Alaska! Volume 2

Friends don't use friends as bear bait

Hi friends,

We’ve spent the last week or so on the Kenai Peninsula, a mountainous and rainforested stretch of land in the Gulf of Alaska.

Our first day in the area was in Seward. We found some amazing fish and chips, got a coffee, and did some exploring. We’ve decided we really love Seward; it’s just the right amount of weird. Can’t beat the scenery either.

Seward is positioned just north of Kenai Fjords National Park, a gigantic stretch of wilderness mostly comprised of ice and photogenic coastlines. We booked a boat tour to see what was what. Turns out there’s lots of wildlife! We saw sea otters, seals, sea lions, orcas, humpback whales, and ten thousand different species of bird.

(I don’t have any long lenses - just 28mm and 50mm primes - so you have to zoom in a bit to see the wildlife in these pictures. More photos here as well.)

Similar to our kayak tour, the weather was a giant bummer. But it made for some great photos! We floated right on up to the face of the Holgate Glacier, which is the only glacier in the entire park that isn’t shrinking.

The crew of the boat did some “traditional Alaskan ice fishing” - they stuck a net in the water and grabbed a couple of chunks of ice - and used it to make Glacier ice margaritas. They taste exactly like every other margarita on the planet.

We spent the next day driving on down to Homer. More specifically, the Homer spit. It’s 1000% a tourist trap and we had a great time getting pizza, seeing the shops, and hitting the Salty Dawg Saloon. The saloon - a dark, dank affair - is known the world over for thousands of one dollar bills tacked all over every available surface. It was packed and we ended up sharing a table…with a group from Arkansas! Casey was able to yuck it up with them about the homeland.

Homer was a great way to cap off a great week. We spent another rainy night on the peninsula, made some strong coffee, and headed north. We’re currently in Fairbanks doing some prep work for the Dalton Highway, which will take us up to the very top of Alaska. Hold on to yer butts; should be a good time.

See y’all out there!