Reflections of My Travel » 2004 Alaska

Day 19 – Monday

arcanai — Tue, 13 Jul 2004 06:59:05 +0000

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This was a sad morning, knowing that we were going to have to go home in a few hours. It’s sad enough when a good vacation comes to an end, but it’s even sadder when you know you’re going home to check into a hotel since your house is destroyed. And it being our honeymoon… So, when we finally got up and got around to checking out, they let us store our luggage there while we went out to walk town some more before airport time. We went to the mall and walked around it several times (much smaller than it looks from outside). We had gone there thinking that, surely, they must have a movie theatre in such a big (looking) downtown mall. We were mistaken. No movie theatres within walking distance of downtown Anchorage. So it goes. We walked around the mall so many times that we finally found some nice comfy chairs and sat down for a short nap. Finally, we had wasted enough time to slowly make our way back to the hotel to catch our shuttle to the airport. We walked along a sidewalk that was well-flowered and took pictures of the myriad of pretty flowers. You wouldn’t think too much of Alaska as being a floral state, but they grow such pretty and HUGE (21 hours of sunlight) flowers. When we got to the airport, there was a long backup at security and when we got to the gate, my very charming husband was able to talk one of the gate attendants into upgrading us to first class since it was our honeymoon. I’ve gotta say, first class was nice. The seats were big and cushy and had a blanket, pillow, and bottle of water in every seat waiting for us to board. Drinks were free so we each had a glass (actual glass, not plastic cup) of red wine before liftoff and another with dinner. Dinner was grilled chicken with a red sauce, garlic-cheese mashed potatos, steamed vegetables, and a roll. As far as airline food goes, it was by far the nicest meal I’ve had. And they put table cloths down on your little tray before setting down your plate. After dinner, they started the movie and as the previews were playing, they came out with ice cream and made us sundaes. My only complaint was that the big comfy seats do not have liftable armrests like coach usually does. This meant that I could not lay down across my husband’s lap, which meant I was able to get 0 sleep on the long flight home since I’m not good at sleeping upright. By the time we landed in Atlanta at 06:56, I understood why they called it a red-eye flight. When the plane did land, one of the flight attendants gave us a bottle of red wine to take home with us as a happy honeymoon gift, which I thought was a really sweet gesture. I’m thinking that if we drink it on our 25th anniversary, it might have aged enough to be decent wine. Going straight into work, seeing our poor house on our lunch break, and checking into a hotel brought reality crashing back in. The honeymoon was definitely over.

Day 18 – Sunday

arcanai — Mon, 12 Jul 2004 06:59:27 +0000

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We spent most of the day today in our hotel room relaxing. Late in the afternoon, we went out and walked down to the river to see the fish ladder. I was amazed by how HUGE the salmon are. We only saw one actually make it up the ladder while we were there. We also saw a family of beavers and some pigeon-courting. We then walked back up toward the mall to try to find some food but the mall was closed. And most restaurants were closed. You would think that Sunday or no Sunday, when the sun is bright as noon all night there should be food to be gotten after 18:00. We finally found a little pizza shop a couple blocks down that was open. On the way back to the hotel, we stumbled on a mmmMarble Slab-esque ice creamery from which we bought a pint to take back to the room with us. It was another nice relaxing evening, this our last night in Alaska.

Day 17 – Saturday

arcanai — Sun, 11 Jul 2004 06:59:52 +0000

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This morning we got up and drove over to the earthquake park. Before Good Friday of 1964 there was an affluent residential area on the bluffs above Cook Inlet, but the 9.2 earthquake dropped the houses into 30 foot crevasses and destroyed the entire area. It is now a park with all kinds of monuments and interpretive signs telling about the quake and showing where the coast line used to be and such. It was pretty impressive to see the how the landscape changed in one day. Good Friday is not such a good day for Alaska. They had a 9.2 earthquake in 1964, then 25 years to the day later, they have the Exxon-Valdez oil spill on Good Friday of 1989. After spending some time walking around and reading all of the signs, we went to the Aspen Hotel to see if we could check in a little early but they did not have our room ready yet. So we went out to lunch and then grabbed a quick nap before heading back to the hotel for another try. This time they had the room ready and when we got into it, they had upgraded us to a room with a jacuzzi next to the bed and a little fruit/chocolate basket with a note to “Mr. and Mrs. Holloway” congratulating us on our marriage and wishing us a happy honeymoon. It was so nice. We unloaded all of our stuff out of the van and arranged for a shuttle to pick us up at the airport before we took the van back and turned it in. We figured we were just going to rest so we didn’t need the van anymore. It was a good call. We had a very relaxing night in our very nice room.

