’s a quick look at the birds, not quite the level of the penguins of our Antarctic adventure, but still pretty good!

We also saw our first really good shot of an eagle’s nest.  It’s just as we hoped it would be, a wonderful, natural setting, worthy of this wonderful bird.  Well, maybe not.  As you can see this couple decided cell service and UHF antennae made for a better home.

Clearly, based on the size of the nest, not the first year of nesting here.

Doing maintenance must be somewhat of an adventure!

We continued our walk about, mostly along the marina walkways.  We came across a couple of cool things.  You may remember the show, The Deadliest Catch, we (Beanie) eyeballed a ship from that series.

I can hear Mike Rowe's voice in my head!

Beanie stopped by a water taxi stand and found out they offered a “ride along” option.  Basically you hop in the water taxi and your "tour" is wherever his rounds for the day might be - kind of a bay tour lottery!  We had a couple hours before we left so we stopped at a local eatery, The Harbor Grill, and had a light lunch.  Very good!

Our departure time was 2:00 PM so we wandered back to the water taxi stand.  Being the nature of this route is a little hit and miss, we asked about the itinerary and the lady hooked us up with a named Curt.  There were four stops scheduled, good for a couple of hours, and a chance to see some of the road less traveled.  Most of the patrons are folks that live across the bay use water taxi services to get back and forth, resupply, and visit so you get to see a lot of the areas off the beaten path.  Not a large ship, but on a clear day, it’s a great choice.

Curt on the right and one of the passengers on the left

Curt’s first stop for the day consisted of dropping off 4 women returning to their place with a bunch of supplies, rumor has it some of it may be alcohol!  We set out, the seas were very kind, the ladies very chatty, and Curt a good host.  The ladies had a place in an area known as Halibut Cove.  Because of the large tidal swings some of these stops can only occur at high tide plus or minus a couple of hours.  The ladies visit with each other quite often and they shared with us one of their traditional routines.  They throw some money together, buy some top shelf wines, make a fancy dinner, eat on their patio, and toast the folks up the hill staying at the Stillpoint Lodge.  When we asked why, she said the folks staying there were paying lots of money for the same thing they were enjoying on the patio.  I looked up the Halibut Cove room rates for 2025 and she wasn’t lying.  Now granted, the ladies have to do their own dishes but whoa!  check it out!!

Cabin Types	SINGLE Per Night Per Person	DOUBLE Per Night Per Person	TRIPLE Per Night Per Person	QUAD Per Night Per Person	QUINT Per Night Per Person
One-Bedroom Deluxe* 1-bathroom	$4,908	$3,272 kids $2,454	n/a	n/a	n/a
One-Bedroom Suite 1-bathroom, minibar, living room	$5,991	$3,994 kids $2,996	kids $2,230	n/a	n/a
Two-Bedroom Deluxe 1-bathroom (max 4 adults)	n/a	$3,994 kids $2,996	$3,272 kids $2,230	$3,272 kids $2,230	kids $2,230
Alaska’s Presidential Chalet** 2-bedroom suite, minibar, 2 ensuite bathrooms, private hot tub & sauna. VIP experience.	$15,000	$7,500 kids $7,500	$5,833 kids $2,230	$5,000 kids $2,230	$4,500 kids $2,230

The next stop was a young lady that worked at the salmon hatchery.  Several workers met he at the dock and we had her unloaded in the blink of an eye.  Quicker we get them - more we get to see!  It was a really beautiful cove area. 

Yes Captain, I have the helm!!

Very tight waterways and this is high tide!

Great views in all directions.

Somebody stop me!

The small brown "thing" on the right is a jelly fish.

Next we were off to pick up a young mom with her 2 kids that were heading back to Homer and on to Anchorage.  The pick up was a beautiful peninsula area, one side facing Kachemak Bay and the other the cove. 

I have to wonder how it is here during rougher weather.

The kids were obviously water taxi veterans and loved it!  They grabbed their backpacks, and immediately went for the captains’ chairs, outside aft (I am getting sooooo nautical) and enjoyed the ride.  No helicopter mom here, these kids new the rules.  On the return trip to Homer we dropped of the final original passenger.  She sat, with her dog, near the bow for the whole ride.   On the way we saw a few sea otters just hanging around.  Curt told us the sea otters, while really cute, are a huge issue.  They have just about eliminated the oyster business as they have very few natural predators in the area, they are no longer hunted for their pelts, and they basically eat everything in site.

