July 1-5 Ninilchik

July 1  Time to move on toward Homer but first we'll stop for 4 nights in Ninilchik.  The first day is always a time for settling in so not much else gets done.

The Russian influence here is obvious - especially in the churches.
Old Kenai



Little Russian Orthadox church on the hill above Ninilchik beach.



We ate at this little restaurant - Old Kenai.
It was a busy place at lunchtime.



July 2  Today we're going to have a new experience.  It's drizzling but that doesn't stop us.  The beach here is one of the prime clamming beaches and in order for it to be great the low tide level has to be -2 or lower.  We hit it just right so off we go.

 

There are hundreds of people here - like 700-800.



Gary Digging

We got 47 clams - not great but we were novices.

 

 We tried different methods and finally found one that worked. Then we had to go home and learn to clean them so we watched a video on the computer.  Roger got about the same amount so we had dinner together - yum, yum.  You need about 4 clams per person to make a meal.

Roger



July 3  We thought we had it made today.  Wrong.  We were both so tired and sore we didn't go at it quite so enthusiastically.  They seemed to be much deeper today than yesterday.  Roger rented what they call a "can" to dig for them and he had pretty good luck.

Jane was a spotter and took most of these pictures.
You find the clams by looking for "dimples" in the sand.



The Buxton method and Roger with his "can" in hand.
He did much better than we did today.

The tide comes in very quickly here so you have to keep watch. You have 2-3 hours to dig.

July 4 - Today we drove to Anchor Point, the most westerly highway point in the U.S.   

When we drove by the entry to this road they were preparing for a parade.  I swear this was the shortest parade I've ever seen but the road was lined with people camping and having a good time.

There, you've pretty much seen the parade. It lasted 10 minutes.

As we drove down the road people were waving at us so we pretended we were the parade LOL.

We had lunch and a beer at this restaurant.

July 5 - Now we're driving to Homer.  It's only about 35 miles.   There is absolute beauty everywhere.

We settled in at the Oceanview RV Park.  The park slopes from front to back so nearly everyone had a view of the bay and it was a very short, easy walk to the beach.  Gloria was there to greet us.

Gloria at Ocean View RV