So what do you do after running 26 miles?  The very next morning you go to Country Kitchen for a rejuvenating breakfast and then load up the car and hit the road for a scenic four-hour drive to Kenai.  When we were first planning the trip I had read all of these wonderful things about Kenai and so we planned on staying here a night and enjoying the relaxing atmosphere.  Little did I know that what I was researching was the Kenai River area that extends for quite some time and not the city of Kenai.  I was expecting wilderness and woods and what we found was a pretty big city.  I say pretty big, but I mean by Alaska standards.  Fortunately we found a nice set of cottages overlooking the mouth of the Kenai River from atop the cliffs.  Unfortunately, according to the cottage owner, in about two weeks the mouth of the river would be crawling with salmon boats bringing in their catch from the day to the canneries.

The view from the cottage.

Regardless of missed expectations, the view was nice and very relaxing and gave us many photograph opportunities including a walk on the beach:

The walk on the beach revealed what was quickly forming as a clique of marathon runners and those that aren’t.  Mike and I were never allowed to walk near them or join in their marathon games.

But alas, after much harassment they eventually gave in and let us take our pictures with the stars that they are.

I discovered my new obsession of watching and taking photos of boats, it’s just a shame that we missed the performance of the salmon boats returning their bounty.

I also developed an obsession of taking pictures of various objects.

The stroll though the old Russian orthodox area was also in store.  Who knew these marathon ladies would be so interested in walking so much the day after running 26+ miles.

And finally after a relaxing drive, a relaxing walk, we chose to relax that evening with a few local beverages while grilling some reindeer sausage.  When Mike and I had our fishing trip we stopped off for dinner on our way back and I had my first taste of reindeer sausage.  It was so good, despite the over abundance of mustard, we tried to recreate that experience ourselves and in the store all we could find was “sausage with reindeer meat”.  Based on the taste I can only assume it was the same thing and I wish I could find it here in Texas.  Mike enjoyed it so much that he decided to turn the leftovers into beanie weanies.  This is where Mike also entertained us with his incredible joke about the difference between reindeer and caribou…”The reindeer is domesticated.”  Ok, it wasn’t really a joke, but after a few beers and some Sarah Palin arguments for some reason he decided to relay the fact to us in the form of a joke.

Waiting for the grill to heat up.

Are you ready to “get ya some” sausage with reindeer meat?

The clique actually let us eat with them.

And finally, Mike and his beanie weanies.

In the end, a slow relaxing day did us some good in preparation for what would be a somewhat action packed trip ahead of us, including Bears, Halibut Fishing, Whales, Seals, Kayaking, and the list goes on.  More on all of that to come in future posts.