Day 16 – Friday

arcanai — Sat, 10 Jul 2004 06:59:19 +0000

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When we woke up this morning, we decided to take a drive through the longest (2.5 miles) tunnel in North America over to Whittier. The tunnel was fairly impressive, it’s a one-way tunnel that switches directions every half hour and it also has a train track running through it (not sure how often that runs). It’s a fairly expensive tunnel ride, though – $12 for a car, $300 for a commercial truck/trailer. Which was really upsetting when we drove out the other side of it into Whittier and saw that there was NOTHING in Whittier. It was less than worthwhile. We thought about at least doing the hike over to Portage Glacier while we were there but my stupid knees were acting up pretty badly. So we turned around and waited in line to go back through the tunnel. It was really just an anti-climatic experience. Fortunately, on our northward trek back toward Anchorage, we decided to stop at Girdwood. This was a very cute little town. They have a ski resort there and during the summer, you can ride the lift up to the top of the mountain and eat lunch and hike with seven glaciers surrounding you. It was a wonderful experience that we both thoroughly enjoyed. When we left Girdwood, we headed straight back to Anchorage and started calling around to make hotel reservations for our last two nights. We figured since we would be going straight to work from the airport tuesday morning, and since we were heading home to a flooded house, we should rest up pretty good. We made our reservations, walked around the mall a bit, and then set up camp and went to bed.

Day 15 – Thursday

arcanai — Fri, 09 Jul 2004 06:59:43 +0000

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This morning, we woke up looking for a hike. We stopped at a Princess Lodge in Cooper Landing and took a short, mile loop-hike down to the river. It was beautiful clear turquoise. The hike was mostly shaded by trees and it was very quiet and relaxing. We stopped on a dock along the river and took a brief nap on the bench. It was very serene. When we got back up to the lodge, we asked the concierge about hiking and he told us about a 5 mile one-way trail to Juneau Falls. This got Randal all excited. I was a little hesitant about such a long hike in such heat, but we had taken several days off from hiking and I knew that Randal was getting stir crazy, so we went. The first two miles or so was walking on an old logging road with no shade. It got very hot, very quickly. Where the logging road ended, it came to a fork, which wasn’t on the little trail map (I use the term loosely) that the concierge had provided for us. Randal decided that we would go right because that path looked better traveled. I know we walked at least half a mile before deciding that was the wrong way. But it did happen to be where all the mosquitoes hung out because we picked them up there and they stayed right on us for the rest of the hike. We got back to the fork again and took the left path and walked another half-mile or so before we finally came across a trailhead marking (crude though it was – spray painted arrow on scrap wood) to let us know that this was, indeed, the correct trail. We walked and talked and talked and walked and talked some more (we were warned that the trail was heavily bear-populated). After the arrow, there were no other trail signs to let us know we were going the right way or what the distance was or anything. We started hearing noise, but couldn’t decipher whether it was water or wind. We stopped in one area, trying to listen hard enough to figure it out, and thought about just turning around to go back. It was a good thing we went on ahead. Not too terribly much longer we finally came on a true trail sign that told us to turn the corner and cross the bridge and we were there. Lucky for Randal, it really was a very beautiful, and quite large, waterfall. I’d say that it’s the biggest, nicest one that we’ve ever hiked to. We took pictures and sat and looked at it and snacked a little for probably a half hour. It was a good rest at the end of such a long hike. And, of course, every long hike has an equally long hike back (unless it’s a loop but we’re not talking loops here). So we walked and talked and talked and walked and talked some more all the way back. I can’t tell you how pleased I was to see the road at the end of the logging road that meant that our car was oh-so-close. I was very proud of the fact that I actually hiked 11+ miles. Luckily, it was the least steep trail that we had hiked in Alaska. I know I couldn’t have done 11 miles if it were much steeper. All in all it wasn’t too bad a hike, just hot, and a little frustrating that it was not a well marked trail. When we got back to the Princess, we had a good meal followed by a good 12 minute ($1.25) shower at the campground. We then decided to drive back to Portage to spend the night by our lake again.

