What a great nights sleep and and an even better way to wake up, in a cozy little cabin with an incredible view. We were both excited about the day, especially for the boat ride part (and even to take a rest from the bikes). For breakfast, we walked to the nearby grocery store to get some cereal and milk. What a great choice that was because it kept us full for a good portion of the day. From there, our plan was to go explore the Spit. Charlie offered to give us a ride out there since he had to do a little errand in town. That saved a lot of walking time and gave us a little more time to explore the spit. It was neat walking around the spit because when you looked around you were way out towards the middle of the bay. There were a lot of little shops to explore, although we're not big shoppers. We spent a little over an hour walking around the area before we saw Charlie out on the spit. The harbor was right on the spit, so when Charlie picked us up that was our next stop. He has the perfect little red (well bigger than any I've seen) sea-worthy skiff named The Red Raven. It was so neat going 4hrs 19mins the harbor on the way out to the open water because there were quite a few big fishing boats and even the sister ship to the boat used on the TV show "Deadliest Catch." Joe and I sat right up front in the bow because we knew that would be the most exciting place. It sure was! The waves were big enough to make the boat bounce up and down quite a bit, so it was a lot of fun and pretty exciting, especially when we hit a really big wave because then there would be a little water that splashed up and sprinkled us. Every once in a while we would come near a sea bird that, once it saw us, would dive out of sight underwater. Those were my favorite to watch. Charlie took us all around the bay. We were all looking pretty intently for whales. First we headed out in the direction that Charlie thought the whale had been spotted earlier today, but when we didn't have any luck, we turned around and headed towards what is known as "Gull Rock." It was really neat because it was just covered with all kinds of sea birds. Charlie showed us the nests where the puffins lived, but unfortunately we didn't see any puffins. We saw little birds that looked like tiny penguins that I believe were called Murres along with another black bird with a long neck that I can't remember the name of. Charlie took the boat pretty close to the enormous rock that stood about 150 feet out of the water. The first thing that Joey said was "Is this called Bird Poop Island?" It was so funny, it did definitely smell of bird poop because there were just so many birds. The rock was neat because there was an arch and a few smaller rocks/islands nearby. As we were slowly cruising around Gull Rock, we came around a corner and there was a seal sunning on a rock!! We couldn't get too close to him because he would have just dove off the rock into the water, but either way we were pretty excited to get to see him! I remember I had a birthday party at the aquarium back home when I was a kid and I got kissed by a seal. Even though that was really awesome, it was still really cool to see a seal in the wild! Our next stop was what is known as "Halibut Cove." We were heading towards there at full force. At one point I turned my head to the side and couldn't believe what I saw, a Humpback WHALE!!!! Joe and I looked at each other and we were both gleaming with excitement. It was only a couple hundred yards away! So, we re-routed our course and headed towards the direction the whale was swimming. We watched him swimming along the surface, saw him spout, and then not too long after saw him dive under with his tail coming fully out of the water! It was just so magical to watch! That definitely made our day, well probably our week! It will be something we will never forget about our adventures in Alaska! We waited for a while in hopes of seeing the whale again (Charlie said they usually go under for about 7 minutes), but unfortunately there were no signs of him anywhere. With that, we turned back around and headed towards the cove. I still really enjoyed watching the sea birds dive under the water and bouncing around at the bow of the boat. As we were coming into the cove, there was a lighthouse, and I couldn't help but think of Grammy since she likes those so much. Inside Halibut Cove, there were a lot of REALLY nice houses, a really expensive fine dining restaurant built on stilts, and even a floating coffee shop. I can't imagine living way over there, but Charlie said that a lot of artists live there, which would make perfect sense, along with doctors and other wealthy people. It was a really neat little place! As we were going back out, Charlie cruised under one of the rock arches that was on the bluff which was really cool too! On the way back to the harbor, we went towards the oil rig that was out in the middle of the bay. When we got close, you could see that it was being moved by 3 tugboats. At one point as we were floating there looking at it, one of the tugboats sounded its loud horn. About a minute later, Charlie's cell phone rang (a surprise to me that there was reception out there on the water!). One of the first mates on one of the tug boats was a friend of Charlie's and had recognized his boat. Apparently we were closer than they wanted people to be (we found out they wanted a mile clearance!). Ooops! But since Charlie knew one of the guys on the tug boat, it wasn't a big deal. But, now we know! The waves were a little bigger on the way back in, which was fine because it just meant a little more splash that got on us when we hit a big wave! Once in a while a drop would get on your lips and you could taste the salty ocean water. The ride back into the harbor was just as fun. Seeing the big coast guard ship and just watching the hustle and bustle of the harbor was neat. I've never been on a boat in ocean water before, so it was even more amazing that I got to go out in Pacific water, in Alaska!! As we were heading back into town off of the spit, I was just so full of joy because of how great of a boat ride we had. We had seen everything we wanted to see, except sea otters (which would have been so cute), and it was the perfect weather too! We stopped at the grocery store and bought some ice cream on the way back to Charlie and Debbie's house. Originally we had thought about going out for ice cream, but since Joey had a hankering for soft serve and we couldn't find a place that had any, we decided to go for quantity. It worked out good because then 4 people could enjoy a little ice cream instead of just us two. When we got back we had