Tara’s Going Away Dinner

We got all packed up and ready to leave Seward the 5th, and as we were ready to go to the dump and water station saw that there were nine other vehicles in line.  That gave us the brilliant idea that we would just hit the road and take care of those chores at the Fred Meyer in Soldotna.  That was a wrong move as their parking lot was full of RV’s and other vehicles, and their dump station line was also long.  We continued on to Kenai and were able to dump without the waiting line at the gas station where we purchased propane on a prior visit.  After getting set up at the Moose lodge, we went to Walmart to pick up some groceries.  This homemade camper was sitting in the parking lot when we were ready to leave.

Since Tara was going to be catching a flight back to California where she lives, Gale was preparing her favorite dinner of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and creamed corn.  Gale did a fantastic job on the chicken and we enjoyed another great meal.

Tara and Nikki

Madeleine

Kimber and Ken

Tyler and his girlfriend Alisha.

Grant

Mount Marathon Race–Seward, Alaska–July 4, 2011

Some of these photos will probably be a little out of order as they happened today, but I’ll start with our reason for being here today.  Ian’s wife runs the Mount Marathon race in Seward every year.  It starts in the downtown area and goes about 1.5 miles up the mountain and then back to the downtown area.  We were here to cheer her on and she did great!  Here are a few photos of Jennifer starting out in the race as well as the first shot of the starting point.  She is in the navy shorts with white top.

 

And here’s a series of photos as she ended the race.

The first and second place runners in the race were Olympic runners according to the announcer.  They pretty much ran side by side the entire race.  Here's a series of photos of them running the race.

Following the race we found something to eat and watched the parade.  Gale had Grant sitting on his shoulders for a better view.

After seeing this, I vow never to try out for belly dancing (not that I ever even thought about it)

Jennifer is on the phone and Grant to the right and Summer furthest right.  The others in the photo are Jennifer’s friend Claire’s children.

Madeleine, Gale and Nikki.

After the race we went down to the marina where Gale and Kimber keep their boat.  Nikki and Grant crashed on the dock.

When Nikki found out Ken was taking her photo, she made a face.

We will be driving back to Kenai either tomorrow or Wednesday depending on how bad the traffic is here in town.  It already looks like many have exited, but there are still a lot to go.

Sailing in Seward

After lunch, we walked down to the marina where Kimber and Gale were getting ready to take their sailboat out into Resurrection Bay.

They are maneuvering out of the small boat harbor with their friend who is helping with setting up the sails.

As seen in the background, another cruise ship has arrived sometime during the early hours of the morning.

We walked around the harbor and saw some pretty impressive boats  (yachts?).  They appeared to be set up for charter fishing, but I think it would not be within our budget.

We spent a little too long in the harbor area, and when we got back to our RV to take a photo of Kimber and Gale out sailing they had taken down the sail to go back to the marina.

The cruise ship of the day leaves Seward.

As it gets closer to midnight, several boats are getting situated in the bay to watch the fireworks.

We planned to watch the fireworks from inside the warmth of the motorhome, and as it turned out, they were being shot off directly to the left of us and we had another RV blocking much of the view.  We sat in the front seats and were still able to enjoy the display although I didn’t get very good photos.

There were many people along the beach watching the display of fireworks.  As you can see, it isn’t very dark here at midnight.

The 4th of July has officially started and we’re anxious to see how Jennifer does in the Mount Marathon race.

Family & Fish in Seward

We’re still in Seward and spending time with family.  Kimber came over to our RV for coffee this morning and the three of us went out to lunch.  After eating, we returned to Kimber’s sailboat for a tour.  Kimber is sitting in the galley area and she and Grant are looking out the back door.

Grant is posing in front of the bed in the front of the boat.

Madeleine is re-bandaging her finger.  She’s recovering from an injury due to slamming her finger in her car door.

The family dog is Edgar (I prefer to call him Ed-grrrr) is sitting on the bed.

We walked around the downtown area doing some shopping.  Madeleine is in her element as she can probably shop until she drops.

As we walked back toward the dock, we saw this catch of fish…pretty impressive!

Ken took this photo of a black bear and cubs up on Marathon Mountain.

We went out to the campsite where the kids were camping this evening to enjoy the campfire and visit.  Here’s Kimber’s husband Gale.

And I get a big hug from Grant.

From left to right:  Kimber, Alesha and Tyler.

Tara with here cousin Jack in the background to the left.

This is Gale and Kimber’s oldest son Troy.

A Laid Back Day in Seward

We woke this morning to find that two cruise ships had arrived in Seward.  It was a quiet day for us.  We did get the RV ready to travel the short distance across the street to the dump and water station.  When we got back to our site, Ken did some work on the satellite dish and the weather that had been nice earlier today started to go downhill and got colder and windier, and eventually turned to rain.  This evening the first cruise ship backed out of the harbor, completed it’s pivot and was on it’s way.

A barge pulled into the port loaded with several freight containers as well as a couple of trucks, a boat, and a trailer.

The rain continued as the second cruise ship left the harbor.

Our niece and family should be arriving in Seward later this evening so we plan on seeing them tomorrow.  That’s it until tomorrow.