Thursday, July 15, 2010

Computer Meltdown

Well, I’ve been trying to retrieve the blog I was writing  a week ago but I guess that’s not going to happen.  My laptop died as I was writing it and I can’t restore anything.  I had backed up everything but that’s not working either.  I’m trying to copy ALL my over 10,000 pictures to an external drive and it has taken me all week to do this and I’m still not done.  I took it to a computer shop here in town and was told it’s not the hard drive, it’s a Windows issue.  So, a 3 hour drive to the Best Buy in Anchorage was in order for a new laptop.  I also found out there was a Popeye’s Fried Chicken there so guess where we went for lunch?

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So, the blog I was writing about was our day trip to Seward last week.  I finally got it off the old computer.  Here it is!!!

DAY TRIP TO SEWARD

Not a lot going on around here.  I don’t think anybody wants to know when we go to the grocery store or when we do laundry.  We have done some fishing though.  Nothing has been caught by us but Ed has caught one every day.  His new nickname is “one fish Ed”.  The limit on the sockeye salmon is three per day.  If you leave and take your fish to be processed you can go back and catch three more.  I haven’t seen a single person even catch three.  Even on the local news they said the salmon run has never been this bad since they’ve been keeping records.  Oh yeah, and it’s their worst summer in a long time too.  Hmmmm

Fishing on the Kenai River (and they say this isn’t crowded yet)

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Yesterday we decided to take a break from fishing and head out to Seward with Ed & Mary Jo.  They picked us up and off we went for our 180 mile round trip day.

The city of Seward was named after William H. Seward who was the Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.  In 1867, he fought for the U.S. purchase of Alaska which he finally negotiated to acquire from Russia.  Seward is also the seventh most lucrative fisheries port in the United States per value. In 2004, 49.7 million dollars worth of fish and shellfish passed through Seward.  Another major industry in Seward is tourism.  It’s also an Alaska Railroad terminus which has a dock for cruise ships and it controls a shipping terminal for coal.  Cruise ship passengers can fly into Anchorage and take the six hour train ride all the way to Seward and board their ship.  There were no ships in while we were there yesterday.

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We found this stuffed grizzly bear in the Visitor Center

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We had to check out the local marina and see what people were catching, if anything.  This area is big for Silver Salmon.  The limit for those is six per day.  I’m thinking we may have to come back for that.

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We spotted this eagle guarding the nest

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Pretty cool waterfall right on the main street in town

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Seward is also the start of the Iditarod which is a dog sled race from here to Nome, a distance of 1,910 miles

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We fortified ourselves with lunch at Alaska Nellie’s.  Nellie was a pioneer woman who left her husband because he drank too much rum (oh my!!) and homesteaded in Alaska.  I had a really good meal of halibut and chips but nobody else really cared for their meals.  Rod had a caribou burger but it was way overcooked.  Ed had some fish chowder and Mary Jo had grilled halibut.

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From there we headed about 10 miles outside of town to Kenai Fjords National Park where the Exit Glacier is located.  It’s one of the few that you can walk to from the road, or in this case, from the parking lot.  The hike up to the glacier isn’t too bad.  It’s only .9 mile one way but most of it is uphill so, hard going up but easy coming down.  LOL  I had been to this glacier about eight years ago when I worked for the cruise line and I could definitely see that it had receded some.  But, that’s what glaciers do.

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This car came all the way from Argentina!!

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So, the rest of the time we have been fishing.  Me, not so much but Rod has been going out every single day and sometimes twice a day.  He has only caught three fish total.  Not a lot of fish have been caught because there just isn’t any fish coming up the river yet.  They will come, it’s just that nobody knows when.

Today we decided to try a different spot on the Kasilof River (pronounced Kuh SEE Lof).  No fish caught again.  :(

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Whew, I can’t tell you how happy I was to retrieve my blog about Seward.

8 comments:

Donna McNicol said...

So nice to get an update from you. Stu and I both have external backup drives but I'm also going to subscribe to Carbonite. $55/yr for unlimited backup. I figure if the worse happens (fire), my backup drive isn't going to do me much good.

Happytrails said...

I understand how you feel about the computer. My laptop is gone and being replaced on warranty. I could be typing something and then it would just disappear or the whole computer would just randomly shut down. UGH!
Glad you found your post and you were able to retrieve it. Good post. Sorry the fish aren't there yet. Maybe they'll show up before you leave.


Mike & Gerri (happytrails)

JB said...

Sounds like you are having a good time, too bad about the fish though, maybe you need to take my Grandpa's advice and go somewhere there is fish. My friends down around Telegraph Creek are catching lots.

Anonymous said...

Great Post Deb. I sure wish we would have done some fishing when we were there. Oh well just another reason to go back again lol. What kind of computer did you end up getting?

Brenda

Tumbleweed Dee said...

So good to see you have most of the stuff back. It's great to get updates. Fishing is always a challenge, hope you get some before leaving the area.

Rod Ivers said...

You know the old comment about them calling it fishing and not catching! Nobody says we're going catching today. I hope the fishing improves!
You have my undivided attention about your backup not working. And Froggi has to go and bring up a fire.
Most other things can be replaced or rewritten, but our pictures are the most valuable things on our PCs.
So I hope you get them all recovered.
We are enjoying your blogs, as we will probably never get there.
Rod & Loyce

Mark and Dortha said...

Good to see you back online. Hope you get all your computer issues worked out and pictures saved and found! Been there...not fun.

Hope the fishing improves for Rod. I know how much he was looking forward to it.

We are enjoying Alaska through your adventure. Have you seen or heard anymore from Sarah and Richard?

LakeConroePenny,TX said...

Great that you were able to retrieve this post, as it is very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

You wore the computer out playing Bejeweled and Farmville!
Have lots of fun, and a safe one. Happy Trails, Penny, TX