some ice cream right away. We also met one of Charlie and Debbie's sons Elisa. For a while, we became computer geeks and I worked on upoading pictures, which was overdue again. Luckily I was able to get all of the photos uploaded from my camera by the end of the night! As much as I hate just sitting on the computer like that, it is always so great to get them all taken care of so we don't have to worry about something happening to the camera and losing them all. Joe and I ate my leftovers from going out to dinner last night, and it was just as yummy! That evening, while pictures were uploading, Joey and I went for a walk along the beach. It was low tide, so we were able to walk right out on the sand. The sunset was beautiful as was the moon shining above the mountains in the other direction. We did a lot of jumping from rock to rock and had little mini adventures involving us crossing little streams that were in the sand. It was a lot of fun. Homer has definitely been one of my favorite places we have been to in Alaska. The scenery is just so breathtaking. We had such an incredible day today; probably one of our favorite days of getting to explore Alaska! The boat ride was not something we ever expected to get to do, but it will probably remain one of our favorite memories from Alaska. We were so blessed to have another beautiful, sunny, warm day just at the right time to enjoy Homer! Today was a day we will never forget-thanks Charlie!
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We had a fantastic nights sleep last night. It was already after 9 when we woke up, so we got to sleep in a little today! We found a note from Elise that she had taken Cito on a walk and to rummage around in the kitchen to find something for breakfast. I made Joey some scrambled eggs, and we both had cereal and milk and toast with honey! It was so yummy! Once we were all packed, we said our goodbyes with plans to see them again in a few days (especially since Jeff seemed excited to make some moose burgers from a moose that he had caught (Elise is a pescitarian, so he doesn't have them that often)). Another beautiful sunny day, and the wind was even better than yesterday! The road was a little less hilly than yesterday, but the view was just as incredible. The little town of Ninilchik was pretty neat. When we arrived in the little town of Anchor Point, we stopped at a pawn shop to see how much all of the lures that we found out the side of the road yesterday were worth, just for curiosity sake. When we saw them yesterday, we figured that we might as well pick them up because someone could use them, and maybe we would even get a little dinero for them! We stopped at the visitor center and found out there was a great place by the ocean we could to make lunch, the furthest west place we could go to by highway in North America! There was a terrific sign to take a picture by when we got there and the view was perfect. We made some mac and cheese for lunch and called home quick to share our excitement of being as far west as we could be on our trip! The hills got a bit bigger as we got closer to Homer. At one point we caught up to a guy riding with a big pack on his back. We found out he was from New Jersey and was riding from Anchorage to Homer to camp on the spit (the skinny stretch of land that sticks out into the inlet) for about a month. Once we got to the top of the hill just before Homer, the view was even better. We could see the spit off in the distance and the mountains across from Homer. We met a couple nice ladies at the pull off on the top of the bluff that let us use their binoculars to see what we were pretty sure were otters! The ride down the hill into town was just as beautiful. We found where we were supposed to turn to go to our Warm Shower's host, Charlie's, house, but we didn't know exactly what house to go to since the phones were dead. Luckily we were able to ask the neighbors and they pointed us in the right direction. Charlie and his wife Debbi, and their dog Nicco, were there to greet us! We got some kisses from the puppy who was super excited to have new friends. I was so excited when I saw where we were staying. First of all, we were right on the water I was getting really excited when we took the little trail to get to the cabin! When we got there, it was like we were in a fairy tale. We found the cutest little cabin, with the best view! It's so hard to explain how great it was, and the pictures won't do it justice, but it will definitely be one of those places that we will never forget. The main house was beautiful too. We each took a shower and I got to use the "pretty bathtub!" It was so neat because it was all made of wood! Joey and I decided to go out to eat with grammy's "anniversary fund" and were recommended a couple places by our host. While we were walking to the restaurant, we stopped at the Homer Visitor Center. All of a sudden we heard someone ask if we were from Upstate New York (they had seen our Keuka College/Lyons hoodies). She was originally from the Rochester area and had even been accepted to Keuka College, but came to Alaska instead. It was pretty neat that we got to meet her. The restaurant we ended up going to was called "Cafe Cups" and was such a neat, fun place to be. It was very artsy and had mosaics made of pretty teacups and wine bottles and a lot of little touches like beaded napkin rings to make it that fun atmosphere. Joe ordered a beer and I had a great sweet white wine. It was pretty funny because Joe said "well, there are no cheeseburgers on the menu here, it must be a fancy place!." And it was. We had a bit of a hard time figuring out exactly what we wanted to order because the menu had a lot of fancy wording. Joe ordered a prime rib with super yummy steak fries and I ordered one of the specials of clams, jumbo shrimp, salmon tossed in a tomato alfredo pasta. We enjoyed our salads and homemade bread with garlic butter, it was all just so heavenly! Joe finished his dinner pretty quick as usual and enjoyed helping me eat a little of mine too. I ate a lot and it hardly looked like I made a dent, guess we will have dinner tomorrow! We walked back to the house and enjoyed some great conversation with Charlie before retiring for the night in our little cabin by the water. I am so excited that we get to stay 2 nights here, I wish we could stay for a month! So happy that we were blessed with great weather again. Charlie said he would take us out in his skiff tomorrow, so we are really excited about that too! I can't believe that we are going to get to go out into ocean water! This trip keeps getting better and better. We rode 44.13 miles today.
