Cooper's Landing, Alaska: This Place Is For The Birds

Our trip to the Alaska Sealife Center in Seward, Alaska yesterday showcased only a few of the birds that live in Alaska for at least a part of the year. There are major flyways in Alaska that birds use to migrate between the summer nesting rookeries and the winter nesting grounds. Millions of birds migrate into Alaska.

We spent the day in camp getting ready for Scott, Christopher & Rachael to arrive on Saturday. Lots to do on our end. Mary Lynn and I have become pretty adept at living in our RV full-time; it fits us like a glove.

That glove however is tailor-made for two people in our RV. I have always said our RV 'fits' six for drinks, four for dinner and sleeps two. That's been a pretty good rule for us so far. When we invited our sons and daughter-in-law to join us in Alaska for a week we had planned on renting a cabin for them to use.

Come to find out, cabins are pretty scarce here in Alaska. Unlike their counterparts in the lower 48, most campgrounds do not rent cabins. The few cabins that are available are oriented to (and already rented by) fishermen. Many fish camps have a few cabins and allow fishermen to park their own RV's at the fish camp.

Alaska campgrounds are already a no frills version of campgrounds in the lower 48. For a place that has as much land as Alaska has, the campground spaces are downright small. Usually just long enough for the RV and very narrow so that by the time you extend your slides you can literally touch the RV next to you.

In addition, many campgrounds do not have hook-ups. Even basics like electricity and water are rare. With five of us staying in the RV we definitely need to have hook-ups.

That said, we have found a great campground attached to one of the Princess Hotels in Coopers Landing. Princess has five lodges in Alaska that are offered to their cruise passengers as excursions. In fact, the lobby of the lodge has an excursions desk where you can book additional activities here in Alaska. Reminded me of the cruises we have taken in the past. Except for the dog sledding and glaciers hikes which are pretty rare on the cruises we've taken to the Bahamas, the Caribbean and Mexico.

Tomorrow we head into Anchorage to get everything stocked and ready to go. Anchorage and Fairbanks are like just about any other large town/small city in the lower 48: plenty of Walmarts, Costco's Sam's Club, grocery stores and malls to meet your needs. As soon as you get out of Anchorage or Fairbanks the shopping options change dramatically. Small general stores are the rule, and they over flow with tons of the typical tourist offerings.

Every gift remotely associated with Alaska or anything that has enough of a flat surface to be engraved with the word ALASKA is available. T-shirts of course plus the ubiquitous ULU knife (handy type of knife with a rounded blade used by native Alaskans), hand made knives, many featuring antler handles, lots of carved ivory, carved wood, carved bones, carved antlers (you get the idea that carving is popular and the winters are long), hand made dolls, furs, fur coats, fur hats, fur gloves, fur scarves, fur earmuffs, clothing made from animal skins (political correctness is very much a lower 48 construct) along with the usual assortment of tourist offerings.

The places to get food, gas, and groceries are few and far between so you need to plan accordingly. It's not a big deal during the summer however it's obvious you need to very careful and thoughtful about items that most of us take for granted if you live outside Anchorage, Fairbanks, or Juneau. Making sure you have adequate food, shelter, fuel for home/vehicles, etc. during Alaskan winters is serious business.

God, it's beautiful here. Even with the haze from the wildfire's smoke, the beauty of the lakes and mountains hits you every time you step outside or round another bend.

See Ya!