The Adventures of T&A

This morning the folks at breakfast were much friendlier than the guy fromyesterday.  We chatted with several folks, a couple from Iowa, an orientalcouple from New Jersey and a military couple with their daughter that were headingfrom Fairbanks to Virginia.  We packed up our stuff and left theB&B.   We’ve been here three days and we really needed therest.  We’re both ready to go home, even though we don’t have a home to goto.  It’s been raining the entire time we’ve been in Alaska, with theexception of a few hours here and there.  The rain is really getting usdown.

We took a short walk around Valdez and along the docks.  It’s a prettytown, even in the rain.  We think it’s pretty chilly, we’re in jackets andraingear.   The locals, however, are in shorts, t-shirts and sandals,many riding bikes.  We’ve noticed that there are more espresso shops andice cream shops here than anywhere we’ve been.  Some places we’d pass werenot really even towns, just a gas station and espresso/ ice cream shop.  Wewere surprised at the number of ice cream shops in a place known for being socold.  One local told us that Alaskans eat more ice cream thananywhere else in the country (I did some research,it’s really California, but then, they’ve got more people to eat ice cream too).  In a placethat the sun never sets in the summer and never really rises in the winter, Iguess you’d need an espresso jump start every now and then.  Hopefully, theweather will clear and we’ll see the tops of the mountainssoon.  We did a load of laundry and headed out of Valdez.  

We went up the Richardson Highway, back to Glennallen.  In Glennallen weturned west towards Palmer along the Glenn Highway.  We are heading out to see our friends Kim andBarak who live in Talkeetna, just south of Denali National Park.  We won’tget that far today.  

We wanted to get onto a dirt road the Milepost mentioned called HatcherPass.  The first few miles are paved, but the rest is dirt and gravel,steep and narrow.  Sounds like fun.  There’s supposed to be somepretty cool old gold mining ruins up there, too.  It’s still raining (and has beenfor days) and when we got into the area of public land for Hatcher Pass, we sawa flare in the road.  This is never a good sign.  We saw a large truckdumping a load of rocks into the bend in the river.  As we slowly drove by,we could see the river was splashing over it’s banks and threatening to wash outthe road!  We had planned to just go up this road a bit and camp and headout in the morning.  However, camping up a road that’s about to be washedout and closed didn’t sound like a good idea.  We headed back up the roadwe had just come down and found a free campground.  There was a sign there,it might have said the campground was closed, but the sign had been shot up so much wecouldn’t read it.  We saw another vehicle there and it was after 10pm, sowe camped there anyway.  It’s still raining.

We went into the communal kitchen this morning and said “GoodMorning” to the folks there.  No response.  The gruff older guysaid something to his son (we found out later it was his grandson), but neversaid Good Morning, Hello or anything.  He picked up the house phone and called Diann, the owner,and went into his room.  He came out a few minutes later and said shewanted to talk with us.  Diann told me to tell this guy about the greattime we had on the Lu-Lu Belle.  When I spoke with him, he said he hadtaken a glacier tour from another town and didn’t see the reason to takeanother.  Brrrr…. You could feel the icebergs there in theroom.  

Andrew and I rented the room for another night and stayed in and worked onthe computers for a while.  It’s still raining and we just didn’t want toget out in it again.  Later this afternoon, Diann came in with her husbandRon and we chatted for quite a while, sharing a beer with Ron.  Severalmore folks came in from their Alaskan adventures.  Diann and Ron had a fullhouse every night we were there.

We decided to stay another night at the B&B to rest up and escape therain.  We talked with several of the others staying there atbreakfast.  After spending a little time on the computers, we went down acouple of blocks to the Halibut House for lunch.  It’s the first time I’vehad Copper River Red Salmon lightly battered and fried like fish andchips.  It was good, but a bit unusual.  

