Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

08/08/08 - 08/16/08

We spent five days on the Kenai Pennisula. We took the ferry from Valdez to Whittier. We then drove to Seward and spent two days there. We then drove to Homer and spent two days there.

On the first day, we took the ferry from Valdez to Whittier. Would you believe that 85% of the population of Whittier lives in one high rise building built by the military during World War II? The city offices, public library, etc. are also in that same building. After a quick (very quick) tour of town, we drove through the 2 1/4 mile Whittier Tunnel. This tunnel is only one lane wide and they switch the traffic direction every half hour. During the night, the tunnel is closed to traffic and it's used for trains. The first photo of in the gallery pretty much shows you what the weather was like for our stay in Valdez. The photo of the oil tanker was taken pretty close to where the Exxon Valdez ran aground.

The next two days we spent in Seward. The campground we stayed at for the two nights we were there was basically a big gravel parking lot with a couple hundred RVs parked in it. But it was right on the water of Resurrection Bay. We did some fishing from shore and caught a couple of king salmon.

We then drove to Homer and spent two nights there. On our second day there, Dave, Curtis, and I went out into Kachemak Bay on a halibut fishing trip. We caught about two dozen halibut ranging in weight from around 10 pounds to around 30 pounds. We also caught a couple of sharks.

Snow-Covered Coastal Mountain
Steve Winker