Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church, built in 1895, is a National Historic Landmark. The oldest Orthodox church on mainland Alaska, it still holds regular services.
The associated Russian Gift Shop is staffed by two Athabascan Women. When the Russians came to Alaska, they converted many native people to the Russian Orthodox Religion. When we asked about the Old Believers on the Kenai Peninsula, they told us that over the years they had had periodic schisms and there were now four distinct groups.
The shop had surprisingly beautiful (non-touristy) things. Matryoshka Dolls (also called Babushka Dolls) were prominently featured. Each one is a set of wooden nesting dolls decreasing in size and placed one inside the other. We had to laugh at the two on the top shelf (Putin and Obama).
Nearby St. Nicholas Memorial Chapel was built in 1906 on the burial site of Father Igumen Nicolai, the first resident priest, and other church workers.
Right next to St. Nicholas' Chapel, and within walking distance of where we camped, we found Veronica's Coffee Shop and had cups of coffee and hot chocolate. Note the beautiful 'mackerel sky.'
Veronica's is housed in a building that was made from hand-hewn logs in 1918 by Farmer John Oskolkof. In 1945 it became the Dolchok home. It is one of Kenai's few remaining buildings to illustrate both the early community building era and Kenaitze subsistence.
The church was the reason we decided to visit the city of Kenai. That and Linda's need to leave no stone unturned. We were vaguely aware that fishing was important to the area and was going on at the time. We were soon to learn how important.
"The Kenai River is to salmon fishing what the Klondike was to gold."
Kenai RV Park was where we stayed. Because it was the dipnet fishing season, we paid $42/night, after a military discount. It was pleasant with grassy sites and clean washrooms. The owners were quite friendly and helpful. They even ran an espresso stand on-site.
It had a very neat - and clean - fish cleaning station.
The other RV park, which was on the bluff and packed 'em close together. AND was even more expensive!
On the bluff. Cloudy sky early in the morning. Very close quarters.
At the other RV park you could buy 8 small sticks of firewood for $5.00. Neither private park is a necessity, however, with numerous public campgrounds in the area.
Our next-door neighbor gearing up for dipnetting VERY EARLY in the morning.
His sons putting on gear. They did not get up as early as Dad.
We watched the boys geared and carrying the cooler down to the water at the end of the street. So we decided to go see what was happening and why Dip Net Fishing is so popular in Kenai.
Our RV park is on the left edge of this photo about a third of the way up.
We walked to Erik Hansen Scout Park and looked down at the inlet. What a sight. Lots of people on the beach and in the water dip netting. We walked back to the camper, Carole got her camera and Linda went off to photograph whatever struck her fancy while Carole went all the way down to the beach on a long path.
Walk down to the beach.
After the long path there is a bridge that goes over a small stream and leads to the beach.
There were people camping on the beach and with stations set up to process the fish they caught.
People were in the water up to their waist with their dip nets. That's Mt. Redoubt (a volcano) in the background. You have to have been an Alaska Resident for a year to fish with a dip net. The gulls created a cacophony of sound as they waited for the fish entrails to be thrown into the water. There was a lot of excitement in the air. It was like being on the Balloon Fiesta Field in Albuquerque as the 600-700 balloons launched. Noise, excitement, activity and an anticipatory atmosphere.
Three different sizes of dip nets.
Empty net coming in. Looks heavy.
Man gutting fish and gulls waiting.
Feeding frenzy.
Not sure what these two were talking about but they kept going around in circles and yelling. Very loud pair.
Back at our RV park, we watched our neighbor cut up the fish he had caught. He was well prepared with his own Seal-A-Meal, fillet knife, and a freezer in the back of the truck. He told us he was leaving the next day, because on the week-end there are a lot of 'jerks' in the water dip netting and crowding out other people.
The abundance of natural resources has made Kenai one of the oldest continually inhabited European settlements in Alaska. A recent effort to attract more tourism has resulted in an excellent visitor's center/museum. A city of 7100 people, it's not much to look at but has stunning views across Cook Inlet of two active volcanoes, Mt Redoubt and Mt Iliamna in the Lake Clark National Park along the Aleutian Range. It exists primarily to support the drilling operations of Cook Inlet. North of town is Alaska's largest concentration of oil infrastructure outside Prudhoe Bay. The town of Nikiski was homesteaded in the 1940's. After discovery of oil in 1957, it is home to several refineries and tanker docks.
At the end of the Kenai Spur Road is the 3,500 acre Captain Cook State Recreation Area - unaffected by the stampede for salmon to the south. Its Discovery Campground is peaceful place to camp. The views are spectacular.
We packed our lunch and sat and watched a friend of Katie and Dancer. These little red squirrels seem to be all over Alaska.
On our way back down the island we stopped at Kassik's Kenai Brew Stop to sample some beers. The owner explained the different beers they made. Kassick's Kenai Brew Stop
List of their beers.
Display of their t-shirts. Carole did not like the provocative names, but the beers were good.
We decided that a 'Pig' was just too big for us, so we purchased a few bottles and headed back home to our camper to have veggie burgers and beer for dinner. Yum. Later, Linda bought more of their brews every chance she had. Sadly, it's one of several breweries we liked that doesn't distribute in the Lower 48.
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