Sun, June 22

This is Ila writing tonight. We were unable to add to our blog for two nights because the motel wireless simply would not let us on the internet. But Phyllis typed it into Word and we were able to drop it in tonight. We DID mention it this morning when we checked out along with the fact that when we called about the room, they said it was ground level but failed to mention there was 7 steps to get to that "ground" level and the water was brown. They said it had been tested and was safe but we DID NOT drink it. This motel was in Kenai. Tonight we are in Palmer. We kind of retraced some of our previous route but we had to do that in order to get here. It was raining this morning (as it was yesterday morning). It took it longer to clear up today than it did yesterday. (Phyllis probably mentioned that in her writing yesterday.) We had breakfast this morning at a bakery/breakfast place called "Moose on the Loose!" Then we located the Church of Nazarene in Soldotna and attended their church service. There were probably 50-75 people there. There were no children in the service so we don't really know how many there were. We stopped in Cooper's Landing at Gwins for a bite of lunch. We tried to be "smart" and just had soup. It was one busy place. I think all the Sunday people were out doing their fishing, sight seeing, etc. The roads were quite busy too. Coming into this place, we saw several people lining the river stream doing fly fishing. We visited with a young man who said he had been fishing for halibut. It is a busy fishing time. When I get pictures loaded, you will see one that we took yesterday of a fisherman unloading his catch at a cannery. We took a little 15-mile side trip to Hope. It was a beautiful scenic drive. The road was lined on both sides with trees, a stream run along not far from the road and on the other side and ahead was gorgeous mountains. All along the road, there was a lumber project and they were harvesting some of the dead trees. Along the Seward highway, we saw mountains with slopes of snow. It was like they were striped among the green grass and trees. The tops of the mountains were shrouded in clouds. In some cases, there were clouds in the middle of the mountain and clouds at the top. It made them look even more beautiful. In many places along the road, there was water gushing along little gullies down the mountains and others, it was like it was coming out of the rocks. It made for a beautiful drive. After arriving here in Palmer, we had supper at the Noisy Goose restaurant. I "think" maybe before we get home, we may get the eating thing down but the portions they serve are SO HUGE! Well, I've rambled enough and will add some pictures. Some of you are wondering about the size of the animals. If you double click on the picture that is posted, it will resize and make it much larger and it will fill your whole computer screen. At least I think it will -- it does for me.