We were happy to be indoors last night because it was pretty windy all evening. Unfortunately, Mary had to leave early this morning to go to work, but fortunately Brad didn't have to go in until 11! He made us a super yummy breakfast of eggs, bacon, onions, peppers, and cheese all mixed together. It definitely started our day off to a great start! When we first woke up, the sky was grey again, so we were hoping that it wouldn't rain. By the time we got ready to go, that turned right around and we had beautiful sunshine! Brad rode with us for the first 5 or so miles into town on his way to work. Even though it was a short section, it was still nice to have someone else to ride with! We stopped at the outdoors shop that he works at for a little while before saying goodbye (although we will most likely see Brad and Mary again on our way back through to Anchorage). Joe was thirsty for some chocolate milk from the grocery store (that is what Mary and Brad used to get all the time on their tours, kind of like us and our ice cream!), so we stopped there before heading out of town. I surprised Joey with a donut too! Turns out that it was a good idea to stop because after the great breakfast we had, the chocolate milk and the donut, we were full for the rest of today's ride! The terrain was a bit hilly today, mostly big rolling hills, nothing to monstrous. The sun was shining and the traffic was even a little better than yesterday! Although there was no rain, we had a pretty good headwind, but it could have been worse! We stopped at a gas station and Joey had a missed call from tonight's host. She had seen us riding as she was headed into Soldotna to run some errands! I have to mention something about this gas station we stopped at too. It had the weirdest bathroom I think I've ever seen at a gas station. It was a male/female restroom with two main rooms, fit for only one person to go in there at a time really. The first room had a sink and a urinal in it and the second room had two toilets with a little wall in the middle (no doors to make them a real stall). So, Joey and I could both go to the bathroom at the same time if we wanted to... it was SO strange. But anyway, to get away from that, as we continued on, the road got closer to the ocean inlet and we could even see the volcanoes across the water. It was beautiful! So happy that we decided to ride to Homer! As we rode along taking in the views, I couldn't help but smile just simply because we were in Alaska. Just like all of the other wonderful places we have been through, this will soon just be a memory. I find that I get myself in kind of a daze just taking in the area that we are in, it really is incredible. When we got to our host, Elise's house, she was still on the way back from running errands. We snacked on a couple oreos and relaxed on the porch while we waited for her to get there, which only ended up being about 15 minutes after we got there. She had a great area downstairs in her cabin for us, and we could put our bikes inside which is always nice. Elise's daughter, Citori, who is about 1, is super cute. She is just so smiley! We had a little time to Oovoo Joey's family and talk to Andy a little since we found out that he will be leaving for a year tomorrow to China to teach English!! I am so excited for him, but this means that it will be about a year and a half before we get to see him (since we've already been gone almost 6 months). When Elise's husband, Jeff, got home we had a yummy selection of salmon spread and crackers, cucumbers, zucchini, olives, cheese, strawberries and cantaloupe, chocolate covered acia berries. It was so good! We had a lot of fun talking with Elise and Jeff and even learned a little more about the schools in Alaska, or at least in this area, since Jeff is a principal of the K-12 school in Ninilchick. He told us about how people here get a whole bunch of stipends to home school their kids, $25 lap tops along with a lot of other "benefits." The problem lies in the fact that the kids, even though they are required to take the state testing, there is no minimum score for them. Jeff said that they have lost a lot of kids to homeschooling and it is really hurting the number of kids that go to the public school. Not only have the number of kids dropped, but sometimes the kids come back to the public school in worse shape than they left in. Some of the parents who home school make it so the kids are always done by 10am. He also said that kids will go from having a 1.7 gpa to a 4.0 because their parents are the ones giving the grades now, no matter if their child(ren) are doing well or not. It is such a sad situation. We had a great night relaxing, and Joey even got to watch a little of The Daily Show. This has been "a mini-vacation" inside our vacation since we have been able to stay at Warm Showers for a good portion of the way down to Homer and back! It's just so wonderful. Every day that you know you will have a shower and/or a bed to sleep in means the world to us as we are riding. Not to mention a great motivation! We rode 42.26 miles today.
