Kenai Peninsula part 1

The last days we didn't achieve much. We visited Pauli's host family and met old friends. All this is quite bewildering, to be here after such a long time.

This morning we visited the school. It hasn't changed one bit (Svenja, your running results are still on the wall). After that we head to the Russian River Falls with Dale. It's about an hour drive from Nikiski. We took the bikes with us and biked a couple of miles to the falls. The red salmon is swimming up the river right now to lay their eggs. There were thousands of them in the river, so much in fact that it was difficult to find a place where there was no fish swimming. The biking was fun, riding up and down the hills. A new experience for Nipi "IwasbornintheflatterthantflatnorthernGermany" Weber.

All day we were hoping to hook up with some bears. Pauli has never seen a real bear in the wild really close. Unfortunately, they were hanging around somewhere else. Some people we met told us that they had just seen some bears but we somehow missed them.

On our way back we went to Skilak Lake which is one of the most beautiful sights we've seen here so far. The water was turquoise and the lake looked like something from a fairytale.

Now we're very tired and have to go sleep. Tomorrow we will get ready for a canoe trip down the Swanson River. We also might go flying. maybe saunaing, maybe four wheel driving... who knows what tomorrow will bring.

for some pictures see here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/nina.kristina.weber/MostlyRussianRiverFallsAndSkilakLake