We got to know a little more about Curt.  He is an independent contractor (owns the boat) and  been doing it for  years.  He’s also been a  schoolteacher, worked Aleutian fishing boats, and loves acting.  I asked what his favorite sightings have been and he said it's when the whales hunt way back in the small coves during salmon run.  Here’s a pic of Curt and his boat.

Up to this point I did not realize I was this short!

We returned to the room and the tide was all the way in so we walked around a little more and captured a couple of nice shots of how it looks without the mud and rock showing.

View of Homer just a little north of town.

Nice shot of the bay with the mountains covered with clouds and snow.

We returned to the room, got cleaned up and decided to return to the Harbor Grill for dinner.  I had calamari and Beanie had pistachio crusted halibut - the best halibut yet.  Tomorrow  back to Anchorage.

Steps:  13,487

28 May.  We were up and about reasonably early.  Down to Safeway (Starbucks) for coffee and on the road to Anchorage.  We stopped at a local place called Alaska Adventure Cabins, https://www.alaskaadventurecabins.com/about-alaska-adventure-cabins.htm.  This place is owned by a Brian and Karen Zak.  I was stationed with Brian in the early 90’s at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, AL.  He’s a retired AF brother, B-1 Bomber Back Seater, and is a really good guy.  Their place is very “unique”, lots of theme accommodations.  This is a pic of an old, Greatful-Dead kind of school bus that is available.  Brian used to be the mayor of Homer and has called Homer home for the last 25+ years.  If you’re ever looking for something unique, but nice in Homer, you may want to check him out.   I was too late in finding out.  Next time!

Ahh, would make Jerry Garcia smile!!

Back on the road north and as we pass through Anchor Point we see a sign for golf, Fireweeds Meadows Golf Course.  U-turn to check it out.  It was kinda cool.  Basically it’s a 9-hole Executive type course.  The tee boxes are artificial turf, the fairways are a bit “unkempt” and according to the one person there teeing off, putts are “interesting” – an Alaskan muni.  We did a little exploring.  It wasn’t yet manned, all tee times are on-line and you show up.  Nice to see.

May have to chat with the Wednesday Golf boyz about this!

The guy golfing said if you miss the green it's anyone's guess where it will end up!

Two out of three times I think I can drive this green!

We did a little more exploring and across this wonderful little enclave at the end of the road.  Maybe a 8-10 houses right on the bay, great views, a small airfield, and the best eagle’s nest we’ve found.

The tanker gives you a little bit of the perspective.

Just makes it hard to believe it's almost June.

If you look closely right of momma eagle you can see feathers of the babies

Same on this pic except look just left and you can see the baby's head.

Back on the road for another hour or so and we decide to detour to a little town named Whittier on Prince William Sound.  

Hey Tommy V - A little CAT advertising for you!

Wittier, like many places we’ve seen in AK, came to life as an Army post in WWII.  The military built a 2.5 mile tunnel thru Maynard Mountain and even today it is the longest highway tunnel in the United States.  It’s also the only way land access point to the port, it’s one way traffic changing direction every 30 minutes.  It’s $13 for a RT pass and here’s a glimpse of what it looks like

IMG 6150, 

After the war, with its well protected, deep water port access, the Army transitioned Wittier into a key supply route.  A huge, 1,000-person barracks, a state-of-the-art facility, even by today’s standards, with a bowling alley, theaters, hospital, barber shops, cafeterias, and of course NCO & Officer Clubs.  It took 5 years to build and opened in 1954 only to close 5 years later when the Wittier Army base was closed and mothballed. 

Reminds me of 60's Soviet housing.

Oh yeah, did I mention those RR tracks in the tunnel video are for the railroad traffic.  Another small issue to consider when getting in and out.  The majority of goods come in by ship and leave by train.  I included these two pics to illustrate the creative genius of racking & stacking goods on these container ships.  I would love the idea of my full size pickup truck hanging over the edge on the top level!  I would have provided better pics but there was this short discussion between me and security: I lost 1 to 0!  Zoom in to get the full appreciation.

Everything from CAT bulldozer, to pickup, to containers, to  . . . . 

Little better angle.

There is also a brand new cruise ship terminal that didn’t appear to be getting much use.  It was pretty, but . . . . .

I suspect they have larger plans as AK tourism seems to be on the rise.

They also had the local USCG Auxiliary, the uniformed, civilian volunteer component of the USCG, almost like a military reserve component except they don't get paid!  They do incredible work from boating safety to search and rescue.  Collectively they quietly and selflessly donate more than 4,000,000 hours a year in support of 100s of 1000s of USCG missions. Semper Paratus baby!!

