Captain Cook State Park

We have had a couple of busy days.  We left the NFS campground on the Kenai River late in the morning.  I heard some seagulls making a ruckus behind the motor home so I went to investigate.  I found a couple by the river cleaning some red salmon.  It was the wife's first salmon and she was very excited.

We headed to Sterling where there is a laundromat.  We haven't washed clothes since Fairbanks.  We put it off as long as we can.  We both hate laundry day.  Darlie did the wash while I cleaned the motor home top to bottom.  Boy were we dirty.  The dog tracks in all kinds of stuff plus she sheds a pile of hair too.  My little vacuum cleaner was packed.  The job went pretty fast and we were on our way by early afternoon.

Alaska has beautiful ground cover.

We stopped and spent the night in Soldotna.  The place was a beehive of activity.  People are in town for the salmon run.  The fish haven't started their run yet though so everyone was in the stores stocking up on fishing gear and other supplies.  This little town has more tackle shops than restaurants.  The campground was packed.  We were lucky to find a vacant site.

Don't ask me what this is.

We were up early and off to Fred Myers to pick up some supplies and dump our holding tanks.  Fred Myers stores are similar to Walmart only much nicer with a much wider variety of products.  They also love RVers.   They have a whole section for them to spend the night and they have a dump station and water.  Those are few and far between up here unless you go to a commercial campground and pay the big bucks to park elbow to elbow.

We got on the Kenai Spur Highway to drive over to Kenai City and then on up to Captain Cook SP.  We wanted to stop in Kenai to watch the dip netters.  We had met some people at Seward who were headed over here to dip net.  It is a family affair.  When we arrived in Kenai, we discovered the fish weren't running here yet either.  Very few fish were being caught.

Kenai is a modern little community.  Oil and gas is the major business around here.  We understand there are oil platforms out in Cook Inlet.  There is a refinery, a fertilizer plant and a plant that makes liquefied gas.  We stopped at the visitor center to browse around.  Nearby is the location of the oldest building and church on the Kenai Peninsula.  A Russian Orthodox church and the rectory are still in use after more than 150 years.

As we continued out Kenai Spur Highway, we came to Nikiski, location of a unique indoor pool.  We stopped to take a look.  The unusually shaped building houses a fantastic swimming park.  It even has a water slide and it is all inside.  Inside was warm and humid like a sauna.  Alaskans come here and swim in the dead of winter.  It would be a good place to warm up.

Captain Cook State Park is at the end of the highway.  Literally.  Our campsite overlooks Cook Inlet, so named for Captain Cook who explored this area looking for an Arctic passage.  We have had some beautiful campsites this trip.  This one is one of the best.  Our view is spectacular once more.

View from back of our motor home.

We built a fire and cooked some steaks for dinner.  The weather is quite warm today as the sun has been out.  I even took off my jacket for most of the day.  Tomorrow we will go search the beach for agates.  This is a popular place to find them.  There is also an odd looking stone called a spirit stone by the natives that can be found further up the beach.  Care must be taken however, not to be caught on the beach too far from an exit point because the tide comes in very fast.  You could get trapped at the base of the cliff waiting for low tide.  Or worse, swept away.

After dinner, we broke out the Tillimook ice cream I bought back at Fred Myers.  I love ice cream.  My grandfather was an ice cream maker and soda bar owner.  I grew up on ice cream.  Now that I am older it all collects around my belt line.  I had decided not to eat ice cream all summer to see if I would lose some of my waist.  It has been working.  However, when I saw Tillimook, knowing the great quality of their products, I decided to surrender six months of living in a nursing home to have some good ice cream.  I know when I am in one of those places with saliva running down my chin wondering who I am, I won't be the least bit concerned about the fact that I had a big bowl of ice cream today.  Who needs six months more of that anyhow?

Darlie insisted I add this photo.  Maybe it will jog my memory when I am in the old folks home.