Author: Trella Hemmerly Haldeman Romine

Monday, July 10, 1989
Lazy morning breakfast at Sweeney’s old Alaska restaurant- eggs, good fried potatoes and toast $3.50- too much food. Stopped by a field of wildflowers- butter and eggs, daisies, fireweed, Siberian aster, Lupine and grasses. Picked a bouquet and Bob dug white spruce for me and two for them. Back home watered plants, packed lunches and left about 2:15 for Seward. Our last trip up Turnagain Arm. One of the world’s most beautiful drives. Fireweed has come out since last week and goats beard and cow parsnips seeding.
3:30 p.m. Have rounded head of Turnagain Bay and heading up into mountains. Grand highway with passing zones on up side. White Spruce forests merge into emerald green mountain meadows which give way to rocks with snow and dotting crevasses.
3:35 p.m. 1000 ft in 5 minutes Turnagain Pass- sweep of mountain to right shades of green no trees.
3:45 p.m. Climbing again along East Fork Creek. didn’t notice these curves with Kathi driving!
3:48 p.m. Road to Hope- Seward 55. RVs on road with satellite dishes
4:00 p.m. End Avalanche area
4:01 p.m. Seward 46. 70 mph along Summit lake, cross Sparking Creeks, Fresno, Colorado, Quartz
4:09 p.m. Seward Road new road at delightful Tern Lake (Seward 37)
Mountains closer can see clefts in rock.
4:24 p.m. Kenai Lake 24 miles 80 mph around 2 cars. (Seward 20)
Surrounded by mountain- lakes snow covered and hanging glaciers
4:34 Alaska RR along road.
4:44 p.m. Seward Air Force Recreation base. Motel here $25 for four people. mobile homes. mileage 31863
5:15 p.m. Driving around Seward. stopped at Harbor Master’s office to trade Kenai Fjords voucher for tickets for tomorrow’s holiday boat trip.
Motel adequate. TV and tub shower. Ice cream cones- two Scoops three dips 98 cents! drive 9 miles up gravel road – u-shaped glacial Valley of Resurrection Creek to Exit Glacier.
7:39 p.m. Kathi and Bob took high road and Mary and I low road to face of glacier. Ice fell off. Terminal Moraine facing us. Braided river.
8:10 p.m. leaving. Road goes through Sitka Spruce forest. Huge trucks and tall glimpses of barren rock, sharp peaks and ribbons and snow cascading down sides.
8:31 p.m. La Baren in woods.
10:00 p.m. Lowell Point- houses, gulls, fisherman, earthquake damage
10:30 p.m. pair Cassini’s Anklls diving, swimming underwater and reappear
10:35 p.m. Back into Seward
11:00 p.m. Gas 6.8 gallons $9.26. $1.359 per gallon. Air Force Motel 11:03

Sunday, July 9, 1989
Felt much better- fuzzy headiness gone. helped Kathi get ready for picnic cleaning deck and chairs, carrots, celery, jacama. Delightful group at 6:00- about 30. Some neighbors, some FAA and air controllers, some oil engineers, monopolized by Bob Fritz and his obsession with cameras. Trip to Chords with Marlene to see Pat’s Garden among Birch trees. listened to Von Cawvey account of bear encounters on float trips Beyond Susitna Mt. Even with name tags it was difficult to keep track of who belonged to who. Francis stayed until midnight when I pulled Grandpa Sheneman’s “I’ll go to bed so you can go home.”

Saturday, July 8, 1989
Sunny temperature 65 could see Mount McKinley.
Lazy day- needed it. I feel like a zombie. Slept until 10:00 when Kathi woke me. Bath and hair wash and breakfast. Kathi went to Elmendorf commissary to shop for picnic tomorrow. I finished digging chickweed out of flower beds and fertilized some plants. Washed door and windows. After lunch Kathi took me to Lamont to shop for Hagar slacks while she got fixings for the halibut Van Cawbby gave us. Got black slacks $30 size 20 average. Short too short- average too long. Helped with supper by preparing fish to bake. Kathi pinned up slacks for me and then we took Chuckles and Arthur (Kennedy’s Basset Hound) for a walk. Bob watched movies.

