7/22: An Anchorage Morning and Kenai Afternoon

Thursday July 22, on to the Kenai: We walked around downtown Anchorage in the morning, looking for the usual tourist souvenirs. It’s a pleasant place to wander and poke around in stores. The ocean is close, as are the snow capped mountains.

South and west of Anchorage is the Kenai Peninsula, famous for its glaciers, fishing and wildlife. We drove just a couple of hours along the Turnagain Arm. This is a long finger of ocean, or fjord, off of the huge Cook Inlet. The tide was way out, and mud flats stretched as far as we could see. Inland and up in altitude a bit, we camped at a pretty spot called Bertha Creek, selecting a site with a tumbling water fall in view and towering mountain slopes all around.

After visiting the outhouse, I came out to the sound of a violin playing a Bach minuet from the Suzuki violin book #1. It’s a very familiar tune around our house and I figured that Jenny and Fei had gotten out the violins. Instead, next to the Kaser’s campsite, a woman was sitting on her picnic table, playing the tune from heart. Cool! She came over to chat after she heard the girls start to play. Turns out, she was en route from Homer to Wasilla, for a weekend with friends and had just stopped for a break. She had felt self-conscious about playing her violin, but she was in the right neighborhood! Jenny, Fei, Barb and I all played a bunch that evening. It was so fun!