Nikiski

One day in July The Fisherman had a rare half day off. He'd heard there was good fishing from the beach in Nikiski so he went up there. He had a nice peaceful day on the beach hearing the Inlet's waves and smelling the salty air. I can't even remember if he caught anything but he had a very pleasant day in the midst of an otherwise tumultuously busy fishing season. 

And he brought me home a rock.

But not just any rock.

This is The Perfect Skipping Stone. It is flat and perfectly round. I mean, PERFECTLY round. I even traced around it in my journal and, yep, it's just perfectly round. No question about it.

Don't believe me?

Nikiski isn't really a quaint little community. It's an industrial community. The industry is oil.

I like to make note of street names that are cute, funny or quaint. I've included some of them from an earlier trip to Alaska in this post. 

Nikiski has Chevron Rd. and Tesoro Rd. 

Oil company names. Charming, eh? I had to laugh.

Nikiski may not have much charm as a town but it does have a very nice new friend of mine. She's a homeschooling photographer mom who sells some of her work at the shop where I'm working this summer.

I found my way to the beach which is just past some sort of oil related business in a junkyard looking port along the Cook Inlet.  But since I love rust, I had a picture taking blast!

When I found this chain, I was enthralled. I love the big heavy links.

It was located on a huge tire sitting on the boat ramp.

It takes up such a small portion of the tire that getting a perspective is kind of hard. So I put my foot up on the tire to show just how big this thing was. The links of the chain were about 2.5 inches or more long.

And then I found some more rusted chain hanging around.

And some rusted cable.

And some delicate fireweed blossoms in a nice contrast.

And some not so rusted chain. These links were even bigger than the rusted ones.

Kind of a chain smile.

A chain frown.

Or maybe more of a grimace.

But Nikiski isn't all rust and metal. Of course it's surrounded by beautiful Alaska wilderness. My Nikiski beach combing day gave me a beautiful blue sky and the peaceful lull of water lapping the shore. I found a bunch of cool rocks and even an agate or two on this beach.

And I had the company of a bald eagle the whole time. How cool is that?