Friday, July 7, 1989
[No entry]

Thursday, July 6, 1989
Ron, Don, Jim, Bob, Vivian, Bill, Ron, Lucille, Ray.
Glaciers, Homer, spit, Coal Point.
Homer, Alaska
Up at 9:00 breakfast Lands End. Walk on shingled beach- black rocks, boardwalk. Gas up. Purchasing hematite necklace, windsock. 3 months of year to make living- Eagles along beach. Blackwells, Gull Island 20 ft shopping Boardwalk black beads $47
11:40 a.m. Clayton Road pictures. Blackwell up E Hill Road to Skyline Drive 1000 ft Ridge.
12:27 p.m. Sterling Highway and Diamond Ridge Road 390 168 miles Baycrest Motel
in Homer 394 Ocean Shores
12:38 p.m. Kathi checking for Antrims. Pratt Museum oil spill display, seabird display. Quilt raffle
1:41 p.m. Sourdough Express 396-spinach croissant.
2:35 p.m. 31400 Anchorage 220 MI
Baycrest Motel office nice view from rooms $75 two double beds
4:18 p.m. Wildflower field edge of cliff, lupine. Deep Creek 436
3:37 p.m. solid RVs along Beach. Kalifornski Beach Road overlook Union Carbide fishing snares boats 477.
4:35 p.m. Cook Inlet overlook.
5:00 p.m. leaving Kenai.
5:17 p.m. Junction Sterling at Soldotna- Anchorage 147
6:08 p.m. Russian River Campground.
2 mi off Sterling highway picnic supper leaving 6:33 p.m. no people! Bear sign pictures above Russian River sign- Timber sign
7:16 p.m. Tern Lake Campground. Junction Seward Highway 90 miles to Anchorage
7:50 p.m. Canyon Creek Bridge near Hope turnoff.
8:07 p.m. pictures Portage Glacier mile A58 Turnagain Pass last pictures show TA.
9:10 p.m. 663 Homer

Wednesday, July 5, 1989
to Homer. Misting rain 50s
Bath, breakfast, packing. Moose cow and two calves along freeway on way to Costco to drop off film. Bought Twix, $9.50 film $16 slide film $16.
11:45 a.m. on Seward Highway S. Temperature 57 can’t see across mileage 31107.
12:30 p.m. Girdwood- clouds lifting- views of plumy flowers, mimulus and ferns. Fjord like views. Spruce budworm damage.
12:40 p.m. End of Turnagain Arm. Swinging back west after crossing marsh and tsunami area. Can see our road across end of arm.
12:44 p.m. Headed Inland- poppies orange and yellow.
12:50 p.m. Turnagain Pass (160). Homer is 160 miles. Blue skies.
1:00 p.m. Road to Hope (173). Pictures.
1:14 p.m. Sunny- sharp ridges- green mountains! Cirques. Sharp edges.
1:24 p.m. Summit Lake Avalanche area
1:30 p.m. Junction to Homer 132 miles. Fern Lake gorgeous.
1:40 p.m. Kenai Lake in aqua. Kathi pictures.
Lunch Quartz Creek Recreation Area. Junco, Lupine seeds
Leaving 2:15
2:30 p.m. Cooper Creek Campground not attractive on left- right it’s along Kenai River.
2:50 p.m. Vivarin forest & Black Spruce area, lupines carpet roadside clearing. Lupine stop 3:03 to 3:20. Moose River Combat Fishing. Pictures
3:37 p.m. Soldotna Visitor Center. Back to Chris’s Soldatna Travel. Prudhoe Bay trip- one day $1,400.
leaving 4:15
4:43 p.m. View Cook Inlet to Mt. Redoubt- Ileamna- in the fog layers. Sled dog puppies for sale.
4:54 p.m. Ninilechu- view of Deep Creek Recreation Area at beach- fields of cow parsnip.
5:11 p.m. Anchor Point furthest west road in U.S..
5:27 p.m. pictures Cotton Grass- view across Cook Inlet.
5:42 p.m. Homer
Trip back fantastic. came close to Gull Island covered with birds cormorants, Kitty wakes, murrens, gulls and puffins. Puffins in water all around us. When an eagle flew over island, thousands of birds took off. Seals on rocks. All this from about 9:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. trying to shoot pictures. Kathi standing outside with video and no way to hang on. I hung on holding inside rafter- waves over the cabin, but sea not really rough. Jill said it was perfect weather. The dark stairway was much steeper to climb than when we went down to boat. Glad for cleats on it. Don and Jill invited us to their house out East End road, turned up the hill. Glorious view, huge mowed yard, fenced for dogs. Impressive. Showed us salmon in their freezer. Back to Land’s End about 12:30. still light of course. Land’s End Resort covers end of spit. All rooms facing Kachemak Bay and mountains across $100 for suite. Met Jill and Don Blackwell at omer.. hear about 6:30. across Bay to halibut Cove in their 20-foot boat. both so pleasant. dinner at the salty unusual and done insisted on paying. walked around Logan Lagoon and met in habitants. Trillium zone.