Maybe one of the largest volunteer organizations in the U.S.

We (well, mostly me) grabbed a Moose Munch ice cream cone and we move on to the beach area.  We parked a parking lot and there was family harvesting something from the local grass, don’t remember what it was called. Something else that was quite common was the stacking of wood on the beach.  It looks like preparation for a bonfire, but we never came across and fires or remnants.  

The lady all bundled up is who we chatted with and is a college professor

The mystery continues - it's like Alaskan X Files!

Wittier turned out to be a pretty cool little port.  It has regular ferry traffic, not your typical tourist stop.  One or two stores and restaurants, a very active railroad yard and a lot of history.  It was a very interesting stop, especially when our original intent was to hike to the glacier, but got rained out.  Yes, we can be wimps!  

After our exploration, we headed back to Anchorage for our last night in AK.  Of course, along the way, we had to make a least one more stop, this time at a place called Bird Point.  Full disclosure, we could hear a few birds, allegedly some time of sparrow, but far and few between on sighting.  What is did offer was yet another spectacular last opportunity to soak up the beauty of AK

Returned to the hotel and got ready for a real dining treat, the long-awaited return to the Moose’s Tooth Pub & Pizzeria!  This was/is my favorite restaurant in AK.  I told Beanie about it when we first started talking about coming to AK, but every time we’ve driven by it the crowds seemed like too much of a hassle. But tonight, we go for it.  We drove into the parking lot and it kind of looked like too much, but then the George Costanza parking spot (come on Seinfeld fans) opened up right at the front door.  Next, we made our way into the pub, people waiting in line for a table, and I spotted 2 open seats at the bar, and BOOM!, Two minutes after arriving we’re sitting at the bar!  Sometimes life is good.  We split a great pizza, drank a little local beer, and really enjoyed the meal. You can check it out here, Moose's Tooth.

We got back to the room and we headed out so I could get my steps, once again along the trail.  Saw two cool things.  First another glimpse of a sandhill crane. My buddy Dennis tells me there are 1000s of these guys in AZ in the spring - hey!  Who knew??

Then we heard a train a coming, it’s coming round the bend (Johnny Cash?) and Beanie wanted a video so here it is in all its pageantry.    Back to the room to prepack and call it a night.

Steps:  12,380

30 May.  The last day was pretty uneventful, breakfast at the hotel and a final step walking outing.  We check out, returned the rental car, and headed to the airport.  We did take advantage of the Alaska Lounge at the North Terminal at SEA.  If you find yourself with a layover there, we highly recommend it.  Flights were pretty much on time and we landed in PHX just after midnight, home about 1:30 and hit the sheets (after an hour or so of kitty refamiliarization).  Over all, a very good trip even with a couple of drawbacks and rescheduling.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see us come back.

Steps:  11.473

23 May: Chapter 4 - Welcome to Seward

 23 May.  Last shot of Anchorage for a while and it’s a great weather day. 

Bye Anchorage  - heading out we'll be back in 5 days.

We got all packed up and headed out at the crack of 10:00.  This trip takes us South so on the way out of town we did a little more exploring of some new neighborhoods.  Despite the size, Anchorage still comes across with a small town feel and some of the houses were just terrific – not necessarily huge or fancy, just nice. We found a Starbucks (yes!) and headed south on AK 1.  Driving this road is like driving an endless loop of fabulous photo ops.  I don’t remember how many places we stopped, but it seems like each time we grabbed a couple of great pics, over the next hill there were better pics and views.    

The panorama distorts the tracks a bit - not quite that much curve

And a sighting of Beanie’s favorite bird!

The subtle, understated, lackluster favorite bird of the Bean - what can I say!

We stopped by a place where the waterways kind of folded into a smaller flow area and saw a few local “fishing”.  I put this in quotes because all they had was a net.  They were barefoot in glacial waters, granted it was less than a foot deep and the guy was netting small fish called Hooligans (a brand of smelt) and his wife was just grabbing them with her hands.  Oddly enough, she was catching a lot more fish than he was!  They were having a good time and were more than happy for us to photograph their day!        

Water is about 8-10 inches deep and probably in the low 40s

This girl is an incredible "Hand Fisher"!

And she has a great time doing it!!