We decided to take a wildlife and glacier tour today on The Lu-Lu Belle,even though it’s raining.  When we called, they said the wildlife doesn’tcare that it’s raining.  Hummm, good point.  The Lu-Lu Belle is quitea ship and Captain Fred is quite a character.  He started off byintroducing himself and telling us to wipe the crap off our shoes beforeboarding because he’s got oriental carpets in there.  HE DID!  It wasa beautiful ship which, we found out on his website later, he builthimself.  Captain Fred is quite the talker too.  He must have been astand-up comic in a previous life.  He really knows the history of thearea, Prince William Sound and where the wildlife is.  Just leaving port hetold us about how some of the commercial fishing boats operated and how thecanneries worked.  

On our way out, we saw several sea ottersjust hanging around, floating ontheir backs, waiting for suppertime.  We motored past some beautifulwaterfalls and shoreline, all the while, Captain Fred is talking, telling us allabout Alaska and the town of Valdez, and we just MUST hike to the Valdez Glaciertomorrow.  We’ll just have to extend you’re stay another day ortwo.  

We went up to a rocky shore an was some puffins.  They are the cutestlittle birds!  Captain Fred got the bow of the boat right inside the cavewhere they were nesting!  I can’t believe that he got his boat that closeto the rocks!!  We saw another spot with some puffins and turned to ourleft…. and saw several rocks covered with Steller’s Sea Lions!  We slowly wentby what could have been a hundred sea lions lying around on the rocks, justflapping and belching, a couple scratching an itch.  It smelled a lot likea Chinese grocery store, a bit fishy.  

Captain Fred is telling us more stories, about the big earthquake that hit in1964 that completely destroyed the town and the museum that we just HAVE tosee… “But”, he says, “you’re hiking to the glacier tomorrow andfishing the day after… well, you’ll just have to stay another week, maybetwo…”  You could hear the grin in his voice.  

We arrived out to sea where one of the crew had sighted a whale.  Theycan stay down for quite a while, and Captain Fred starts a count of how manyminutes since it was last seen.  The whale surface again with a blow,breaks the water a few times for a few breaths, then takes a dive, showing usthe classic fluke (tail) photo.  Captain Fred speeds to the area where itjust went down and starts counting again, how many minutes he’s been down. Once again, the whale surfaces with a blow, bobs along the surface a few timesbreathing, then takes a dive again.  Captain Fred is talking us thruit…”Here it comes, the arched back, he’s diving, wait for it… and NOW,take the picture now!”  The perfect whale tail shot!

Our next stop is the Columbia Glacier, the most active glacier in thisarea.  As we approached, we saw several icebergs floating in thewater.  Some of the icebergs were the most incredible blue, some were blackand of course, some were white.  The blue color comes from having all theair pushed out of the ice from the pressure of the glacier above.  Theblack ones have picked up lots of dirt and rocks, they have probably come fromthe bottom or sides of the glacier.  The white ones are from nearer the topof the glacier.  The crew took pictures with our cameras of anyone whowanted in front of one really spectacular iceberg.  They also supplied afew props.  Since many people use these photos on their Holiday cards, theysupplied “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Hanukah” signs for thephotos.  

We waited to see the glacier “calve”, or drop large icebergs intothe water.  Captain Fred showed us what to look for, large cracks in theglacier face, points extending, ready to drop.  As we were watching onearea just ahead, a huge chunk dropped off to our left and behind us.  Weall turn to see the wave in the water and we missed another area ofcalving.  We all have our cameras trained on the wrong spot.  

As we were leaving the glacier, we passed by some Harbor Seals lying on acouple icebergs.  These guys are more shy than the Stellar Sea lions andthey would slip into the water as we passed by. 

As we made our way back to port, Captain Fred told us more of the wonderfulthings to do in Valdez, well, we may as well stay until Labor Day, we’ve got somuch to do here! (wink)

We had a great time on the boat tour, even if it was cold and rainy.  We boarded the boat at 2pm anddidn’t get back until well after 9pm.  It was so late by the time we gotback, we were glad we had dinner on the boat.  Their galley was servingsoup in a bread bowl and Andrew got a chili and I got a tasty clamchowder.  At $5.00 per bowl, it was by far the cheapest meal we’ve ever hadin Alaska.

A cold and rainy morning.  We opted not to stand in the rain and try tomake breakfast.  We drove into the next small town, Glennallen (pop 88,according to The Milepost) to find aplace to eat.  

After lunch, we stopped at WorthingtonGlacier State Park.  This is a glacier near the road that you can walkright up to.  It’s the most surreal blue!  It seems the color bluegets more intense as air is forced out of the ice under pressure.  Thisglacier can move as much as 5 to 8 feet in a month!  They’ve done testingon this glacier by boring holes into it and inserting some type of camera. They’ve found that the bottom of the glacier moves at about 5 feet per monthwhile the top of it moves about 8 feet per month.

It’s still cold and rainy.  We continued on to Valdez(Val-DEEZ), AK to try to find aroom for the night.  We can handle the cold, but the gray, rainy weather isgetting us down.  We didn’t have a cell signal until just outside ofValdez, so we pulled over and made some phone calls.  We were getting nervouswhen many of the places we called had no vacancies!  There are lots ofB&B’s listed and we found The Blessing House had a room available.  We talkedwith Diann Ryan at the Blessing House and she has several properties, some sherents as B&B’s and some she rents as longer term apartments.  We had afull kitchen at our disposal so we made dinner at the house.  One ofthe couples downstairs has a kitchen and what they were cooking for dinnersmelled so much better than what we had.  They came up for  awhile tochat.  Frank and Danielle are from Stuttgart, Germany and the salmon theyhad for dinner Frank caught himself this afternoon! 

We both slept well last night.  The sun came up around 4:30am, but wewere able to close our curtains and sleep in until about 7am.  We drovethru more beautiful scenery for much of the morning.  We went thru anotherborder crossing back into Alaska.  

We stopped at Tetlin National Wildlife Refugeand looked out over a beautiful wetland.  With the help of some binoculars,we saw trumpeter swan in the water.  We still haven’t seen any moose orbear.  For all the wildness we’ve heard about Alaska and the Great WhiteNorth, I guess we were expecting to see bear and moose in the middle of theroad.  The wildlife we’ve seen has mostly been birds.  We’ve seenravens, magpies, a few bald eagles and trumpeter swans.  We’ve also seen a rabbitand several prairie dogs (or some relative) on the side of the road, both deadand alive.  

We got into the town of Tok, AK and sot more info on the Wrangell-St.Elias National Park and Preserve.  This park boasts a land mass largerthan Switzerland with higher peaks.  It contains the largest number ofglaciers and the largest collection of the peaks over 16,000 feet.  Andonly has two dirt and gravel roads leading into it: the 42 mile Nabesna Road andthe 60 mile McCarthy Road.  We drove thru more road construction andfinally reached Nabesna Road in Wrangell-St. Elias Park.  We found aprimitive campsite for the night.  We’re still cautious about bears, so wecooked dinner at a rest stop along the road.

We encountered a little more wildlife at this campsite… the legendaryAlaskan Mosquito!  Some refer to the mosquito as the state bird (state birdis actually the Willow Ptarmigan).  Withplenty of snow melt and this has been the wettest summer in years here inAlaska, the mosquitoes have plenty of stuff to breed in.  We were sittingin the truck enjoying a beer with dozens of mosquitoes probing thru thescreens.  I think they only exist to remind Man that he is not on the top ofthe food chain.

We walked around the grounds of what was once FortSeward, the first military presence established in the wild territory ofAlaska.  This was many years before Alaska became a state.  A lot ofcool old buildings and Alaskan Indian arts and totems.  It was about foursquare blocks.

We checked out the weather for Haines and it varied from light showers torain for the next 10 days!  Ugh!  We’re outta here!

On our way out, we checked out the prices on a few flights from Haines toGustavus (Gus-TA-vus) to catch a tour of Glacier Bay.  We didn’t want tospend $500. for flights and then the price of the boat tour, if all we would seewould be clouds.

