Peninsula Trip

After a few days of relaxing in Anchorage, it was time to hit the road. Vince's mom was excited to see Soldotna (where I grew up) and we were excited to surprise her with her birthday present: a bear-viewing trip! The weather was beautiful on the morning we set out, so our plan was looking good!

We made it to town and headed down Funny River Road

to the small airport to find our crew at Natron Air...

One of our destinations: Silver Salmon Creek

(note the tips on bear safety!!)

Vince lookin' good in his headphones :)

Pat got the pleasure of being in the co-pilot's seat- pretty cool!!

Off we went...

Beautiful

After a few scans, our pilot spotted a bear and touched

down on the beach so we could get a closer look… Not only

were his landing skills impressive (he made it look easy!), but we 

actually got a lot closer to this guy than this picture; he just moved

too fast for me to get a close-up (and he stuck to the tall grass

after he saw us… pretty amazing experience though :D

We headed back to the sky and were blessed with 

a few more bear-spottings- sweet!

Next up: a little more sight-seeing… this is Mount Iliamna

Some gorgeous glacier-fed lakes

Wow! My first close-up of Mount Redoubt. I grew up

seeing it on a daily basis from across the inlet in Soldotna, 

so it was awesome to see it up close! Not to mention the

fact that we got to see steam coming from the top!! 

Amazing glacier shots! Our pilot really gave us a treat. With our

trip complete, we spent some time driving around my home town

so I could show Pat where I grew up (and to let our stomachs settle!).

We hit up GNC and Kaladi Brothers (the local coffee shop) for a little

boost and then headed out to our next destination: Homer

SO happy the weather was amazing! I got a great pic of Vince

and his mom at the overlook near Homer before we headed into town

We checked into our hotel, walked around a bit, and

went to the restaurant at Land's End for dinner

Excellent view from our seats near the porch! It was

great watching the action in the bay. Between the kids, the

birds, and several sea otters, we had an very entertaining meal.

Our next stop: the infamous Salty Dawg Saloon. For my

non-Alaskan readers, this is a true Alaskan institution. You can't visit

Homer without a trip here or it's just wrong!! It has the best Bloody Marys

in the state, and the interior (and the patrons) are always fun to check out ;)

Pat got to leave her mark on one of the walls- which are covered

with signed dollar bills from all the guests. Great ending to a great day!