Day 14 – Wednesday

arcanai — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 06:59:06 +0000

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This morning, we slept in a little and then took some pictures of the cabin before checking out of it. We also stopped by the beach so that Randal could take some pictures of it for his grandmother before we left Homer. We turned off the Sterling Highway at Soldotna to visit Kenai. Turned out that there wasn’t much to do in Kenai so we decided to go to the movie theatre. It was like a nice little date. After the movie, we drove west to the end of the road, around Nikiski, where we got out and spent a little time on the beach of Cook Inlet, where we collected some very pretty rocks. We camped out along the Sterling Highway.

Day 13 – Tuesday

arcanai — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 06:59:37 +0000

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It was a very relaxing night. We slept in this morning and awoke to the sight of glaciers and such out the large window. It was a good, lazy day. We left the cabin only to get something to eat and return the movies and rent new ones. It was a good recharge period for me to finally get over the cold that I’ve been carrying for a week now.

Day 12 – Monday

arcanai — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 06:59:05 +0000

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This morning we got up and did our Anchorage shopping before heading back down the Kenai. We were told by several people that Homer was the place to go, and since it’s also the end of the road on the peninsula, that’s exactly where we went. We stopped at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, which we thought was going to be like Custer State Park‘s wildlife loop (an excellent place to visit in South Dakota), but it was more like a recovery zoo. All of the animals were fenced in and it was a little sad. The humans were allowed to interact with them more than they should, in my opinion, so even when they recover from whatever brought them there, they won’t be able to be released into the wild again. It was a bit sad. When we got to Homer, they had a pretty neat educational center called the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center. It was a nice center with lots of exhibits. There were also some nice little trails out behind it that took you to the beach. My husband loaded his pockets (literally) with rocks from this beach. When we finished looking around there, we got back in the car and drove down to the end of the spit and decided that Homer was nothing more than a fishing town and really didn’t have much to offer non-fishers. We went back to the welcome center and gathered information on cabins in the area. We ended up at HeartHaven Cottage about four miles outside of town. It was a beautiful cabin, wonderful wood all in the inside, and it was pretty cozy once you got past the fact that the owner lives in the shed right out behind it (sure, it’s private and secluded, just don’t open the door or the back windows). It had a huge picture window across the front of it with a great view of glaciers and mountains and ocean. We paid for two nights so we brought in all of our stuff and got settled in, starting with a nice warm shower. After we rested a bit, and since we really didn’t see much in Homer that we cared to do, we went out to the video store and rented some movies and then picked up a bottle of wine. We figured we’d just cozy up in the cabin for a couple of days and honeymoon.

