wednesday 7.5.2006 (denali to the kenai peninsula)

Posted in alaska on July 10th, 2006 by jenni | No Comments »
Tags: alaska, anchorage, denali, kenai peninsula, national parks, seward

We got up, checked out of our awesome party cabin, and headed back south. We saw a moose crossing the highway with two babies along the way. Traffic sucked in Wasilla, so we got to Anchorage around 1pm.

the igloo

We stopped for food and a memory card for my camera (apparently Denali is photoworthy?), then continued toward the Kenai Peninsula around two.

leaving anchorage: turnagain arm

The highway takes you along Turnagain Arm, part of Cook Inlet, then heads south. The landscape changes quickly; it’s all bridges and streams, and mountains covered in pine trees. The rivers were turquoise, and reminded me of Montana.

canyon creek

kenai lake

sideview: kenai peninsula

It also became very clear and sunny for the first time since we’d gotten to Alaska! We stopped a few times along the way to look at lakes and mountains, then reached Seward and checked into our hotel around 4pm.

small boat harbor, seward

One of the very awesome things about Seward is that everything is walking distance. We went down to the harbor and wandered in and out of the shops.

tsunami!

There were a bunch of fisherman on the docks, butchering fish. As they removed the heads and innards, they’d drop them through a hole in the pier into a waiting barge. The barge would take them out into Resurrection Bay and dump the guts; it was pretty much the seagulls’ best day ever.

The only way I could even stand being around the shark heads was by looking at them through the viewfinder. Shudder.

a barge full of fish heads and guts

seward harbor

We went all the way out onto the breakwater, then decided to head into the cute little downtown. I loved Seward immediately.

downtown seward

puffin!

As we wandered, my head began to hurt worse and worse. I realized that I was extremely dehydrated, so we stopped into an ice cream shop for water. We decided to go back to the hotel and drive to the store for food, because neither of us felt like dining in another restaurant that night. We got monstrous salads at the Safeway, and had dinner on our beds at 9pm. I was asleep by 10.

memorial to the kid who created the state flag.

thursday 7.6.2006 (seward, kenai fjords national park)

Posted in alaska on July 10th, 2006 by jenni | No Comments »
Tags: alaska, cruise, glacier, kenai peninsula, national parks, ocean, seward

We walked down to the harbor from our hotel, checked in for our Kenai Fjords cruise, and went to a nearby bakery for oatmeal and coffee. We had some time to kill before the boat left, so we shopped. I fell in love with Helly Hansen, and bought a bag I’m still using for my overnight gear every day.

We had assigned seats on the boat, and were paired with an Indian couple from San Francisco who were fascinating. Right as we left the harbor, we had our first wildlife encounter: otters gettin’ it on in the water.

sea otter lovin’

sexy in raingear

The ship took us out of Resurrection Bay and into the Gulf of Alaska. We’d taken Dramamine because of the many warnings to do so, but I felt we probably didn’t need it. It wasn’t rough at all, just very damp and cold. In the gulf, we saw whales!

whale spout

We then headed into Aialik Bay to see the glaciers. The water was an amazing color, more like what we’d seen in the Caribbean. I didn’t expect that in Alaska.

three-hole point (supposedly the most-photographed item in alaska)

holgate glacier

Seeing glaciers up close was nothing short of mindblowing. We were still a half-mile away from it, but it seemed like we were right up close. It’s just a gigantic, blue wall of ice, and it thunders. I couldn’t believe it. Something else I didn’t expect? That we’d actually see it calve. It happened several times while we sat there watching; once it sent huge splashed up in the air and rocked the boat quite a bit.

holgate glacier calving

The water was full of ice chunks from other pieces breaking off, too. Some of them looked like little icebergs floating around.

We left Aialik Bay and headed out to the Chiswell Islands, part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. To me, this meant one thing: PUFFINS. I’d seen them floating around in the water, but hadn’t seen them up close yet.

chiswell islands

sea stars

PUFFINS!

We hung out watching the puffins for a while, then went around to another island to see seal lions. They’re pretty much just like my cats: lazy and noisy.

sea lions

gulf of alaska

We had dinner on the way back, and spent a lot of time chatting with our tablemates. On the trip, we’d seen a ton of wildlife: baleen whales, humpback whales, porpoises, puffins, cormorants, bald eagles, a black bear, sea lions, harbor seals, and otters. Honestly, the puffins affected me more than the whales. I just like them a lot.