A few miles down the road we stopped at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.  This facility has a wide assortment of mammals indigenous to the area to include black bear brown bear, reindeer, moose, wolf, fox, musk ox, and bison (though I am not sure bison are indigenous).  Before we headed out, Beanie needed to eat so we bought a local game bratwurst.  I liked it more than the Bean did, though to her point the casing was a little more “hardy” than it probably should have been, but the meat was good.  It may tell the story of what happens to animal population when they are “retired”.

We began our rounds and had some great views.  The black bear was dug into a pretty comfy looking little dugout. Another one found a nice perch, above the fray and not too many folks to distract him. 

He was reasonably tolerant of all the attention.

This guy - not so much

There was a small herd of Bison with several newborns.  Some of the momma bison were a little skittish.  

This mom appears to be pretty seasoned

I just like this pic.  It looks like it should be on the back of a coin or something.

On the way out, I saw this tour bus backing into a spot and he backed up a little too quick and managed to hit an incline, lifting his axle, thus his traction wheels off the ground.  He was on the phone talking to someone that hopefully could help him figure out a way out of marooning 40+ passenger a hundred miles from anything.

Not a good position to be in.

Back on the road and an hour or so later we’re pulling into Seward.  Seward has about 2200 full time residence, but on any given day during the “season” the size can double, triple, or more depending on how many cruise ships happen to dock.  Beanie set us up in a very nice little place called Harbor 360 Hotel. 

There were about 100 artists the contributed to this mural.

It’s right on the water, with great views of the mountains and the docks.  Here’s a little video shot from our balcony.  You can see there’s a cruise ship in port today.

We got into the room, did a review, and the place was “No Mouth” approved.  If you don’t know what that means you’re probably a recent blog reader.  No Mouth is the first, and maybe the only stuffed animal I ever won for Beanie at a fair – probably 40+ years ago.  I don’t even remember what the game was, but probably a basketball shooting deal. We won him and, on the way out we noticed he didn’t have a mouth – hence he’s No Mouth.  He travelled, literally hundreds of thousands of miles, both with us and just with me when Beanie snuck him in my luggage during my many years of both military and corporate travel.  Here he is checking out the bed – he’s very partial to king size sleeping.

Test drive was positive - No Mouth certified.

We got settled in and I went for a walk about to get some steps and find something for dinner.  We’ve been on the road now for almost two weeks and have yet to get a kitty fix.  We saw one in Juneau, but he was too skittish.  I came across this guy watching every move I made when I was walking about. It was clearly one of his normal perches. Of course this in no way meets the stringent criteria of a full kitty fix as no contact was made.  But you take what you can get. 

Close but no cigar!

I found a local dive, mostly fishermen and dock workers, had a beer, got us a club sandwich for dinner, bought a 6 pack of Alaskan Ice IPA and a little bottle of medicine (well, it may have been wine) for Beanie, and went back to the room.  Sandwich was good, beer even better and it was a good end to a good day.

Steps 10697

24 May.  We were supposed to go on a local cruise today but the Bean was still a little under the weather and the idea of 9 hours at sea was probably not the best move so we moved it to tomorrow.  Instead we drove, first and foremost, to the local Safeway and got a Starbucks – what can I tell you, I like the taste of burnt, bitter, expensive coffee!  From there we continued to the Exit National Park.  It was nice drive, about 20 miles, with nice two-lane roads running parallel to the waterways caused by the glacier.  Lots of folks were out for the day fishing and a few folks camping along way.  The other nice feature is this is a no-fee park, something to do guidelines under which it was established.

It was a well laid out trail, a 3-mile loop in length with a gradual incline to the viewing area we wanted to hit - great views all along the way.  There was evidence of moose everywhere, evidence being moose poop.  We made it to our viewing area and debating heading up further, but the day was young and we didn’t want to burn up all our Beanie feeling-better credits in one shot.

Careful not to eat the Moose seeds!!

Our view of the Exit Glacier

We made the turn to the return portion of the loop and another couple ahead spotted, a momma moose with two calves.  They were pretty well hidden in the trees.  I didn't do a very good job of catching momma moose,  but we did manage to a couple good viewings of the babies.  Overall a really good treat of a sighting - much better than our previous shot of a butt heading into the trees after crossing the road!

Baby 1 on the left and baby 2 on the right

Baby 1 solo

Baby 2 solo

Here's some of the video we did capture.

On the return trip we ventured out to the river area.  It’s really not much of a river, but more the remains and results of glacial activity for many years.  The bed firm grounding primarily made up of granite that has been ground to almost power.  Make me think of my vision of a lunar surface.  Water was flowing in various locations, but it was really more of a large creek vs a river.  This pic gives you some idea of the scale.