Last night, someone came up to the road we were camped on, probably around 1am. This really must have been the popular spot to go for the locals. As the car was trying to turn around in the tiny overlook, our tent lit up brighter than if it was sunny outside. We could hear the bumper of the car get really close to our tent, which was a little scary, not the best way to wake up in the middle of a dead sleep. This morning, we woke up to the sound of rain and dragged our feet a little getting out of our sleeping bags because of it. We had some of our oatmeal for breakfast and are happy that our last 5lb bag is about half gone, we're making progress on getting that yucky oatmeal gone so we can get a new bag of the right kind when we get to Vancouver. Once we got riding, the rain continued, if not got worse. The rain added to what was already really scary riding on that road since it was still so narrow. There was so much traffic since it's the only road. We were definitely uneasy about it. After about 5 miles, we stopped at a little gas station/ grocery store to fill up on water before heading back out into the rain. The road changed from being next to Kenai Lake to being next to the Kenai River. A little ways down the road, there was a line of traffic in our lane, apparently there was an accident. We were able to scooch through on the dirt next to the road and when we got closer to the accident (which we found out was a motorcycle who had crashed after hitting a pothole) there was a little walking trail on the other side of the guardrail, so we got through there too. It was nice to be able to ride for a while without having to worry about any vehicles coming up behind us since they were all stuck where they were from the accident (it looked like no one was seriously injured). As we rode along the line of cars waiting to go the opposite direction, car after car, people were rolling down their windows to ask us questions like "what happened?", "is the line long?", "are they almost done?", etc. It was kind of fun being "the messengers" for a little while. One guy even said to us "it's time's like these that riding a bicycle is the best way to go," but I feel like it's always the best way to go! The rain continued. We were definitely not enjoying today's ride because of all of the traffic; it was probably one of the busiest single lane roads we had been on in AK thus far. At one point we decided to pull off into the parking lot of a visitor center just to take a little break. Just as we were pulling in, there was an RV that had passed us a couple times sitting right there and the couple was outside in the rain waiting for us. They asked if we wanted a ride since this section of the road was so unpleasant to ride on (they could tell we weren't enjoying the ride!). Normally we would have turned down the offer, but since this was just a little side trip that wasn't part of the main trip we gladly accepted it. When we asked how much longer the road was narrow for Mary and Steve told us that it was like that pretty much the whole way to our planned stop for the day. It was very scary riding on that narrow road. My hands hurt after only 15 miles because every time a car/RV/truck passed us, I gripped my handle bars pretty tight. I couldn't believe that Mary and Steve even had a bike rack on their RV to put our bikes on! We took all of our panniers and gear off and put them inside. It looks like we are carrying a lot more gear when it is in a big pile like that vs. on our bikes. So, the next 30 miles went by really fast. We were nice and warm and glad to be off that road. Just before we got to town, they showed us the road that they lived down. They took u right into the town of Soldotna and we reloaded our bikes. Before saying goodbye, they gave us their phone numbers just in case we needed anything while we were in the area. From there we called our Warm Showers Hosts for the night, Mary and Brad. We found out they lived about 5 miles from town, down the same road that Mary and Steve did! I thought that was just the funniest thing! So, we got a few extra miles in today, but were happy to be riding again because the sun had come out and the shoulder was descent size again! When we got to Brad and Marys, they were outside waiting for us. They live in the cutest little log cabin, it was so cozy! Since we had gotten to their house 2 or 3 hours before planned because of getting the ride, we had plenty of time to relax. Mary made us each a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch; what a great treat, it's been so long since we have had grilled cheese! I had a chance to upload a few photos, hear some stories from the tour that Mary and Brad went on last year, and just enjoyed the cabin. Later that evening, we went across the street to Mary's parents house since they always have a big family dinner on Sundays. They had ribs, a really great salad, cantaloupe and strawberries, a homemade soup, and even ice cream for dessert! We had a great time over there because a lot of Mary's family was there; lots of kids and just a great time to just enjoy the families company. A few hours later, we got our suits on and went in her parents hot tub! Her mom even made some homemade kettle corn and a huge bowl of homemade popcorn too! It was way better than any "bagged" popcorn you could buy! What a great day! We only rode 19.08 miles today (and about 30 in the RV).
