Alaska -- Day 71

The last few days, I have gotten out of bed and looked in the mirror and asked myself, "When did my mother get such a good tan?" Oops, that's not my mother, it's me. So, how did I get so old? With a morning like I had today, it is easy. Even though we had the RV to the shop twice in Anchorage because of the noises the slide was making, it still isn't sounding good.

Today, we decided to call Lippert, the company that makes the slides. Once I was on hold for customer service for 5 minutes. Later, I was on hold for 25 minutes. They offer to call you back, I pushed 1 for yes. They did call back. But we have both been having trouble answering our phones. Mine has a touch screen and keeps locking. In trying to unlock, I disconnect. With John's phone, a flip phone, when I open it to answer, somehow I disconnect. The only reason I sat on hold for 25 minutes was that I had twice disconnected the call-back. So, it wasn't Lippert's fault. It was my stupidity or clumsiness. My frustration was with me. That is the frustration that adds the most age and wrinkles.

Thankfuly, that experience didn't mean the whole day was bad. I packed our lunch and we drove to the south end of Seward to hike at Caine's Head State Park. As we drove there, we saw a fog bank on Resurrection Bay.



We passed a couple of small waterfalls.



We hiked through an incredibly beautiful rain forest. Many tree branches were covered with soft green moss and the leaves on some of the plants in the understory were huge.





Our hike took us from Lowell Point to Tonsina Point and crossed the Tonsina River. We could see fish in the crystal clear water, probably salmon going upstream to spawn. Fishing for salmon is not allowed here. In the second photo, you can see a whole line of salmon swimming.





We heard screaming overhead. When we looked up, we saw two bald eagles talking to each other. I got a good picture of one of them.



Within 20 minutes, we stopped and talked to two different couples with ties to Colorado. One couple used to live in Fort Collins and Bouder and the man was one of three generations of his family to graduate from the University of Colorado. I am, too. My mother, I and our son, Eric, all have degrees from CU. A little further on, we encountered a couple who live in Colorado Springs. What a small world.

This was our view while we sat on a log to eat lunch.



It is very difficult to be frustrated or depressed in such incredible beauty. We had a great afternoon. It's all a matter of what your perspective is.