Beanie with the Exit Glacier in the background

We also stumbled across a trans elk – clearly this dude thinks he’s elk.

We walked around a bit more and then tried to find our way back to the trail.  After a failed attempt, stymied by the creek, we found a place where someone had placed steppingstones across the water and we made good our escape.  Nice view looking back from the trail.

You can check out more about the park here,  Exit National Park

Back to the trail head and to town.  Once we got back to the room, Beanie was feeling pretty good so we walked to the Alaska Sealife Center.  It has a great location, right on the ocean, on the outskirts of town so there is an unobstructed view.

View from the Sealife Center

This center is primarily a rescue facility for just about anything in Alaska, seals, sea lions, seabirds, as well as an education center for marine life.  I mean, where else can you pet a spotting shrimp or a starfish??

They had a very nice place for a Steller Sealion.  We saw hundreds of them during our cruise, but it was good to see one this close up and out of the water.

He's definitely a big boy.

There was a young couple with a baby, maybe 12 months old, that had clearly just learned to say momma. . . . . .  to anyone and anything.  Here are a couple of really cute videos, IMHO, of this baby, Beanie, and a harbor seal.  Listen for the baby chatting away.

We decided to walk the shoreline back to the hotel and we encountered some interesting things.  First there is epic RV park opportunity all along the coast, literally hundreds of slots all along the water.  Now granted, the slots are really closer to parking spots, there are no trees, and you’re exposed to the winds, but that being said, it’s right on the water and  there appears to be great “flexibility” on how you set up.  Most sites had fire rings, wood is for sale everywhere, and you could set up tables, awnings, etc. as you please.

We also have now officially completed the first mile of the Iditarod as the official starting point is in Seward.

Lastly, the Bean was officially recognized as the fisherman of the day when she hauled in the largest catch of the day – a 195 lb halibut! 

Definitely the catch of the day . . . . and a very nice fish also!

Okay, that’s all BullShit!!!  That being said she was the best photo poacher, having personally posed with hundreds of pounds of fresh halibut of which she had nothing to do with catching.

Good day.

After this we made it back to the room, cracked an adult beverage, enjoyed some dinner and hit the sheets.

Steps 18,567

25 May.  We thought we start our day with a walk to the remaining part of the city we had yet to see – a residential area right at the base of the hill.  Beanie was still a bit on the sick side so we could adjust as required.  The walk was nice with a lot of terrific houses.  Almost all have stilts as they are built on the base of the mountain.   Then our walk took us by the local hospital and we thought, what the heck, let’s see what the wait time is for the ER.  We walked in and they said no problem; however, Beanie had no identification on her.  They agree to process her in as much as they could and “sprinted” the mile and half back to the hotel to get her credentials. When I returned, they already had her in a room looking all hot and sexy with her little mask!   Eh, maybe not.  

This is the most fun vacation ever . . . .

The doc came in shortly and it turned out was a very nice lady out of Anchorage, but originally from Glendale, AZ – just across the valley.  What are the odds?  She got Beanie's vitals and gave us her diagnosis confirming that Beanie had suspected:  conjunctivitis, aka “pink eye” in both eyes.  She also thought she was in the final stages of the flu/covid or had a bacterial infection.  She put her on antibacterial eyedrops for the pink eye and a script for antibiotics.  She called the scripts into the local Safeway (the one with Starbucks, yes!!) and we headed out.  We decided to park at the hotel and walk to Safeway, probably a little over a mile round trip.  While we’re walking, I ask the Bean if she’s hungry and she says, “I’d really like some soup!”  Literally , 15 seconds later we round the corner and there’s a sign, “Soup!  Here It Is?” – you got to sing it like the song, “Whoomp! (The It Is)” by Tag Team.  For those of you not current on 15 year old rap, check it out here on Youtube, Whoomp (There It Is).  Oddly enough this is the same song my golfing buddy Al & I sing when we're looking for our golf balls and actually find it!  Anyway, it’s a small food truck with a small menu, 4 or five soups and grilled cheese. Beanie gets the flight of three different 5 oz soups, all of which are delicious.   Little synchronicity for the day.  We finish our Medivac Walk to Safeway and back to the room.  Beanie is in for the remainder of the day so I head back out for a little more exercise and food gathering for dinner.  The consummate comfort food is the choice – cold beer, hot chicken pot pie, and we're done for the day!   Tomorrow we're Homer bound.  Seems like there should be an Iliad or an Odyssey somewhere in there.

Steps 20,728