Yakutak

Friday, September 15, 2017

Our first ferry stop was in Yakutak, about 20 hours after departing Whittier. These little towns along the coast are between the mountains and the Gulf of Alaska. They are widely spaced and a little decrepit. There are only two ways in and out – a boat or a plane. This picture is from the ferry coming into Yakutsk.

Anna, Pam, and I went for a walk. There was a ferry stop, a walk through the woods to a tiny park with a small gauge antique railroad display, and a school. A tall, gangly girl came out from volleyball practice whistling Zip Pa Dee Doo Dah. We asked her how to find the town. She sent us down another road through the woods. We walked past an occasional house, one of which was the police station and court, one was a church, and all looked a little worse for the wear.

The grocery store was a series of rooms with wood floors. They had a good selection of fruits and vegetables and a good selection of Asian food. One aisle had a sign that read, “Pet Food/Mayonnaise”. That aisle also had 20 pound bags of Thai Jasmine Rice. We bought an ice cream bar and walked back on ship, which was beautiful in the sunset.

Also, I got a very cute text picture when we were in Yakutak.

Meeting up in Anchorage

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

I forgot to write about salmon spawning near Seward. As salmon near the stream of their origin, they grow beaks and turn a bit red. They are no longer good to eat. The stream was so shallow and the fish were so thick, a bird could have walked across on their backs.

They were flopping around, trying to dig in the gravel bottom to deposit their roe. This is the final act and there were dead ones all around. You could smell them!

Anna and Pam arrived Saturday. Sunday, we took them for a coffee, a hike, and a hard cider. We went back and picked them up for Sydney and David’s famous homemade pizza later in the evening and then David got back in his car and picked up Georgia coming in on the train from Seward.

Monday morning David dropped the four or us off at Snow City Café, a popular breakfast spot, we walked on to the Anchorage Museum, and David and Sydney met us there for lunch.

Then David drove us to Whittier, but we stopped on the way to look at more spawning salmon.

Whittier is a city built to support the US military and it is a bit odd. The towers built to house the residents also housed the school and the grocery. We took a quick tour and went to the ferry dock. David drove home. We are very grateful for his and Sydney’s good care.

We have a nice and small room on the Kennicott, an Alaska Marine Highways boat. We seem to be getting along very well. 

We were too cheap to get a room with a window and we are all out and about the boat all day. We have made some cool acquaintances and the food is better than we expected and this boat is very clean and it has hardly rained at all and Mt. St. Elias rose up to the north 18,000 feet for a beautiful picture. That white peak is not a cloud but the mountain.

There is no internet/cell service on the boat. I am hoping to get this sent while we briefly dock in Yakutak in about an hour. Next stop is Juneau tomorrow afternoon.

Note: Sent Thursday from Ketchikan where we finally have wireless!

Kenai Peninsula

We drove to Seward, Wednesday, September 6, for a kayak trip. It is a beautiful 125-mile drive, even in the wind and the rain, and we arrived to find our trip had been cancelled because of the wind and the rain. We stopped in at Resurrect Art Coffee House, an old church filled with cool local art and ambiance and then drove back to Anchorage.

I had been running a high fever and although it had dropped some, I was probably not going to go kayaking anyway but was sorry for Sydney and David who would no doubt have enjoyed it.

We drove to Seward again on Thursday and enjoyed the Alaska SeaLife Center. Many of the inhabitants are rescues. A sea lion was making a loud ruckus and throwing himself against the door out of his very large and quite nice space. It is mating season, the staff had decided not to breed sea lions this year, and he is apparently immensely dissatisfied with that decision.

Friday, we drove up to Exit Glacier and then took an excursion boat to the Kenai Fjords. 

I wanted to do this because I wanted to see a fjord. These fjords seemed wider and not as deep as the pictures of the Scandinavian fjords. We saw Stellar sea lions sleeping on rocks. A baleen whale came partially out of the water very close to our boat and several humpbacks showed their tails. We lingered near the Holgate Glacier long enough for several large crashes of ice into water, during which they played music from The Titanic.

When we docked back in Seward, a cute sea otter rolled around in the marina, chewing on its tail and looking playful.

We are back in Anchorage for the weekend, the three friends are arriving, and David plans to drive us to the ferry in Whittier on Monday. Thanks to David for all the pictures for this entry.