Day 43 - Thursday 7/30/2026 - Seward to Hidden Lake Campground near Cooper Landing

Today we said a sad goodbye to Seward's beauty 

in our dirty ER150

and made our way north to the Sterling Highway, then west toward Homer.  We drove about 70 miles, but it took us most of the day 😄.

We had stopped in downtown Seward before leaving since it was a beautiful sunny day and we topped off our water at the Mariner's Memorial

and grab a bite to eat.  We went to Supaluck's Bakery

and had turkey and cheese bread and carrot cake - Yum!!  Then we headed back to the True Value Hardware - or The Fish House - and picked up a new CO2 monitor since ours in ER150 stopped working a couple of days ago.  Mike got a cool t-shirt too with their logo on it.

The drive north from Seward was beautiful.  We stopped to look at some ducks on a pond filled with lily pads, and admired the beautiful wildflowers and scenery. 

 

Here's a shot of a beautiful female Gadwall that was flitting around the lily pads (very hidden).

We also stopped at the Sterling Highway turnoff at Tern Lake and Tern Creek.  The views from the turnoff were breathtaking,

 

and in the lake we saw a momma Trumpeter Swan with a young one

 

and a few Common Loons off in the distance.  At Tern Creek we watched several Mallards playing and feeding in the water,

 

and saw a momma Common Merganser with a whole bunch of almost-grown babies!  They were so cute! 

 

We could see a few salmon in the water,

 

but there was a "No Salmon Fishing" sign. This area is part of the Chugach National Forest.

We continued on and stopped at Three Bears in Cooper Landing for some diesel and a couple of grocery items, then headed down the Lower Skilak Lake Road

to look for a place to stay tonight.  We stopped in at Hidden Lake Campground

  

and found a spot, so we are going to stay here for two nights and explore the area from here.  There was a lot of traffic today since the sockeye salmon are running now (later than normal).  This place is beautiful and peaceful and will make a nice home base for a couple of days.

We are in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.  Tomorrow we will go on a short hike then find a place to fish!

No dinner tonight, we are too full from carrot cake.🥕

Today's journey: 

Days 41/42 - Tuesday and Wednesday 7/28-29/2026 - Down Time Days, Seward

Tuesday and Wednesday turned into down time for both of us and the kitties.  Nothing serious, but sometimes you just have to take a breath and do some recovering.

Both kitties weren't feeling the best from all the driving and needed lots of attention.  In addition, Mike and I both have some sore joints and muscles and needed some healing rest.  Mike did some maintenance work on ER150, and together we did some reorganizing and cleaning.  Down time is good, and we remind ourselves that life isn't a sprint, but a marathon, and you have to remember to stop and smell the roses - or fireweed and lupine in our case. 🎕

Dinner on Tuesday was pizza with homemade toppings baked in ER150's built-in microwave / convection oven.  Yummy.

We continue to enjoy our outstanding free camp spot:

Tomorrow we will head north and then west toward Kenai.  We are seeing reports that the sockeye salmon run has kicked in, so we might try our luck at catching a few! 

Day 40 - Monday 7/27/2026 - Seabird Tour from Seward

Today we got up bright and early again and found our way to the vessel for today's venture, the M/V KIMU, with Alaska Seabird Charters.  

Our captain was John Maniscalco, and there was a mom and her son and daughter on board as well.  Nathan, who chose this trip as his high school graduation gift, was an avid birder and well-equipped with binoculars and cameras to capture the experience.  Shout out to Nathan for all the birds he found and for his enthusiasm!  Huge thanks to John for being an excellent guide and finding the birds we wanted to see!  He made what could have been a gray day into a GREAT one!!

We left the harbor at Resurrection Bay in Seward at 8am.  It was cloudy and cool, but not raining yet when we left.  We had good visibility for most of the day.

Our voyage took us out to and around Chiswell Islands, which are part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, and into Aialik Bay.  What an amazing day!  We were windblown and furiously taking pictures (difficult from a moving boat!).

We saw stunning scenery,

and you can't really see them in these next few photos but on the cliffs like this there were thousands of nesting birds.

We saw the Aialik glacier, 

lots of birds feeding,

harbor porpoise, Dall's porpoise, Stellar sea lions, sea otters,

and harbor seals. Our bird list included several birds we've never seen before, including the red faced cormorant,

 

red-necked phalarope,

thick-billed murre,

and marbled murrelets.  Very exciting! We got to ring the bell on the boat for every new "life bird" we saw!

We also saw horned puffins, tufted puffins,

pigeon guillemots, pelagic cormorants, common murres,

bald eagles, double-crested cormorants, glaucous winged gulls, arctic terns, parakeet auklets,

rhino auklets, black oystercatchers, black-legged kittiwakes (with babies!)

Kittlitz's murrelets,

and harlequin ducks.  Wow!

 

One last note, we thought we might have seen a fin whale during our journey.  John explained by the look of the narrow and tall spout(s) we saw (four of them) that it was most likely a fin whale but we can't confirm it... 

We departed and then headed back to our same free camp spot, which is turning out to be our favorite one so far. 

We crashed, tired from attempting to keep our balance all day while spotting wildlife, and fighting the sleepiness from taking Dramamine again.  Another wonderful day!

Today's journey: