Still no pics (we took over 2200 - this is what happens when you have a digital, 1.5 M of mem, and a film cam with about a dozen rolls - good luck sorting through all the dreck!) to put online. But, here 'tis more writing.
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Saturday 6/18 – back to Anchorage
Saturday provided us with perfect weather again – for traveling. We all
relished our ability to wake up at our leisure and not take down a tent or
hurry to catch a plane or bus. It rained for much of the trip back to
Anchorage and Mark and I realized that "traffic" in Alaska refers to a
build-up of more than 5 cars on the highway behind an RV. You can become
mighty frustrated when you are forced to drive at only 55 or 60 mph for an
extended period of time, when normally the road is wide open. Along the way
we saw a "gorilla" dancing on top of a van at a fireworks stand on the side
of the road. This sight immediately made me appreciate my high school and
college jobs, none of which required wearing an animal suit and boogey-ing
for 8 hours in the pouring rain. Of course, we photographed the gorilla.
Back in Anchorage we hit a couple more tourist shops to buy gifts for the
people we realized we'd forgotten. Here's another nice thing about most of
Alaska – no sales tax. In fact residents do not even pay state income tax.
However, in a few towns – such as Seward – there is a city sales tax so if
you are buying souvenirs Anchorage is a good place to stock up, as local
competition keeps the prices reasonable and – hey! – no tax. We also went to
a local outdoor market which, to me, was almost exactly the same as any
other outdoor market anywhere in the USA. We walked by the booths and booths
of fried or blended foods, beads, photographs, paintings, tie-dyed clothes,
carved wood whatevers, leather and ivory trinkets, dream- catchers, jade,
azurite, malachite and hematite paperweight and jewelry displays (azurite
and/or malachite are referred to as `Alaskan opal,' hematite is referred to
as Alaska's `black diamond'), fleece outer-ware, holiday ornaments, and
creative noisemakers without buying anything. In the evening we went to one
of Anchorage's nicer restaurants (delicious), then saw Captain Cook's
statue. The sky over Sleeping Lady mountain was behaving in a manner
resembling `sunset,' which meant it was colorful and slightly hazy, although
of course it did not ever get very dark. Shockingly, Mark and I did not take
any pictures, as our cameras were both back at Kerry and Ben's apartment. We
finished the night by paying another visit to the martini bar, where some
locals were celebrating their completion of the "Mayor's Midnight Marathon,"
an annual event coinciding with the city's celebrating the summer solstice.
Sunday, 6/19 – Seward
Sunday morning Mark and I got up at the crack of . . . well, at the
continuation of "dawn" (which had begun around 3:00 am or so) to drive to
Seward for an 8 ½ hour whale-watching cruise. We had been told the drive
from Anchorage to Seward was unforgettable, and this was true. It was a
misty, foggy morning with the sun trying to burn through the clouds, adding
to the beauty of the coastline along the Kenai Peninsula. The green hills
along Turnagain arm (yes, it's a winding road) poked through the white
patchy fog and looked almost like something out of a storybook. We were
anxious to reach Seward by 10:00 am so we could not stop for pictures, but I
took as many as I could through the car windows.
At Seward we were warned of choppy seas, which we later decided was a ploy
to increase the sale of Dramamine and other medications as the water was
actually relatively calm, considering we were on the ocean. Shortly after
leaving we were excited to see sea otters, which are adorable and, we soon
realized, about as common as squirrels. We thought our Labrador, Martini,
would enjoy life as a sea otter – just floating on her back, eagerly looking
around her to check out the world. We also saw stellar sea lions (I don't
know why they are called `stellar' – maybe because they sun bathe?), sea
birds including puffins and cormorants, and – whales!
Shortly after we crossed from the calmer bay waters into the open ocean, our
captain informed us we were approaching an area rich in salmon, and that we
should keep our eyes open for creatures looking to feast on the fish. Just then
Mark gasped and said he thought he had just seen whale-spray. The captain
must have seen it too - he shut off the boat engine (a rule around Alaskan
wildlife on land or sea is to be as quiet as is possible, as though you weren't
even there) and casually mentioned on the intercom he thought he had spotted
something in front of us - something that was not there for the salmon. After
rushing to the front of the boat and eagerly looking over the water, we were
treated to the sight of two young humpback whales spraying, slapping their
flukes (tails) repeatedly, diving, and rolling over. At one point one of the whales
surfaced only a few feet from the boat. Seeing whales was an amazing
experience; I was so captivated by them I could not leave the deck to grab
more film for my camera and only got a couple pictures (luckily we also had the
digital camera on hand, with an open memory card). The whole time we
watched the whales I kept thinking "Holy god! Whales!!!!!" It would be an
exaggeration to say that we could have reached out and touched them - but
they were very, very close to us - we could even hear them 'sing.' A
crew member said that he had never seen such a great whale display - we felt
amazingly fortunate to get such a good view of the giant mammals. Though I
had hoped to see orcas, these were the only whales we saw – but they more
than made up for it by giving us such a nearby and active show. I still can't
believe I've seen actual whale tail – and that it seemed to wave `hello.' Later on
we saw another fluke and one more whale's hump – but nothing as fun or
amazing as this first display.
After the playful whales left us, we continued out to sea and visited
another glacier, which we saw calving into the ocean. Ice breaking from the
glacier sounded like thunder, and we watched harbor seals riding the waves
resulting from the giant "splash!" of the ice into the water. Glacial ice
reflects many different shades of white and blue, and really can't be
captured (in my opinion) by a simple photo. But the composition of the pale
blue and white glacier was striking against the deeper blue and white sky.
