The "Morning Mountain" report July 20 9:10 AM

                 Valdez          Wilmington
Sunrise    4:47 AM          6:14 AM
Sunset    10:47 PM          8:21 PM    (yesterday's sunset time must have been a misprint or our days are
                   54℉                  84℉                  getting longer again!)

By early evening Murphy (the splenectomy dog from yesterday) was awake and fairly coherent. Jeff gave him a fair amount of painkillers, so he seemed comfortable. This morning he ate a little canned food. Depending on how he does today, he may go home this evening.

After checking on Murphy we walked across the street to The Elk's Club - our Friday night hangout. Along the was one of many, many flower pots lining the streets. Maybe because their winters are so long, every house, every business and every corner has great flowers. Oh, another follow-up - I talked to Dan who lives in "the earthquake house". His parents were not in the house during the earthquake.

Parked in front of the club

Love his hair and beard.

After dinner we drove out to Dayville Road to see if the salmon have started running. It's the road to the salmon hatchery and to Alyeska pipeline terminal. The fish are in - pinks first - as are the sea lions. All the ripples on the surface are salmon.

The scenery in the area is spectacular.

As we were leaving, we saw a few people stopped at the side of the road with cameras - a sure sign of bears, eagles or sea lions. It was the mama bear and her quadruplets! These little guys were born in the spring of 2012. Bear cubs usually stay with their moms for two years. It is amazing that all four have survived this long. Apparently they had been fishing and Mom said it was time to go home. The  'kids', however, had different ideas. One of the other spectators said they were probably still hungry and wanted to stay where there were fish. Mom was full and ready for bed. 

#1

#2

#3

#4

By then quite a crowd was watching - maybe intimidating the babies. 

There are always a few jerks who have to drive up close and gun their engines. Meanwhile the Safety Officer was yelling at the photographers to "Give her space!" It looks like I'm close, but I have a long lens on my camera.

Mom would cross the street,

look back at the kids.

Return.

Cross the street,

look back at the kids and return.

 I think she's giving them "the look"!

Here's a short video - unfortunately I don't have a video of the first three finally crossing the road - only the last little one. It's choppy in places - I had to edit out a lot of standing around and waiting!