We got back to Seward Harbor around 7:30pm, and the sun was still shining. We walked back to the hotel, then downtown, and decided on Christo’s Palace for dinner. We had pizza and a couple blue glacier martinis, which turned out to be very strong. I giggled the whole way back to the hotel.

friday 7.7.2006 (seward, kenai fjords national park)

Posted in alaska on July 10th, 2006 by jenni | No Comments »
Tags: alaska, glacier, kenai peninsula, national parks, seward

We got up early on Friday, went to Safeway for the essential caffeinated beverages, and headed over to the other side of the Kenai Peninsula. We drove through Soldotna, which was a fairly large town for the area, and headed up to see Kenai. It was very run-down, but the buildings were amazing. I loved the Russian Orthodox churches, and the shoreline.

russian orthodox church in kenai

We went back to wander around Soldotna for a while. The visitor’s center was really cute, and we learned all about salmon fishing. We shopped at the little mall, then went to Charlotte’s Cafe for lunch. They only had 4 things on the menu, and all of them looked amazing. I loved our server a lot. Come to think of it, everyone in Alaska was ridiculously friendly.

We drove back toward Seward, stopping a hundred times along the way to take photos. The tiny town of Cooper Landing was my favorite. We then headed up the road toward Exit Glacier, another portion of Kenai Fjords National Park.

the road to exit glacier

exit glacier

This time, instead of taking a boat to see a glacier, we could actually walk up to it. If you get there early enough in the day, you can take an hours-long ranger-led hike onto the glacier and ice fields themselves. We had decided to save the crampons til next time; we wanted to see as many things as possible.

We hiked up to the overlook, then down to the river below. We were well-acquainted with glacial geology by then, because we’re nerds. For once, it was actually warm outside!

sign marking the glacier’s location in 1926. it’s at least half a mile from there now.

We did a lot of hiking in the river valley, spent some time at the visitors’ center, then headed back into Seward around dinnertime.

We had dinner at Yoly’s Bistro, then went to stock up on souvenirs at the many, many shops downtown. Laden with bags, we ended up at the ice cream shop. I got a coffee there, and yet somehow still managed to crash around 10:30, to the sound of a cruise ship pulling out of the harbor.

saturday 7.8.2006 (seward to anchorage)

Posted in alaska on July 10th, 2006 by jenni | No Comments »
Tags: alaska, alaska railroad, anchorage, kenai peninsula, seward

Saturday morning, there were brand new cruise ships in the harbor. Sadly, we checked out and headed back up the Kenai Peninsula. We decided to take a short side-trip to see Hope. We liked the name.

hope

Hope was a ridiculously cute little town, and from the looks of it, completely deserted. That wasn’t true, exactly, it just had the feel of a ghost town. Everything was closed, and the only movement was around one trailer down by the waterfront. There was obviously a lot of regular camping there, because there were weird piles of abandoned stuff around campfires. Like this engine, for example.

I was on the verge of peeing my pants, nothing was open, and it was far too light out to go outside. Instead, I visited the most terrifying handicapped port-a-potty in the universe. I’m still scarred.

Near Turnagain Arm, we encountered a lot of traffic for Alaska. We didn’t really mind, considering the scenery. We slowly made our way into Anchorage, and had lunch before checking back into the same hotel as before. This time, there were cops in the lobby, evicting a guy who’d apparently made himself too-much-at-home.

We headed downtown to wander and shop. It was gorgeous outside, warm enough that we didn’t even need to wear jackets. I bought about 50 hoodies (or so it seemed), and a bunch of stuff for the friends back home. We headed down to the Saturday Market (I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but I have a deep, burning love for open-air markets in other cities), and wandered around the booths. I discovered the ak starfish company and swooned.

Once I was done buying half of Anchorage, we got in the car and headed to Earthquake Park, near the airport.

anchorage from across cook inlet

The park had an impressive memorial and intepretive site dedicated to the 1964 earthquake, and great views of Anchorage from across Cook Inlet (we were told that on a clear day, it’s even possible to see Denali from that point). We walked a mile or so down the hiking path, then decided to go see more of Anchorage.

We went to a pizza place for dinner, then to see the Captain Cook monument. I liked him because he’d been our first rental car’s namesake in Hawaii. Also, I like seamen.

captain cook monument

We parked down near the Alaska Railroad station and walked to a bridge over Ship Creek to watch the salmon fishermen. Coming from a decent-sized city, it was kind of scary to think that people would eat fish that were in a city river. Then again, they were coming right out of Cook Inlet.

salmon fishermen at ship creek

Also, I learned the five types of salmon, and how to remember their names, but i won’t tell you the trick: pink, silver, king (chinook), sockeye (red), chum (dog).

A train was arriving as we walked back, so we went down to see it. Half the cars were owned by Holland America. There’s something so amazing about the trains there. I really want to do that next time, and maybe stop along the tracks and see if I can hail one. Yeah!

We went back to the hotel to pack for the flight and chill before leaving Alaska. We may have had a little party involving our leftover booze from the 4th of July. I discovered mushrooms growing in the bathroom, and didn’t really mind at all. We went to bed around midnight, and it actually looked a little like the sun might set for once.