We had an ok nights sleep last night. After having a few days in a row sleeping in a bed we can really notice how hard the ground is. Back to our oatmeal, luckily we are making progress on that second 5 lb bag, so hopefully that will be all gone or close to gone by the time we get back to Anchorage. We stopped at the library on the way out of town to try to update the blog, but for some reason I couldn't get connected to the wi-fi, so that will have to wait. We rode on the bike path back to the main highway and stopped at the gas station on the corner for some hot chocolate. A great treat on a somewhat chilly morning. The view along the road continued to be stunning, even more so today than yesterday because the sun was shining. This section of the Seward Highway definitely goes on the top 10 favorite roads we have ridden on thus far on the trip, even with the rather heavy amount of traffic. The initial 10 miles of riding we had a bit of a tailwind, which was a nice change after yesterday. As we drew closer to the end of the inlet and the intersection we will turn at when we are on our way to the cruise in 2 weeks, a couple glaciers became visible up in the mountains. The scenery just kept getting better and better. We ascended Turnagain Pass, which turned out to be a pretty challenging climb (not for steepness, but because the amount of shoulder was minimal as a result of the rumble strips, and the vehicles were flying by making me feel a little uneasy.) The exhaust from the vehicles was almost unbearable, I think because the way the hill was there was no way for the breeze to clear the air. We had both worked up a pretty good sweat by the time we got to the top, the sun playing a pretty big role in that on a day like today. We found 2 nice rest areas at the top of the pass, one of which had picnic tables! We made some mac and cheese for lunch and enjoyed the pretty views of the mountains all around us. The rest of today's ride was still rather hilly. At one point we found a really nice bike path that ran parallel to the road, which was perfect timing because the shoulder had gotten rather narrow again. That bike path took us for about 5 or 6 miles. We could see the canyon river below, people white water rafting, and be able to enjoy the view because we didn't have to worry about the cars running into us. More climbing for the remainder of the day, the good news is that tomorrows ride should have less climbing than today. We haven't done that much climbing since just outside of Fairbanks, and my knees could feel it. Right before reaching our planned destination, we went through a pretty long stretch of construction, but luckily the shoulder was still intact even though the main lanes were a mess. We made it to Cooper Landing, and found a restaurant/hotel/RV park. We stopped at the RV park and used one of the tables to make some rice for dinner. We enjoyed snacking on a couple chocolate creme Oreos, I didn't even know they made that kind until I saw them in the store in Anchorage! After dinner, we continued riding for a little bit to find a place to camp (for free). The road had gotten so narrow that there was no shoulder at all. The mountain were on one side, a lake on the other, and the road was jammed in between. To make matters worse, it was already about 8pm, and the sun was setting. The glare from the sun was so bad that I could barely see Joey ahead of me. I was so worried that we were going to get hit by a car because of that; there wasn't anywhere for us to go on that narrow road, so we just had to pray they would see us. Luckily we only rode about a mile before finding a gravel road. It didn't look like a driveway, so Joey rode up the hill to see what he could find. He met a couple sitting in their car up at the top and asked them if it was someone's driveway, but it wasn't. They said that we had found the "premier camping spot in Cooper Landing," and they were right! The view from the little pull off at the top of the gravel road was spectacular. The turquoise lake, mountains, and sunset were beautiful. After we got everything all set up, were working on hanging our food and another car showed up. A nice lady, Arden, had come up to this spot to show her friend the view. She said that no one except the locals knew about this hidden treasure, so apparently we got very lucky in finding it. A few minutes later, another car appeared, a couple of guys who just wanted to hike the little trail to the top of the hill we were camped on. This must be quite the popular spot with the locals! Arden gave us her contact information in case we wanted a shower, laundry, or a home cooked meal on our way back through, so we may get to see her again! Another great day of cycling, we will definitely sleep good tonight! Our miles totaled 66.20 today.