Day 11 – Sunday

arcanai — Mon, 05 Jul 2004 06:59:30 +0000

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We woke up on this fine Fourth of July to hear the sounds of the Mount Marathon race already underway a few blocks away. We got up and headed over to it to check it out. For those of you who have never heard of it, this is a gathering of insane people every Fourth of July racing from the center of town, up a 3,000 foot mountain, and back – the goal being to make it in under an hour. The actual length of the course is probably only about 4 miles, but over 1 mile of it is either straight up or straight down a mountain. And it was raining, which I’m sure makes running straight up a mountain more difficult and dangerous. It was crazy. We watched the end of the junior race (17 and under) and the end of the women’s race. It was very impressive. We walked around town for a little bit to soak in the Fourth of July spirit and then we headed to the beach for a nice nap. After recharging, we went back to Exit Glacier for a more intensive hike. We did the majority of the Harding Ice Field trail (it’s a 3.9 mile one-way trail straight up, we did about 2.5 miles one-way of it). It was a very strenuous hike. It was a very vertical trail. We talked constantly in order to assure the bears that we would not make quiet, peaceful meals. We were probably close to two miles up when we finally crossed paths with another human. And, of course he told us how he had already crossed paths with a bear today; had been doing this hike several times a year for 20 years and had never not crossed paths with a bear. We talked louder after parting with him. Up around the corner a bit, we did run up on a wolverine. It was hiding in a bush and looked pretty scared. I think it was a young’un. We continued on our way and ran into another person, this one saying that just up the trail she had a baby bear block the trail before letting her go by. When we finally got up to an open plateau (where we could see all around us and not have sneaky bears) I insisted we stop for a break. I was starting to get a bit worn down and didn’t want to push myself back into a full-blown cold so while we overlooked the huge glacier below, we decided this was as far as we were going. We could see the top of the trail and I was so tempted to conquer it so that we could look down on the massive ice field that lay beyond it (and, really, so that I could say I conquered it), but I knew I still had to make it back down (down is so much harder than up) and I was done. After sitting there for a while, an older German woman coming down the path informed us that there was a bear family lurking in the trail just 50 feet above us. We got up and could see the cubs playing around in the tree tops. We shouted out to warn some people coming back down the trail. It was fun to see the bears out in the wild like that but I’m glad we didn’t get a closer encounter than that. We watched them until they got tired of playing and disappeared into the tree line and then we started our descent. It was slow going (down is so much harder on my knees than up). When we did finally make it down to the bottom again, we decided to make our way up to the face of the glacier. This meant changing from our hiking boots to our sandals and crossing several sizeable streams of meltwater. Now, let me just tell you – the meltwater at Worthington Glacier was cold but it was bearable, the meltwater at Exit Glacier seemed to be a whole different animal. I have never felt such bone-numbing cold in my life. From the time you lifted your foot to make that first step into it, to the time your foot was fully submerged and ready for the next foot to move, your toes are completely numb. By the time you cross five to eight feet of that water to get to a sandbar, you have to walk around on the sandbar for a minute in order to thaw your feet again. And then the process repeats until you cross all the streams. When we finally made it over to the face of the glacier, it probably took 5 minutes to fully feel our feet again. But it was beautiful. We ran into a trio of collegiates who were from Alaska but met in college in Florida. They were, uh, interesting, conversationalists. Then the hard part came. Time to cross back across all of the meltwater streams. I just can’t even describe the sensation. All I know is that as fast as my feet were going numb, I am certain that if someone were to fall in (full body submergence) they would have 0 chance of getting themselves back up. They would go into shock instantly. Yes, that is my professional opinion. That last eight foot stream – painful. Oh so painful. By the time we took the nature trail back to the parking lot and turned on the floor heaters of the car full blast, it was a good 45 minutes till our feet were completely unnumbed. It was just insane. But it is an experience I will always remember and one that not too many people will ever have. So I’m not really complaining. While driving out of Seward, we decided that we really needed to go back to Anchorage in order to get some supplies so that’s where we went and camped.

