City Park – Wandering Dawgs

After several months at home taking care of doctor’s appointments and chores we are finally on the road again for our much anticipated spring road trip!

I am calling this the Lonesome Dove Cattle Trail, Gulf Coast, Cajun Country, Whooping Crane, Bluebonnet and Brisket Tour. Can you guess where we will be going?

Our first stop was Sherling Lake City Park, a wonderful city park just a few miles from I-65 in Greenville, Alabama. For $25 we had a full hookup, paved pull through site with a nice little deck. There was even WiFi at the site!

After setting up camp we took a short hike on the walking trail along the lake. Spanish moss draped trees surround the lake. Campers can fish without a permit.

Taking a walk beside the lake at Sherling Lake Park

It’s great to get out and walk after a day of driving

Sunset at Sherling Lake

Sherling Lake

Early morning at Sherling Lake

Campers can fish without a permit

Sherling Lake

As we traveled from Georgia to Alabama we entered the Central Time Zone the weekend we were supposed to spring forward an hour for Daylight Savings Time. So on Saturday we were on Central Time an hour behind Eastern and on Sunday we had to spring forward an hour for Daylight Savings Time and were back to the same time as we were before we left home. We didn’t have to change our clocks at all!

Our Alaskan Journey continued in Seward, Alaska where we spent three nights in the Seward Waterfront Park.

Day 63: Wednesday, July 17, 2013. Palmer to Seward, Alaska. Seward Waterfront Park, Resurrection Campground Site R5. 132 miles traveled.

Our drive took us through downtown Anchorage and then south along the Seward Highway. There were spectacular views of Turnagain Arm and mountains most of the way.

Turnagain Arm at low tide

Turnagain Arm south of Anchorage

Henry and Blondie enjoying the view

Gorgeous scenery every where we went

Resurrection Campground City of Seward Waterfront Park

Small boat harbor in Seward, Alaska

We arrived in Seward and searched the city campgrounds for a waterfront site but had no luck so we picked a site in the fourth row from the water and then took a walk to the small boat harbor to check things out.

Day 64: Thursday, July 18, 2013.

A van picked us up at 9:45 and drove us to the harbor for our 7 1/2 hour sightseeing cruise on the Spirit of Adventure with Major Marine Tours. Our trip took us through parts of Kenai Fjords National Park and there was a park ranger on board to tell us information about the wildlife and glaciers we were seeing. We had comfortable seats inside a cabin where we stored our gear and then went outside to see the sights. As we traveled through Resurrection Bay we could see our RV when we cruised by the campground. There were sea otters in the water and we stopped to watch a mother and calf humpback whale.

Our campground from the water – we’re in the middle on the back row

The buildings on the top of this rock are bunkers from WWII

We saw sea otters all day

Sea otters enjoying the day

So relaxed

Humpback Whale

There were Puffins in the water

The cruise continued thorough Ailiak Bay to the Holgate Glacier for a close view of the half mile wide Holgate Glacier and Surprise Glacier. Captain Nicole turned off the engines so we could listen for the sound of ice breaking loose from the glacier before falling into the sea. When the ice breaks loose and falls it is called calving. We heard and watched about four or five calvings before moving on to the next glacier.

Henry and Beth at Holgate Glacier

Holgate Glacier

Surprise Glacier

Ice fallen from the glacier floated all around us

Our next stop was at the mile wide Ailiak Glacier where we witnessed more spectacular calvings. There was complete silence on the boat as we waited for the roar of ice. We were fortunate to see several more chunks of ice fall into the water including what our captain said was one of the biggest ones she has ever seen. Take a look at the next sequence of pictures to get an idea of what the ice falling looks like.

Seeing ice calving on Aialik Glacier on the Kenai Fjords trip from Seward

Hearing and seeing the ice fall was simply amazing. I could have sat there all day but the cruise continued as we traveled through the Chiswell Islands and saw more humpback whales, puffins, and other wildlife. Captain Nicole got us back to the dock right on time at 5:30. What a great day.

It was our anniversary so we drove about four miles out of town to the Salmon Bake restaurant for a Salmon dinner to celebrate. I just can’t get enough of this salmon!

Day 65: Friday, July 19, 2013

After a day at sea, some of it being in very rough waters, we were both sore and exhausted. I think 2 months of travel and sightseeing tours finally caught up with us. We both slept late and took it easy all day. We took a last drive around Seward in the afternoon.