Back in Anchorage

Last night in Anchorage.

Yesterday when we drove down to Homer it was mostly sunny but very hazy so we didn't really appreciate the magnificence of the country we were driving through. We had a waterfront motel and towards sunset the haze disappeared and we could see the mountains across the bay from Homer. The sun didn't set until about 9:30 and it was still light when we went to bed.

This morning it was still sunny and only a light haze, so we could see the mountains. We stopped at the Two Sisters Bakery before leaving Homer where Diane got a ham and cheese croissant and Linda got a berry and cheese Danish. The bakery was in what appeared to be the "old" Homer, rather than the tarted up tourist destination that we had seen the day before. I could see the Homer of Bodett's "End of the Road." I'm glad some of it was still there.

On the drive up from Homer to Soldotna we saw two volcanoes across on the west side of Cook Inlet. One of them was, I think, Redoubt Volcano that was erupting earlier this summer. The eruption is over for now, but it was a very impressive mountain anyway, about 10,000 feet rising abruptly from the edge of Cook Inlet. It looked a little like Mt. Adams, while the other volcano was more pointed, more like Mt. Hood. At Soldotna we turned east and drove through towering, steep, rugged mountains, many with snow fields and glaciers visible. No photos, unfortunately. The best views had no place to pull off the road, and the residual haze did not encourage photo taking anyway. You'll have to trust me and look up any picture of the Kenai Peninsula. We reached the south end of Turnagain Arm and followed the shoreline north to Anchorage. It was an altogether beautiful drive.

For dinner we decided to splurge. We went to Phyllis's Cafe and Salmon Bake in downtown Anchorage where Linda feasted on king crab legs and Diane indulged her passion for wild Alaskan red salmon. Both were served with corn-on-the-cob and red potatoes, and Linda's crab came with about half a cup of melted butter. Delish!

As we were finishing, two young men in black suits and missionary name badges came into the cafe. We asked the waiter if we could pay for their dinners, but he said that Phyllis was a Mormon and she treated them to dinner whenever they came in. Linda wondered if they got tired of eating crab legs. I wondered if that was possible. We stopped to say hello to them on our way out.

Tomorrow we start back home, although we won't get there for another week and a half. We're driving back to Tok on the Glenn Hwy and Tok Cut-off. By the time we get to Skagway we will have driven on most of the paved highways in Alaska and quite a bit of the unpaved highways. It's been quite an adventure.