Day 10 – Saturday

arcanai — Sun, 04 Jul 2004 06:59:47 +0000

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This morning, we did a short hike at Exit Glacier before our 15:00 cruise departure. We got to the cruise shop a little early to find a place to plug up our cameras and get charged a bit. When it was boarding time, we went down to the dock to find a large stellar sea lion frolicking about with some fish dinner right there at the docks. It was fun to watch, but hard to get on camera. When he was done feasting and departed for open waters, we boarded our boat and headed straight for a seat at the front. When we first pulled out from the dock, there were a lot of people sitting out there with us. As we started picking up speed and the wind was getting cold, the people started to disappear. When the cold rain started to join forces with the cold wind, we were the only two out on the front of the boat. It was very pleasant and we were happy that we had invested in some good rain gear. It was so pretty out there in the water with snow-capped mountains all around. We passed by several rookeries of puffins and other birds before spotting some whales. Now let me just say, this was by far the most exciting part of the whole trip. We just happened to run up on a momma and her calf, who was in a very playful mood. As we pulled up near them, they were slapping each other with their flippers. The captain informed us that this calf was making a big wave in the marine biology community around the area because it appeared to be a hybrid between a humpback (momma) and a right whale. It did not have a dorsal fin like it’s humpback momma. Anyhow, while we sat and watched, the whales got closer to the boat (a boat can only approach within a certain distance of whales but if the whales get closer to the boat, it doesn’t have to back away) and more playful. We saw plenty of tail and were able to snap just a few pictures before the rain got too bad. And that was the shame of it. After the rain had gotten too bad to have the cameras out in, the baby humpright performed three beautiful full breaches. It was the most spectacular sight. A once in a lifetime thing. And we were unable to get pictures or video. What a shame. But we do have it in our memory and it was the most thrilling moments. After all that playfulness, it must have been naptime; there was a synchronized terminal dive and that was all we saw of them. We continued on to Aialik Glacier where we sat a quarter of a mile away from it’s 2-mile wide face and watched house sized pebbles of ice calve off of it. The largest piece we saw calve (when glacial pieces break off and become icebergs, it is called calving) was roughly the size of a three story building and created a 20 foot wave. It was pretty spectacular. We were able to get lots of video there. The most remarkable thing about being in front of such a massive glacier is the sounds. It is the eeriest thing, sitting there looking at ice and hearing it move. It is constantly creaking and groaning and when it is getting ready to calve, you hear a distant rumble like thunder and then a splintering sound and then a loud grumble and crash as it detaches and falls into the sea. There’s just no explaining it and no video can fully do it justice. The other eerie thing was being in a boat and feeling and listening to it scraping over all of the icebergs hidden below the water. Immediately conjures thoughts of the last moments of the Titanic. We probably watched and listened to that glacier for a good 45 minutes before it was time to start heading back to Seward (we were about 75 miles out). On the way back, dinner was served and we went inside for the first time. OMG. Bad call. Turns out I don’t like being inside on a boat. I never actually got sick, but I’ve never felt so nauseously disquieted in all my life. Unfortunately, dinner was only being served inside at the tables. And I was hungry. It took me forever but I was able to eat most of my cold food. I was fairly okay if I was able to look out the window or door to the water. It was such a horribly strange sensation that I would prefer to never experience again. Next time I go out on any type of boat, I will have Dramamine with me. About halfway through my struggle to eat my decent, though cold, dinner, the captain announced that for anyone who cared, there were some Dall Porpoises off in the distance that were coming at us. He told us they would put on a show for us. Randal was the first one out so he got a lot of great video looking straight down from the bow of the boat. These animals look like tiny orcas, but the fun part is that they enjoy playing in the underwater wave that boats create. They rode that wave fast and fun, weaving back and forth in front of the bow of the boat. They must have frolicked for 15 minutes before getting tired of surfing and heading back out to more peaceful waters. They were so fun to watch. After that, we went back in and I finished what I could of my dinner and then we adjourned back to the non-sickening outside seats. It really was a wonderful cruise. When we got back to Seward, it was after 21:00 so we went to the grocery store and bought a half gallon of ice cream and headed for the beach. We sat in the car for a while watching the water and eating our ice cream. When we had our fill, we got drove to an area closer to town and walked out to the beach to join the myriad of people lining the beach awaiting the Fourth of July fireworks. I think they were supposed to start at midnight, but they waited until closer to 00:30 (I presume with the hope that it might get just a tad bit darker). It was fun waiting out there and talking with people. And seeing fireworks at 00:30 with so much daylight is certainly an experience, but all in all it was a pretty puny display. Everyone there was ooohing and ahhhing, but Randal and I were just looking at each other and asking, “is that all?”. But it was a good time and it was a nice celebration of the Fourth. When the “grand finale” was over, we went back to our car, ate a bit more ice cream, and called it a night.