On the way back towards Seward we stopped at Fox Island for dinner.
The island's entire beach is made of skipping stones – we brought one home
as a souvenir. I still can not skip a stone for anything – my husband and
some fellow tourists, though, were doing an impressive job of it. We stayed
on Fox Island long enough to eat and relax a little on the beach, then
returned to Seward. During the entire trip there was only one moment where I
felt ill – which came after I'd stood in the sun for over an hour, about
three or four hours after I had drank any water, and our boat encountered
very high rollers and a wake from another ship in Resurrection Bay. I sat
down and gulped water and felt better fairly soon. Although I entirely
missed the nesting sea birds on the rocks, which didn't seem too interesting
anyway.
Back in Seward we drove out to where the road ends (Miller's landing, I
believe it's called), then reversed direction and drove out to Exit Glacier,
stopping to photograph waterfalls and the start of the Iditarod on the way.
Normally you can walk up to Exit Glacier and touch it (being careful to
avoid bears and moose on the way – or so the signs warn. We saw neither
creature). However, due to warm weather, water around the glacier was high,
so we could only get within about a hundred yards of it. Had we been wearing
knee high rubber boots it would have been no problem to get to it, but we
told ourselves we had already landed on a glacier and so it didn't matter if
we couldn't touch this one. Signs along the trail show you where the edge of
the glacier rested in preceding years, so you can trace how far it has
receded over the past couple hundred years.
Then we drove back to our first floor motel room, pulled the curtains shut
to block out some of the street noise, split a small bottle of champagne,
and collapsed from exhaustion.
Monday 6/20 – back to Anchorage, then home
We slept as late as we could, recovering from our extremely active schedule
the day before (standing on a rolling boat for about 8 hours is more tiring
than you might think). Then we headed back to Anchorage, stopping along the
scenic drive at several points to photograph the impressive, expansive
scenery. We debated traveling to Homer as we had been told not to miss
visiting the small artist's town, but decided that we did not want to add
the additional hours to our drive. (So now we have a reason to visit Alaska
again someday.) We continued to enjoy the Best Possible Vacation Weather
Ever and had plenty of sunshine and clear skies during the drive, allowing
us to fully enjoy the Kenai landscape. As we drove along Turnagain arm the
tide dropped and we stopped at one spot to read about how Beluga whales will
often be surprised by the swiftly falling tides and become beached on the
mudflats (luckily they usually survive and swim back out to the ocean when
the tide rises). We hoped to see one more moose but unfortunately did not.
We did, however, spot more sea otters, bald eagles, and ravens.
Back in Anchorage I am embarrassed to say we took one last trip to the
tourist shops, buying more gifts for more folks we realized we had
forgotten. We then went out with Kerry and Ben for one last dinner, at the
"Moose's Tooth," which is owned by a friend of theirs (the restaurant is
named after the mountain in Denali). Kerry and Ben gave us a gift - a small
plush toy in the shape of "the pox." So now we can say we went to Alaska and
got syphilis (although I don't know why we'd ever want to share this
information). I'm not exactly sure where they found such a gift, but it is
certainly unique among our souvenirs, and makes us laugh. I believe at some
point on this day more wine and more spodka were consumed.
On the way to the airport we drove around Lake Hood, which is home to many,
many floatplanes. A couple were for sale, and I am grateful there is no way
we could possibly have bought one, otherwise I think we might either be
looking for a home in Alaska, or trying to find a way to safely get a float
plane from Anchorage to Chicago. We saw a couple float planes take off and
land, and I am a bit sad we could not find time in our hectic schedule to
fit in a float plane ride to somewhere. Oh well, next time.
Our flight home was delayed by almost two hours, and we eventually left
Anchorage at about 11:00 pm. I slept a bit on the trip home, but Mark stayed
awake and watched the sun almost set on the horizon then immediately rise
again. And, for us, that was our final period of never-ending daylight; now
we are back in the Midwest, a land with predictable nightfall. We also miss
the stunning scenery and Mark misses the 60 and 70 degree weather, although
I personally like my summers to be a little hotter. We have literally
thousands of pictures to sort through (we are addicted shutterbugs) and are
so happy we had the chance to take such a perfect vacation. I think it's
funny that a few years ago I never would have dreamed of visiting Alaska,
but now I am planning to some day travel to parts of the state that we
missed, such as Fairbanks, Homer, possibly Juneau, and to also see more of
Kenai and Denali National Parks. And, of course, an Alaskan cruise would
also be fun. We were lucky this time to have two wonderful tour guides and
hosts (even if they did give us the pox) and I hope that someday we can
repay them for their generosity.
I did return from the trip physically changed in one way – my hair is now a
darker red than it was before. I always dye my hair whenever I am away from
the work world for more than a couple days – for this trip it turned bright
pink. In my attempt to return my head to its natural state of reddish brown
the pink highlights took on a very brassy tone. The results are so
noticeable I've had several people ask me what the heck happened to my hair.
I haven't thought of a clever reply, so instead I say "well, it's better
than being pink."
Perhaps I shall have to create some exotic Alaskan hair disease. At any rate
I am now home in my mountain-free, whale-less, sunrise and sunset world, but
at least I managed to bring a little bit of color with me.
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thee endd.
Alaska is beautiful. Go there. Drink martinis, tell the whales we say hello.
Posted by acr at July 21, 2005 10:34 PM | TrackBack