We headed out on the AlaskanHighway.  We were forced to rethink our ideas of remoteness we hadexperienced in the desert.  Haines is over 700 miles from Anchorage, a realcity.  We’re on the only road into or out of Haines.  The only otherway in is by plane or by ferry (like we did).  We drove 44 miles andcrossed the Canadian border into the Yukon Territory.  The Canadian Border Patrolofficer was pretty funny. Since I was driving, I got to answer. He asked how wegot to Haines.  I said, in a sleepy stupor, "The ferry".  Heasked where we got on the ferry.  I said, "Uh, Belling…ham?"and looked at Andrew for approval.  He said, " The Saturdayferry?"  I said, "Saturday?  Was itSaturday?"   He said, "Yeah, you were on the Saturdayferry.  You won’t wake up until Monday"  He’s apparently aware ofwhat a 3:45am ferry arrival does to a traveler.  

This part of Canada is truly beautiful… and remote.  We passed thru acouple of small towns that only existed to supply travelers with gas, snacks andsouvenirs.  A couple of restaurants and motels completed the attractionsalong the highway.  We stopped at a rest area to make dinner on thetailgate and someone in a motor home also stopped there came out to chat. Billy Woodfin is a full time RVer from Texas.  This is his third trip toAlaska.

As we headed down the road, we saw several RVs and campers at numerouspullouts, camping for the night.  We prefer to camp slightly further offthe road.  we found a spot shortly before dark and went to bed.  It’snow getting dark about 10:30-11:00 at night.  We haven’t slept in the truckfor perhaps a week and it was like coming home.

We didn’t get much sleep last night.  We’re both exhausted!  Theweather is horrible, gray, low clouds over the mountains.  

Haines is thesmallest town we’ve stopped at on our trip so far.  We drove down boththe major streets in town and got a few errands done.  We went to a grocerystore and found prices were a bit higher and selection was limited (notsurprisingly).  We found a place for breakfast, also a bit pricey, calledChilkat Restaurant and Bakery.  

We found out about a native dance company that performs Mon-Fri, very closeto where we are staying.  I’m not sure if we are going to stay around untilMonday or not.  The clouds broke once or twice and we saw some rugged, snow-cappedmountains surrounding the town.  I can see it would be beautiful if theweather breaks.  We had hoped to take a flight to Glacier Bay and take atour of the glaciers crashing into the water, but we can’t if the weather islike this.  

We went looking for a place for dinner.  The hotel where we are has arestaurant, but we wanted to see what else was available.  We comparedmenus and prices and ended up back to the Fort Steward Lodge andRestaurant.  The service was painfully slow, but the food was ok.  Itwas a weird little place that had a red velvet swing hanging from the ceilingthat was left over from the days when the Can-Can girls would performhere.  They also had a tradition of pinning dollar bills t theceiling.  It worked like this: you take a thumbtack and run it thru thecenter of a dollar bill, then add a quarter for weight, twist the bill aroundthe quarter and fling it at the ceiling.  One bill was spinning around onthe fan blade!  

We got back to our room and quickly realize that these walls have noinsulation in them!  We heard people talking in the rooms all aroundus.  I wonder how many people we disturbed last night when we came inaround 3am?

This morning was very foggy.  We’ve talked with lots of people on boardthe ship.  A few from Oregon, Washington and, of course, Alaska.  Butwe’ve also talked with a couple from South Africa and another fromAustralia.  

We grabbed coffee and breakfast in the ferry this morning and our 9am port ofcall is Sitka, AK.  The town has several tour buses lined up waiting for us(for a fee, of course).  Sitka is 7 miles from the ferry dock, so, for ourconvenience, we have a choice of buses.  It’s also overcast andrainy.  For $8 we can catch a bus to downtown and the Visitor’s Center ofAlaska’s oldest national park, Sitka NationalPark.  Or we could chose a tour of Sitka for $10.  We took thetour of Sitka.  I remember why I don’t really like tours.  Everythingis rushed and all the photos have somebody else in them.  Our guide was a native of Sitka for 15 years, moved away andhas now returned.  He knew quite a bit of Sitka’s history, the natives thatfirst inhabited this area and the Russians that later claimed it as theirhome.  In the park, we saw several totems, including one that was currentlybeing carved.  It will take two brothers several months to hand carve thistotem.  Our tour guide also sang Alaska’sstate song and told us about the historyof the state flag.  The flag was designed by a 13 year old Aleut nativeorphan, the blue background representing the sky, the sea and the state flower,the Blue Bonnet, the stars in the form of the Big Dipper, or Ursa Major, theGreat bear to show strength and the North Star to show the most northernterritory in the Union.  Alaska became the 49th state in 1959.  Ourguide got us back to the ship in time to leave port.  