The sky was clear when we woke up this morning, so our plans to head off to Homer will commence. We got all packed up and then enjoyed a yummy breakfast of french toast, bacon and oj this morning! I was a little sad to leave the puppies because we had so much fun playing with them yesterday, but we will probably be back to Anchorage a day or two before our cruise leaves, so we will see them again. The ride down the hill from their house wore our break pads quite a bit, but it was still a pretty great downhill. Just as we were getting to the bottom of the hill, Joey hit a couple big bumps and the SPOT went for a tumble off his front handle bar bag, and then he accidentally ran it over. Luckily it is pretty tough and only got a little scratch. We rode to the grocery store to grab some food for the next week or so before heading out of town. It was pretty amazing to walk into the store and pay closer to "regular" price for groceries. We are definitely looking forward to the groceries on the west coast because they will probably be even cheaper! As we were leaving Anchorage, we rode on the Old Seward Highway for a while in order to miss some of the traffic and the section where it was a double lane road. The Seward Highway has definitely been one of the most scenic roads we have been on in Alaska with the inlet on one side and the mountains right against the road on the other. The road zig zagged as it followed the curvy coast line. The train tracks were between the road and the water. It was neat to watch the train go by because it looked like a giant snake slithering back and forth as it made its way along the coast. When we arrived in the area known as Indian, a bike path started that took us all the way to Girdwood! Around the 25 mile mark, we decided to eat lunch when we stumbled on a picnic table just off of the bike trail. We had some mac and cheese and then continued on. The ride today was really flat, but there were a lot of smaller hills along with one larger hill while riding on the bike path. There is an aweful lot of traffic on the Seward Hwy, so we were very thankful there was a bike path, and a really nice one at that. The asphalt was so smooth and there were little information boards and benches the whole way down the trail. There were signs about the beluga whales that lived in Cooks Cove and a lot of other interesting facts about this area. At one point, we found a pavilion with picnic tables right next to a set of vault toilets! The thought crossed our mind to just camp there since it looked like rain, but we decided to keep riding so we would be in Girdwood. We made a quick stop at the gas station/shops that were right on the Hwy and then decided to ride the few miles into the town of Girdwood to find a place to camp. Again, there was a bike path! The library was still open for about 20 minutes when we got there, so we made a quick stop there. We found a nice church that looked like it would make a good place to set up our tent for the night. There was a bicycle outside and we could see a lady through the working hard in the office, and even a really cute dog! When we asked if it would be ok to set up the tent she said "oh sure!" We were relieved, especially since there was a nice covered area we could hide under in case it rained. There were also a couple picnic tables there which helped for dinner. We cooked up some rice and snacked on a couple cookies before we decided it was getting to cold to sit outside anymore. Luckily it was nice and warm once we got into our sleeping bags. We rode 42.67 miles today. I have to admit, it feels nice to be back on the bike after sitting around yesterday (not that playing with the dogs or watching movies wasn't fun, because it was great!)
When we woke up this morning, it was raining and foggy and the forecast didn't look very hopeful for the rest of the day. So, we decided to just stay one more day instead of riding in the rain. Dave made us scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and hot chocolate for breakfast! While Dave and Lise were off working at her studio, we relaxed at their house. Most of the day was occupied by playing with Jack; it was so much fun. Jack is still quite a bit of a puppy so he has lots of energy and loves to play. Eventually Jack got tired and just wanted to lay down, so we watched a couple movies. It's funny how different we feel when we sit around for a portion of the day vs. riding for a few hours during the day. When Dave and Lise got home, they made us what they called a "quick trip down the aisle at the supermarket meal" of Swedish meatballs, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a really great salad with homemade salad dressing. It sure was tastey! Although initially Joey accidentally put gravy on his salad, so I don't know if that part was so good, but he ate it, so it couldn't have been too bad; it was pretty funny though! We also had chocolate chip cookies and sherbet for dessert! Since we sometimes have a hard time falling asleep when we don't ride, we watched another movie before we went to bed. Tomorrow's weather looks a lot more promising, so we should be leaving to ride down to Homer and back to Anchorage, which should kill about 10 days time while we wait for our cruise.
