Travels with Bill Henderson in Alaska

What a great time we had visiting with Bill when he flew up to Alaska! He flew into Anchorage and toured around for a day or 2 until we arrived. Saturday morning, we all went to the Anchorage Market. It's a street market with food and goods including lots of Alaska made items. And of course, tshirts etc. We had our favorite salmon quesadillas, Bill added reindeer to his. And did a bit of shopping. Then we were off to Homer. We spent a couple of days at Homer, good eating at some of our favorite places, Cap'n Patty's and also the Sourdough Bakery & Deli. And for adventure, we took a small "ferry" boat, the Danny J, across Kachemak Bay to Halibut Cove. Mostly we just ate lunch & looked around a bit at this small isolated community. But the excitement started on the way back. Most seating is outside and unfortunately we were sitting on the bow. And the weather and wind changed. We were swamped with sea water spray over and over again! At least they had plastic panchos for us! This was unexpected, but we all seemed to make it through with perseverance & good humor.
Another thing we enjoyed doing at Homer was driving around in the evening moose-looking. We saw several, including a mom & baby. When we left Homer, we turned at Anchor Point and went to a small community out in the back country of Russian folks. A community of "True Believers." Looked around. Had an unexpected traditional Russian lunch at Nina's Samovar Cafe. On the road later, we were able to see some of the volcanos along the Alaska chain, Iliama, and Redoubt. We drove on to Palmer, where we spent the night.
Next morning, we went to the Matanuska Glacier area, where we had really good views of the glacier as it comes for miles down out of the mountains, and you can see for miles where it goes back up into the mountains. Also, we stopped at Sheep Mountain Lodge, but were not able to see sheep this time. We went on to Wasilla, where we went by the Iritarod Headquarters, where the race really starts in Feb.
And then to Talkeetna for a couple of days. We enjoyed the food and the atmosphere at the Roadhouse. Poked around a bit. Went on a JetBoat trip on three of the braided rivere that come out of the glaciers nearby. Talkeetna, Susitna, and Chulitna Rivers.
And on to Denali National Park...