Day 83; July 19 - Day at the Beach

I got up yesterday morning and played on the computer for a little bit and then went back to bed.  I got back up around 8am.  I was tired.  This is the Bear Creek Campground on the outskirts of Valdez.  Lady was nice and let us have a site that our door opened out to the grass and woods.  Don't ask me what the driver was drinking when he parked?

We drove downtown and walked along the harbor.  This was for the small boats.  Cloudy and rainy this morning.  Chaney and Calvin called this morning.  Chaney couldn't believe it when I said I had to wash dishes.  "In Alaska?"--Yes, we have the camper.  "You took the camper to Alaska?"  I don't think they can figure this out.  Also, she reminded me that when we get home she has plans for Avri to come to my house so we can have a tea party on the deck.  She also thinks Avri needs to go to the state fair too.  Can I handle that?  Probably?

 Can you tell that art work catches my eye?

 Because the wildlife has been scarce in Alaska, we drove around the house to catch this little black bunny on the run!

 Went to Safeway/Carrs and picked up some distilled water for my C-Pat machine and shoe laces for the driver's tenny runners.  I even by-passed the doughnuts.  Although I'm waiting for the driver to go get me some now!  When I saw the price of a eight-pack of Diet Pepsi--$8.99, I mumbled under my breath  "Holy Moly"!  The man in front of me turned around and said "Madam, what did you call me?"  Got to talking and found out he was from Texas and working here.  He advised that if you have heart problems to not go shopping in Valdez.  He drives up to Anchorage and stocks up monthly.  He then told us where to go bear watching.  Nice man.  On the way to the bear watching/fish hatchery we got pretty close to the oil refinery.

 Can you believe that the dark area in the water is fish, fish and more fish?  Waiting to lay their eggs and die!  On the way to the bear watching episode, Rob called to see where we were and what we were doing.  My lucky day!

 We left and came back at 4:03pm because the Ice Cream lady in the pink truck told me tide was to peak at 5:03pm and that is when the bear and activity would start.  I went home and decided I'd better have another nap.  Deb, Daddy, and Ruthie called me on Skype from the VA.  Good to see them.

 The picture of the bay at full tide.

 OK, we learned real quickly that when the tide comes in, action starts.  We got to see otter, sea lions, bald eagles......The black heads in the water are sea lions.  The white is sea gulls eating the scrapes that the sea lions leave.

 Three sea lions resting.  They were pigs.  They ate fish for a solid 4-5 hours.

 Pretty soon I started wondering if they knew people were watching and they would come up and look around and show off some more.

 Was three, now four, we missed the picture of five heads up at the same time.  Now the eagles started demanding our attention.  See the little white headed bird in the center tree?  I should have bought a camera with a stronger zoom.  I thought 10x should do it--wrong again!

 I caught this one in flight.  (Center of picture!)

 We waited until 9:30pm and finally decided the dang bears knew I was waiting for them.  Several of us that had been there for hours were giving up and leaving too.  Guess what we saw on the way home?  Two pretty little black cubs.  One on each side of the road!

So, today was a really good day for wild life.  We are driving north today to view some glaciers.  I think tonight around sundown, we will go back to the fish hatchery.  That was fun and it was relaxing.  Loved it!