Valdez And The Kenai

June 30th to July 5th 2012

My computer crashed on Monday 9th, all my pics taken in Valdez and the Kenai are on that computer and no back up.  How many times have you heard always back up your computer.  To many to count. Hopefully it is just a small fix and everything will work out. 

Valdez was a wonderful little fishing village, surrounded by mountains and glaciers, a harbor for fishing boats and cruise ships.  You could spend a week here and not see or do everything.

Valdez has many major historic events, 1898 was the gold rush stampede.  In 1964 there was a earthquake that measured 9.2 and lasted 5 minutes.  The quake destroyed most of the town, which was then moved 4 miles to the harbor area.  In the 1970’s was the construction of the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline and Marine Terminal.  1989 the Exxon Valdez oil spill and clean-up. 

Valdez covers 274 square miles with a population of 4100.  The annual rain fall is 64 inches and the average snowfall is 325 inches, last year they had close to 600 inches.  That’s a lot of snow, and summer temps usually hover around 55 degrees.

I wish we could have spent more time to spend here but 3 days was pretty nice.

Our next stop the Kenai, Alaska, where we spent another 3 days over the 4th of July.  Kenai had a nice parade on the 4th.  It seemed pretty strange to see everyone in jackets, hats and mittens.  Drizzled a little, but in Alaska everything is rain or shine.  It seems to rain some everyday.  After the parade we went to the Elks Lodge for a BBQ.

You can take in a baseball game, Kenai is home to the Kenai Peninsula Oilers. It is one of 6 teams that make up the Alaska Baseball League. 

Kenai Peninsula is a very popular fishing area, when the salmon come in.  Lots of people waiting for the fishing to open. 

We left the Kenai and Steve and Sandy to pick up Mike’s sister Donna at the airport in Anchorage, she is spending a couple of weeks with us. We will head back to Kenai, meet up with Sandy and Steve and hopefully get some fishing in.