The day is overcast, foggy and rainy.  Our captain pointed out a flockof "migrating" pink flamingos that were "nesting" in a tree on a small island.(wink!)   These are rare birds for this area, he continued, and theyhave acquired a unique plastic sheen on their feathers.  They are about 40feet high in one tree.  Our captain inquired to the Coast Guard who couldneither confirm nor deny any knowledge of such a flock of flamingos or how theycame to be here.  The sure have fun on the job here!

We got some bad news this afternoon from my sister Dianne, who is keeping ourdog Simon with her three dogs in south Florida.  Her dog Lexie, her baby of12 years, died in the night.  Simon and Lexie had "words" when hefirst went to stay there, but they’ve worked it all out and were now greatbuddies, always playing together.  Simon’s going to miss his playpal.  We were in an area with a very sketchy cell signal, so we couldn’tcall her back for quite a while.  When we finally were able to call herback, while I was talking to her, our captain reported a whale breaching (comingabove the water) off thestarboard (right) side of the ship.  It was jumping out of the water andcrashing back over and over, the entire time the ship passed.  Our sincere condolencesto Dianne.  We’ll try to call her again later.

The day has been foggy and rainy.  I think Andrew and I are ready to getoff of this ship and be travelling on our own again.  

We have an evening port of call in Juneau, but for only an hour.  Wedecided not to go into town, because we really had no time to seeanything.  Andrew and I just stayed on the ship and got to bedearly.  

Our final port is Haines, AK and we arrived at 3:45am.  Our wake up callwas around 2:30am.  We have a hotel room reserved for two nights in Hainesat the Fort Steward Lodge,so we have a place to get some rest.

We’re on the trip of a lifetime, traveling the country.  What do we dothat’s special for our anniversary?  A ferry ride up the Inside Passage ofAlaska!!

We woke this morning with the announcement of one hour notice to our firstport, Ketchikan, AK.  We landed in Ketchikan at 7am and we have about 3hours in port.  Andrew and I jumped off and shared a taxi into town withsome other folks.  We found a place for breakfast and walked around townfor a little while.  Ketchikan is always rainy and today the weather isgood, it’s only overcast.  The town’s had 192 inches of rain this yearalready!  The town has several totems that have been carved by the localtribes of native peoples, different designs and symbols from the differenttribes.  We hiked back the 3 miles to our ferry.  We got back just intime, 10am to leave port.  Our departure was delayed slightly by a bigcruise ship, the "Summit", coming into port.  While she wasslowly making here way in, a sea plane flew in right in between the"Summit" and our ship the "Malaspina", with only a fewhundred yards in between the ships.  The Coast Guard was also right runningright behind the plane.  I don’t think they were supposed to fly in betweenlike that.  

We were back at sea.  Even though Ketchikan is overcast and rainy, ourweather overall has been great.  We went by some other small villages wherepeople waved a the ferry.  Many waved towels, so we can see them.

We had a very short stop in Wrangell, AK.  The ship sounded it’s hornshortly after we got off, signaling we had five minutes beforedeparture.  Everyone was supposed to be back on board by then, theship was leaving.  When we asked about a person we saw walking her dog awayfrom the ferry at the time the horn sounded, we found out she made it, but 3others didn’t.  Their Alaskan Adventure just took a new twist!

Our next port is Petersburg, AK. We went thru some beautiful narrows to get there.  We only had two hours inport and the town was a mile from the ferry, so people were in a rush to get offthe ship.  We were told about a pizza place, Papa Bear’s, that had prettygood pizza and was near the dock.  Well, we found out as we went ashore, ithad moved into town.  As we were walking the mile to the restaurant, wecalled to order our pizza so it would be ready when we go there.  We gotahead of the crowd of others from the ferry and had a great pizza!