Tuesday, July 4, 1989
Cloudy in Anchorage but Kathi took us up Arctic Valley Highway to ski area- above clouds and gorgeous blue sky. 2000’ and treeless. Took hikes two ways. First one I came back down on my bottom. Second one under ski lift was easy- lots of ground squirrels, dwarf dogwood, anemones, heather, wild geranium, oxytrope, wild spirea. About 2 hours up there. Paused at Mirror Lake, popular spot. Then to ER leetna- Indian village converted to Russian Orthodox ‘Spirit houses over graves’. Rigatoni supper at home. then over to Charlotte Pierson’s beautiful house. Such a bubbly person. Showed and told of her 5 years in Saudi Arabia. Jim is an oil safety engineer. low 47 High 62.

Monday, July 3, 1989
Slept till 10:00 and had leisurely breakfast and bath while rest of family took Ernie Gilbert to brunch. Wrote cards to Hutchmans, Howard, Herb Gary, Haldeman’s, Don Shuster. First relaxing time since arriving 11 days ago. Instead of getting back at 12:00 Kathi said they would come in at 3:00- been to Elmendorf with Ernie- for 3 hours? Visited Marlene- air controller husband from Reno.
Lazed the rest of the day. Ernie played Bob’s slot machine. Took Chuckles for a walk. Kathi took Ernie to the Zoo and got back after 7:00. Bob barbecued pork loin. Read papers – big news in Nimitz visit and oil spill and a salmon jumping into a boat with a Japanese visitors.

Sunday, July 2, 1989
82° Sunny- record high for Anchorage.
Left house by 8:00 so Bob could come home from work and go to bed with no distractions. Breakfast at Tony’s, then to Coastal Trail in Earthquake Park to get first glimpse of USS carrier Nimitz anchored offshore for 4-day visit. Then to Kincaid Park WWII bunkers on Campbell Point. Huge natural park with many trails and bike path. Cross-country skiing here in winter. Stopped at Fred Meyers for coloring pencils while Kathi had car washed and cleaned. Then to Costco to leave films- about 15 rolls between us and I still have my seven rolls slides. Home about 2:30 and Bob had gone to pick up petty officer Ernie Gilbert from the Nimitz. Asked us to meet them at the air control tower where Bob works. Nice kid from Visalia, California with wife in Bremerton, Washington. Married last August! Stopped at home to pick up jackets and headed out Seward Highway for Portage Glacier. Again a beautiful drive- Dall Sheep much higher up mountain today. Area around what was town of Portage wiped out by tsunami following 1964 earthquake. Many glaciers among the Chugach Mountains here. Portage receding rapidly, leaving a lake full of icebergs. Spectacular site. Visitor’s Center closed on us at 7:00. Ate at a German deli at Alpine Village. Terrible service and food but all the good restaurants had long waits. Drove back.

Saturday, July 1, 1989
Gorgeous sunny day- temperature about 72 windy at Beluga Point but very pleasant.
Slept until 10:00 helped Kathi garden- fertilized all ground annuals and the wildflower seedlings. Kathi mowed lawn again. At 2 dashed out to Beluga Point on Turnagain Arm to see the boreal tide come in at 2:30- 1 hour after low tide at Anchorage. Ate lunch while watching- could see a trough but not spectacular. But about a mile further the flock of Dall Sheep had the cars stopped. Rams on very top and vertical cliff ewes and lambs clustered on an outcrop. More on the sheer faces of the further cliffs. Counted over 20 and shot that many slides! Including one showing the sheep watchers. Back home by 4:00 just before Bob arrived. Helped Kathi with dinner. Mary fell off bottom step into garage and bruised her left shoulder- so painful for her. Had Kathy Kennedy over for dinner. Beef and noodles, broccoli, salad, rhubarb, and ice cream and cookies. Then to give Bob peace and quiet we headed down to Potter’s Marsh. Arctic Terns, geese, mallards, pintails. but biggest thrill was 3 20 lb king salmon at the culvert outlet. Return there for spawning. Were surrounded by smaller fish identified as fry by some and as trout by others. Met friend Laura and Tom on boardwalk and talked to lots of people. Left there about 10:00 and drove up to area where Kathi looked at houses. Lori said they saw an Eagle’s nest. Mary and I photographed dwarf fireweed at 11:00 p.m. Popcorn bed at 12:25.