On July 17th we drove 76 miles to Soldotna. We parked at the Diamond M Ranch RV Park, halfway between Soldotna and Kenai on Kalifornski Beach Road. It turned out to be an excellent choice.
Our first stop in Soldotna was "The Moose Is Loose,' a bakery recommended by my good friend Wayne. He had also recommended "Two Sisters Bakery" in Homer. They serve outstanding apple fritters. There goes our diet!
This sign in front of The Moose is Loose reflects their great sense of humor.
The next day we visited the Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church in Kenai. The original church was built in 1846 by a Russian monk, Father Nicholai. The current church was built fifty years later.
Religious Icons housed in the church were moved to Kenai's Visitor Center for the summer while the church is undergoing reconstruction. The walls in the church are starting to bow out and need to be reinforced.
This is one of the most attractive Russian Orthodox Churches on the Kenai Peninsula.
Near the church is the St. Nicholas Chapel, built in 1906 as a memorial to Father Nicholai. The Chapel was built on top of Father Nichcholai's grave.
In addition to commercial fishing and fishing with a rod and reel, Alaskans fish with a dipnet. Called the great Alaskan equalizer, only Alaskans are allowed to use a dipnet.
With a net a maximum of five feet wide, the fisherman (or woman) wades into the surf and holds the net sideways until they feel a fish swimming into the net. Then they twist the net, trapping the fish.
The head of household is allowed to catch a maximum of twenty five fish plus ten per each family member "in sight". You grab your net and wade out into the surf, and wait for a tug.
The whole family heads for the beach during mid-summer's dipnetting season.
The objective is to help Alaskans to fill their freezers with fish for the long winter. 30,000 dipnetting permits were issued last year to fishermen who caught 339,993 sockeye salmon.
Some family members have something other than fishing in mind when they go to the beach. This young lad got sucked into the mud.
His friend pulled him out and suggested he stay away from the mud.
Whoops. Here he goes again.
"
"I can get out by myself! I know I can..."
His family caught a fish. His job is to give the fish a good wack so it doesn't get away! And stay out of the mud.
While at the Diamond M we worked with an rv repairman on our electrical system. We lost power in some of our outlets way back in Anchorage on July 3rd. The only RV repairman we could find on the Kenai lived in Soldotna, so we waited until we got to Soldotna to get it worked on. Ten hours later...problem solved. One of the wires leading to a breaker switch had a slit in it. It probably happened when the rig was manufactured in 2007. It took 27,000 miles of bouncing around to short out.
With our electrical problem fixed, on July 22nd we headed for Cooper Landing.
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