Ninilchik, Alaska

Ninilchik is a Russian Settlement about half way down the Kenai Peninsula, equidistant between Soldotna and Homer.  "A quaint little drinking village with a fishing problem".  Beck and I, along with friends Ron and Inge M. flew out of Seattle to Anchorage in June for a week or so of fishing and exploring.  A bucket list item for Ron and I.   It is incredible to think that, after months of planning, and careful cramming / packing suitcases that I would forget to pack my blankety blank CAMERA - now isn't it!  Well... leave it to me.  So the pics included in this post are from Inge's (who unlike me didn't forget) camera and or borrowed / cell phone gems, and from a guy we met along the way, David Berman (Kenai Fjords pics) - Thanks David.

There is a sign, posted at a pullout on the road to the Ninilchik Spit, which greets visitors in Russian, the original language of the village, and English.  The sign says it all: 

"Privet (Greetings). My name is Ninilchik Village. I was settled around the turn of the 19th century by creoles, Russians, Aleuts, and Indians. The names of my earlier children were Kvasnikoff, Oskolkoff, Kompkoff, and Astrogin. They were retired hunters and trappers that wanted to find a homeland of their own. Some of their great grandchildren still reside here to this day. My Russian Orthodox Church, on the hill, was built in the early 20th century. My river, and Cook Inlet are best known for their fish. My beaches are known for their clams. I ask that you please respect my people, their heritage, their culture, their property, and my river and beaches. Spasebo (Thank you)." 

Following are three pictures taken from Ninilichik Village - I don't know why they are so fuzzzy...

Becky told me that there was one grave that had a bag of "Skittles" propped up against the marker.  

AFISHUNT (e-ffici-ent get it get it?) CHARTERS are the folks in Ninilchik that provided us the two Cook's Inlet Halibut Charter trips and the two Kasilof River King Salmon Drift Boat trips that we took. They also operate a RV Park and have fully furnished Park Model RV's that we rented.  Sorry - no pics so just picture a couple log cabins on the Western Slope of a National Forest and that's where we stayed.  Well OK, I definitely exaggerated there but what do you know!  It's my blog so I'll lie as often as I want. 

The picture above is not from one of our Halibut trips but we had similar results.  Or if you prefer, that's me on the left, Ron on the right and we caught ALL of the Halibut..  Actually the state has a 2 fish per day limit.  AFISHUNT also cleaned, vacuum packed, flash froze, and shipped our fish to us in the lower 48 a few days after we left.

What trip to Alaska would be complete without a picture of an eagle.  In this case, Becky caught the female in the nest and the male flying off to get supper for Mom and the eaglets.

You can expect the weather on the Kenai in Alaska in June to be rather wet.  In the ten days we were there, the ONLY rainy day was that day we had chartered a bush pilot for a two hour flight seeing tour of the three volcanoes on the Kenai - I remember Mt Redoubt as one of them.  We had to scub the flight and didn't have time to reschedule.  But, along with Eagles, you can't leave Alaska without snapping a picture of a float plane or two.  Becky did a great job getting this one.

Probably the nicest (weather and sightseeing) day we had was the day we drove over to Seward and boarded a Kenai Fjords Sightseeing Ship for a 10 hour trip in the Fjords.  I will definitely have to get some pictures another passenger shared with us because the scenery was breathtaking and way beyond any words I could come up with.  We saw something like three different types of whales, all manner of birds and other aquatic life.  The day was picture perfect.... and me without my camera but again, thanks to David Berman, here are a few shots from his  Picasa Album.  Click the magic Clicky if you want to see many more pics of the Fjords.

Given the opportunity to revisit and redo that trip - I'll raise my hand!  Hopefully these pics will not be fuzzy once I publish - if the Fjords cruise pictures are not clear, just go to Davids Picasa Album by clicking the clicky above.