Alaska 2008

Pardon my being repetitious, but it was another gray overcast morning. Just the same, it was the clearest view we had of the mountains across Kachemak Bay.

We decided to check out the town of Ninilchik, about 40 miles north of Homer. Ninilchik was founded in the 1840s as a Russian fishing community. When the U.S. bought Alaska in 1867, most of the Russian families stayed. The original settlement was on the shores of the Ninilchik River. The historic Russian Orthodox Church on the hill was built in 1900. When we got to Ninilchik, it was raining lightly. However, we managed to see the church, the "old town" and the beach before the rain became heavier.

We had planned to visit some other towns between Ninilchik and Homer, but the rains changed our mind. Susie decided that since the day is wasted otherwise, she would do the laundry. I decided to do some minor repairs in the trailer. Every time I have to some work on this trailer I want to have the guy who designed it with me... I would probably wring his/her neck. It seems that whoever designed this trailer (and other RVs) may not have spent any time in one. For example, last year, when the water pump broke, it should have been an easy task to open the compartment housing the pump, pulling the old pump out and installing the new one. However, the panel I had to remove was installed before the cabinet was built in front of it. One of the screws holding the panel was covered by one of the frame members of the cabinet and I had to damage the panel to get it out without removing the screw. Today should have been an even simpler job, but it was not. I was trying to repair one of the window blinds. It is attached to a valance which, in turn, is attached to the wall by two L brackets. The brackets are secured to the wall by two screws that are impossible to reach without some special tools. One screw attaches the valance to the bracket. To get to the screws, you have to be a contortionist with the hands of a child... it took me 45 minutes to complete a five minute job.

While I was doing my repairs, the weather got a little wild. We had a number of rain squalls come through and more are expected through the night. During one of these squalls, the wind was blowing hard so that whitecaps formed on the bay and the trailer was shaking. At this point we don't care if it rains. We only hope that the weather here and on the Katmai Peninsula gets better so that our bear watching trip is not cancelled. The people at Bald Mountain Air, which run the excursion, told us that they only cancel 2-3 trips per month. We hope they had their quota for the month because this is a trip we are really looking forward to.

"Old" Ninilchik with the Russian Orthodox Church on the hill