We woke up to a clear sky, beautiful view, and eggs, bacon, sausage and hot chocolate for breakfast! We went back to the bike shop this morning because we had gotten an extra cassette and when Joe replaced the chains, both cassettes accepted the new chain so we didn't need to replace those (sometimes it will skip if it needs to be replaced). Returning the extra cassette saved us some money this month and made it so we didn't have to carry it too. Dave dropped us off near Wal-Mart, the Mall and Value City so we could finish up getting the last few things we needed while he went to help at the studio. The mall was really neat because there was a movie theater, an ice skating rink and a bowling ally in there! We were able to find a pair of shoes for each of us right where I new we would, at Payless. I am super excited about my shoes because they will somehow go with all my dresses, which was hard because one of them is navy blue, so black wouldn't have looked to good. We went over to Value Villiage again today and I was able to find a pair of jeans and a shirt for a good price. The last two things we needed were a belt and white t-shirts for Joey. It was a workout trying to find a wardrobe for both of us. Either way, I had fun going shopping since I hadn't done any clothes shopping in a really long time; Joe on the other hand didn't have quite as much fun as I did. When Dave came to pick us up, we offered to help at the studio if we were needed, so that's what we did. Although there wasn't a whole lot we could do, we did get to help a little. It has to be so hard to decide what to take with you and what to sell when you have been working on carving glass for so many years. Dave took us back to the house and I spent the rest of the day on the deck enjoying the view, sunshine, playing with Jack, and catching up on my blogs since I was so far behind; Joey watched a movie or two and just relaxed. Dave came home with pizza for dinner! Another fun day. I am glad that we have everything we need for the cruise all ready to go. Yay! Hopefully we can leave tomorrow to ride to Homer, weather permitting.
What a great nights sleep! We woke up and found that Dave and Lise had made us blueberry pancakes for breakfast! So yummy! There was still fog/rain in the area, so we couldn't yet see the beautiful view that they kept telling us about. Dave was nice enough to show us around the city and take us to some stores to get some things. He took us to a bike shop so that Joey could get a new derailer for his bike (his started giving him problems about 3 days ago, the tensioner no longer worked). We also went to REI to return our bug nets since we wouldn't need those anymore. REI is such a neat store because if you are a member you get all sorts of benefits and you can return anything at any time for any reason, even if it was used; I don't know how it works, but it does. Next, we went to Plato's Closet where I was able to find some dresses for the cruise at a great price. From there, Dave took us to pick some of Lise's art up at the local shop and we headed over to her studio. They are working on selling their house to move back to the lower 48, so they have to consolidate and sell a lot of her equipment and art before the big move. Her work is amazing. She taught herself how to carve glass through what she had learned through her dentistry work. I had never seen glass carving pieces before, etched glass yes, but not carved. Her work really was beautiful. By that time, we were all getting hungry, so we went to Golden Corral for lunch and we treated. It was the least we could do since Dave had taken us all over the city to the stores and had waited patiently for us as we looked for everything we needed. Oh how I love buffets! From there we went on another quest to get some clothes for the cruise. They have what is called Value Village, which is a really nice second hand store. The clothes looked a little nicer than at some of the Salvation Army stores, and the clothes were even organized by size, which helped us a lot since we didn't want to spend all day shopping if we could help it. We found almost everything we needed there. Behind that store was the Salvation Army, we checked there too. All of us were amazed at what we saw there. Three coffins! How crazy is that, they had caskets at the Salvation Army! We couldn't believe it. Luckily we were able to find Joey a nice white shirt there. Earlier that day we were joking around about the really expensive stores, including ones like Norstrom, and the shirt we got for Joey ended up being from there; we thought it was pretty funny. When we got back to the house, we just relaxed the rest of the day. I did a load of laundry and Joe worked on getting his bike derailer all fixed and put new chains on both of the bikes since they were due for new ones. I am getting really excited for the cruise since we have most of our clothes now. It will be nice to get to wear something different than the same 2 shirts, shorts and pair of sweat pants that we've been wearing for the past 5 months. I can't wait to wear my new dresses and get to be girly. We were so full from lunch that we didn't need dinner, so we just had a piece of that yummy chocolate cake! By the time it got to be dinner time, the sky had cleared and we could see the city, the inlet and Mt. McKinley! They were right, it was an incredible view. Dave, Joey and I took Jack and Daffne on a little walk. Jack was funny because I went to take a picture of him and he sat there very still and posed for the picture. I held up the camera again at a later time just to see what he would do and sure enough, he instantly posed for the camera again. I have never seen a dog do that. Jack is definitely a technology age dog because Dave said he likes his smart phone when he uses it for face time, too. It was fun to watch the view because it was always changing. As it got darker, the silhouette of Mt. Mckinley became more pronounced and the lights of the city below began to twinkle even brighter. Before bed, we watched a movie, and Joey let me pick, so you know it was a romantic comedy, my favorite. What a great day, we got a lot accomplished in preparation for the cruise and the continued journey afterwards.
