And now for our third vacation
within the
vacation... We
arrived back in Anchorage
Saturday night and went to dinner with Dawn, John and Jessica at a
patio
restaurant where we watched the sea planes take off and land on the
lake. All
around the lake are mooring 
spots for the float
planes tied to shore
lines. We
drove for a view of the Anchorage
skylines and then went to view the salmon running up Ship Creek by the
fish
ladder. It was low tide so all the salmon were bunched up at the
opening
waiting for their opportunity to head farther upstream. Amazing how
instinct
works in these animals.
We were able to work on a few house
projects the next day
and then John took us up to the top of Flat
Top Mountain
for an incredible view of Anchorage and
the Cook Inlet. People were running
up the trail; I was happy
to puff along slowly to get to the view spot for the panorama of the
entire
area. That evening, Dawn made an incredible feast including smoked
salmon
spread (yes, freshly smoked the weekend before and we still have smoked
salmon
in our freezer), blackened salmon, halibut, and King crab legs. And we
topped
it off with mango margaritas.
We headed back to Seward on Monday to see
the Seward Sealife Center.
It is more than
an aquarium because so much marine life can’t be kept in a tank, and
they do a
good job presenting information about the Alaskan ocean life. I enjoyed
the marine
birds exhibit where the puffins were diving and ‘flying’ underwater.
Neil was
fascinated by the giant octopus. It was really active and we got lots
of good
views of it stretching across the window and camouflaging in the rocks.
We
drove in to see Exit Glacier (I don’t know why it is named that)
because it is
so easy to drive to and you can hike right up to it and (we thought)
climb on
it. On the way driving in, there are signs along the road representing
where
the glacier front was in what year starting 1890s. Needless to say, it
has
receded a long way, probably about a mile. When we got to the glacier
front, it
was all roped off for people’s safety. It is pretty much a wall of ice
with
streams pouring out from underneath. Returning to Anchorage
we detoured to 
Portage
Glacier and on to the town of Whittier
just so
we could drive through the 2
mile tunnel that was once for trains only and was converted in 2000 to
handle
cars—but only one way at a time and only when trains aren’t using it!
Quite an
engineering feat to see 2 miles of solid rock carved out and
ventilation
shafts
drilled. Whittier
turns out to be a small town with a small wharf area that was all
closed up. We
took the 5 minute tour and headed back to the tunnel to make sure we
made the
last trip of the night and didn’t get stuck there overnight. As we were
finishing our drive, we saw an orange full moon reflecting off the tops
of the
snow-topped mountains. Beautiful!
It was our last day in Alaska and Neil still had not walked
on a
glacier. So, we drove out past Willow Creek
Valley
and on to Matanuska Glacier. The access
to the glacier is on private
land and
after you sign a waiver and pay a fee, you can hike and climb to your
heart’s
content. It was incredible to be walking on ice that is thousands of
years
old and
in places just glows blue from its depths. What
a way to end the trip!
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Written September 2007