On July 3, we headed over to Soldotna to get the fish vacuum packed and frozen.  We also stopped to give our fishing guide Mark Glassmaker a call.  Mark invited us to his new house for a pleasant visit along the banks of the Kenai River.  We were able to meet his wife Cindy and their very friendly pups.  We decided not to go clam digging, but instead take an exploratory drive out to the Swanson River.  After arriving at the Swanson, we discovered that Greg was a mosquito magnet.  Our one night stay at the Swanson was rather uneventful, except we did build a fire and hung out around the campfire to talk and listen to the birds in the twilight of midnight.  We didn't fish long here because there were several people fishing the river at the only access point.  One angler offered us the 4 trout he had caught, so we gratefully accepted them and cooked them up for dinner.  I must say they were very good eating.

On the following morning, we headed back to Soldotna because Crysal and I were scheduled to go fishing for king salmon in the Kenai with Mark Glassmaker on the morning of July 5.  After stopping at a place to do laundry and take a hot shower, we headed back into Soldotna to give Greg some relief from the mosquito invasion.  We camped that night at Centennial Campground.  This was the only night during our entire vacation that we saw the moon.  Here is a picture of the moon that I took with the new digital camera.
 

The kids enjoyed the campfire that we made at this location.  The view of the Kenai was beautiful.
 

And the plants were unusual.  Here are some purple pine cones.
 

These were beautiful even at a distance.
 

Thanks to Mark, the best part of our vacation was yet to come.
 

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