Rain, rain, go away! There was a really bad rain/ wind storm last night and we woke up to rain, too. But, I would rather have rain today, on our 1 year anniversary than on this day last year. Joey was nice enough to get breakfast started, although that's always my job. On the way out of town, we stopped at a local coffee shop and treated Clay to a cup of coffee. We each got hot cocoa with whipped cream, and it was so good because they had frothed the hot chocolate; it reminded us of the frothed chocolate milk that Neil, our host in IL, made us. A frother is definitely on the list of things to add to the kitchen when we get home! There was free wi-fi at the coffee shop so I was able to use that for a little bit. Just for curiosity sake, I looked on the Finger Lakes Times website since Heather had called us a few days ago while we were in Denali. To my surprise, there we were, the top story on the website! I was so excited that the article was printed/published, TODAY!, on our 1 year anniversary! What an awesome coincidence! Joe called home, just in case his mom hadn't seen that it was published. I was so excited and couldn't wait to read it! It was raining when we got on the road and that continued on for pretty much the entire day. The bike path continued out of town for about 8 miles, but then we were forced to get on the only road, the Glenn Highway, which had by now turned into a double lane really busy road. It was not pleasant in the least bit to ride on. There was an adequate shoulder, but when the cars and trucks flew by, it was a little scary. We crossed a bridge over Knik River and rode for about 15 miles total before there was another road/ bike path that paralleled it. We were all so happy to get off that road. My ears were ringing, especially the left one, from the constant noise of the vehicles passing right next to us; I had the start of the headache, too. I had planned on getting some ear plugs when we start going down the west coast because I know there will be a lot of cars then, but I almost wish I had gotten them sooner, because they would have come in handy today. By the time we had gotten off that road, we were all really hungry and were hoping to find somewhere with an overhang where we would be dry. Sure enough, we stumbled upon a little church that had a covered porch. There was a car in the parking lot and the door was open, so Joey stuck his head in to see if someone was there. Sure enough, Pastor Tim was there and when Joey asked if we could sit under the overhang to make our lunch he gladly said yes. He was so interested in what we were doing and thought it was just amazing (I don't think he quite believed that we rode all the way from NY). Pastor Tim also offered for us to eat downstairs where there were tables and chairs! It was wonderful. We got our mac and cheese cooked out of the rain, and then we got to eat inside where it was warm, which was a real life saver because we were all freezing now that we had stopped riding, everything was wet which didn't help either. It was so great to get to relax inside for a little bit. Joe called home and his Mom read us the article! It is still really exciting to think that we were on the front page! The remaining 30 miles to Anchorage were just as wet as the first 20 we had ridden today. Luckily there was now a bike path so we were so thankful for that. We had a few climbs to do and even rode right by Richardson Army Base. As we made it into Anchorage, the bike path continued, but it was not easy to follow. We knew the general location we had to go to get to where we were staying (Mary Anne's ex-husband, Dave's house), but weren't sure which bike path would take us there. As we were saying our goodbyes to Clay, a cyclist stopped to see if we needed help with directions. He told us where to go and then we were off. After a little while the bike path we were on pretty much turned into a sidewalk and then just stopped. We didn't really know where to go from there, so we stopped at a gas station to look at a map and get a little further away from the traffic so we could think. While we were standing there, a guy who worked making donuts for the gas station was on break and began to talk to us. We learned that he was originally from Syracuse! What a funny thing; its funny that so many people who live in AK are from somewhere else, a lot of which are from NY. He gave us a bike path map of the city which helped a little and while we were standing there figuring out where we had to go, we decided to each get a donut to tide us over. We were so hungry by that time and we knew we had quite a ways to go to get to Dave's house. As we were riding on the paths, they were very confusing and we found that we kept having to stop and look at the map. We felt like we were going in circles, and just not getting anywhere. It was getting late and although the rain had stopped for a little bit, it looked like it was going to start again at any time. Eventually we made it to a park that was somewhat out of the main congestion of the city. At that point, we didn't know if we would make it all the way out to Dave's (we figured we had at least 10 miles left and a good portion of that was up, since he lived 1500 ft. about the main city). We thought about just camping at the park because there was a nice pavilion since it was already after 8. As we were sitting there deciding what to do, we met a couple nice people who invited us to camp in their back yard if we needed a place to stay. When Joey called Dave to let him know where we were and that we probably wouldn't make it there tonight, he said he would come get us. I was really happy because I was dreading riding up that hill, well side of a mountain, all day. It turned out to be a really good thing that he came to get us because it was further than we thought, and we definitely would have gotten lost trying to find their house in the maze of streets on the side of the mountain. When we got to the house, Lise had a wonderful dinner of spaghetti with homemade sauce, salad, and bread all ready! It was amazing, the perfect way to end our anniversary! Lise had even made a chocolate cake too!!! They took a couple pictures of us with our camera so we would have a couple from our anniversary. What a great evening. We had a lot of fun playing with their two dogs, Jack and Daffney, too. By the time we went to bed we were exhausted and so glad that we got to sleep in a bed. Despite the rain and cold, we had a wonderful day. We rode 52.18 miles today.
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