Still In Soldotna

Yes, we’re still hanging out here in Soldotna.  Rod’s dream of coming to Alaska and fishing for salmon on the famous Kenai River has certainly come true.  He wanted to spend a month here fishing and he has caught his limit every single day since the fish have finally come up the river.  The limit has recently been doubled to six a day because there are so many.  Rod has had a little bit of trouble getting into his favorite fishing spot lately though.  The Germans have shown up in their “Rent Me” motorhomes by the dozens and they don’t stop fishing all day long.  I haven’t been down to the river since the crowds have moved in but apparently it’s pretty bad.  People wait on the skinny little portion of the bank waiting for their turn.  That’s just not for me so I’m sad to say that I have NOT caught any salmon myself.  Fighting a crowd in the cold, pouring down rain is just not my idea of a fun time.

Rod’s catch one day last week.  Aren’t they gorgeous???

Rod even tried his hand at filleting but decided to turn it over to the professionals

We have made a few day trips around but there really isn’t much to do in this area unless you fish.  LOL

We went down to the city of Kenai to watch the dipnetters.  The residents of Alaska are allowed to use what they call dipnets to catch their salmon and they are allowed ten more than whatever the limits are that day.  Most of them were done for the day because the tide had gone out.  It was pretty disgusting though because they had cleaned their fish right on the beach so there was fish guts, flies and seagulls everywhere!!  When the tide comes back in it will take it all away.

One of the dipnetters

Mt Redoubt peeked out between the clouds

We celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary on the 20th so we decided to go out to dinner.  We checked around and there really wasn’t anything we were interested in here in town so we drove 40 miles up to Cooper Landing where there was a lodge and restaurant that supposedly had the best smoked salmon chowder.  It didn’t disappoint but the rest of the meal wasn’t so good.  The paper menu had the recipe for the chowder and the waitress said I was welcome to keep it.  I’m happy to say that I now have all the ingredients for it and I’m excited to make it myself.  I’m always looking for recipes for my salmon.

Yes, it’s for sale

We took a trip up to the Swanson River to check out that area.  We were told there were a lot of moose and bear up there and to be careful.  Well, we didn’t see a single one of either.  It was a gorgeous drive though.  We traveled 20 miles on a gravel road to get there but there was a sign that said No Fishing to save the rainbow trout that were spawning.

Even out here there is oil

 

Friday we went out to have some beef!  There was a restaurant that we passed every time we went fishing on the Kasilof River so we decided to check it out.  They serve a ribeye steak for $10!  I got mine with King Crab legs.  The steak wasn’t so good but the crab was YUMMY!!  I think if we go there again I’ll just get the crab.  Our meal also came with Caesar salad.  They do give you a choice of half salad and half fries but we didn’t want the fries.

There is a female moose and her baby that show up in the early morning hours at the RV park we’re staying in.  For obvious reasons we have never seen them.  LOL.  Well, as we were driving home from the restaurant we saw them on the side of the road.  There was no place to pull off so it was a challenge getting a picture of them.

We have one more week here before we head up to Denali National Park.  I’m really looking forward to that.  As we move away from the coast the temps warm up some.  Even Prudhoe Bay which is the furthest most northern city in Alaska is warmer than we are.  Most days here it’s in the low to mid 50’s and the temps don’t change much at night.  As I write this at noon it’s 52 degrees outside (and raining) but Prudhoe Bay will be 60 today!!  And yes, we’ve heard the same statement we’ve heard many times before.  “This is not normal weather for us”.  HA HA!!