Cousin Geoff and Carol's Visit

June was a big month as my cousin Geoff and his wife Carol came to stay with us. They live in New Zealand and we had not seen them for 30 years. They were on a tour of Alaska and Canada, and their itinerary included South-East Alaska with us, a rail/land trip to Fairbanks and back, and a cruise from Skagway to Vancouver. They were then going to tour British Columbia in a borrowed RV before flying home at the end of July.

During our trip to Homer, Seward, and Girdwood, we had a great time looking at the sights and the highlight was a nature cruise along Resurrection Bay from Seward. It gets its name because the Russians arrived on Good Friday.

This picture shows us alongside the Kenai River, where we rented a couple of rooms in a lodge. We were out for a walk after a 2 hour drive from Anchorage to stretch our legs. It was 10pm when we took this shot.


Our visit to Homer was superb, with beautiful scenery and huge fish.

This one took a lot of work to land but Geoff is an expert fisherman.

This boat trip was marvellous and the wildlife were queuing up to show off to the onlookers. These were stellar sealions basking on the rocks. The more important you are in the sealion pecking order, the higher you can go up the rocks.

Finally we went via cable car to the top of Mt Alyeska where we had a scenic lunch in the skiers cafe and watched as people were still snow-boarding in the middle of June.


We hope to return the compliment by spending some time in New Zealand in the near future. For the moment, we are having a rest until our next guests arrive in a weeks time.

Alan & Sylvia