Orcas!

On Sunday we went on a day cruise around Kenai Fjords National Park. I have never seen so many incredible things in such a short amount of time. In six hours we saw orcas, humpbacks, glaciers, and more!

Seeing orcas was amazing. For some reason, they were everywhere. We probably saw at least 20 orcas, two of which came up within 15-20 feet of the ship! I didn't take pictures. This is for good reason, though. If you want to see a picture of an orca you can just google it. And if I want to see a picture of an orca, I can do the same. But I will not have any more moments to see an orca in real life, so I think I'd rather spend those moments looking at the orca than taking pictures. Such was my attitude about much of the wildlife we saw on the trip. But I did take some pictures.

...a rock covered in sea lions....

...a cliff full of puffins...

...and a glacier!

This is Holgate Glacier, the only one we had a chance to see up close after we spent so much time chasing orcas. The captain gave us some perspective. From where we were sitting on the boat, the glacier was a quarter of a mile away. So although it may have looked rather small to our eyes on the boat, and even more so to you looking at this picture, it really is huge. It gave off a lot of ice while we were there, which sounded like thunder as it crashed into the water.

What incredible sights we saw!

And now we are home, though I nearly abandoned my mom to stay in Seward, where they actually have jobs :). My adventuring may have come to an end of sorts, as I have completed my mission of going to the fifty states, but I have a feeling it will continue in some form or another. Again, thanks for reading, and I'll let you know if I go on any more blog-worthy adventures!

Seward: the land of halibut and kayaking!

1. Halibut: Mom's favorite part of the day was watching all the people clean their fish(and this guy hang up his catches). And I ate a delicious halibut burger for lunch.

2. Kayaking: After much deliberation, I decided to go kayaking this evening. Mom didn't go. I went with a little group of people led by two guides on a 3 hour paddle around the bay where we saw lots of sea otters, bald eagles, and more! One of our guides, Dan, informed us that we saw a very rare sight, which was Kittlitz's Murrelets(sea birds) fly. To me it doesn't mean anything, but he was pretty excited about it. Any bird enthusiasts out there might be able to relate.

It's 10 pm now, still light outside, of course (I have yet to see Alaska at night). I'm trying to settle down to get some sleep for our last day tomorrow--the day cruise where we will hopefully see some glaciers and more animals!



This was the most beautiful day.

It's funny how driving down a road the opposite direction at a different time of day in different weather can change the scenery. It's not that the drive from Anchorage to Denali on Wednesday wasn't pretty, but it was nothing in comparison to today's drive back down south. Sparse clouds drifted through the sky, allowing us to see Mt. McKinley from many angles as we drove through the valley. The flowers were blooming along the roadside, the water in the lakes was blue and reflective, and the trees were glistening.

The tall one below is Mt. McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America! Though I'm not tempted to climb it, I am so ready to go hiking! I want to see the scenery at a 3 mph pace rather than the 65 mph pace we've been seeing it at these days. All that we've seen is calling for me to conquer it.

We took a trip into the Hatcher Pass area near Wasilla to see the old Independence Mine. We were not expecting to be blown away by the beauty of the valley. Green like I have never seen it before covered the mountainsides.

The mine was really interesting as well. It was all falling apart; apparently they don't do any kind of restoration on the actual mining structures, though there were some nice trails and boardwalks built.

Other notable events today included me locking our key in our cabin from the last two nights(picture below), a yummy oatmeal and blueberry breakfast served by the always-flustered waiter at the Perch Resort, a stop at a used bookstore in Wasilla because we had run out of reading material(BTW, especially to Hannah, I'm starting Harry Potter! I just finished reading Nectar in a Sieve), finding a crossword puzzle to work on at lunch, and now being in our lakeside room at our hotel with the window open and the weather blissful.

Alaska is beautiful!

Six hours of searching.

The main event today was a 6+ hour bus ride into Denali. It was gorgeous. Again, one of those things that pictures don't really capture. Our bus driver gave us narration for much of the trip. But he also gave us a job: to search for wildlife and to yell STOP(loudly) if we saw anything. Being the conscientious person that I am, I couldn't relax. I had to be searching the tundra every second. Even if I didn't care tremendously about seeing a Dall Sheep, how could I let those other people down by not doing all that was in my power to sound the alarm? Needless to say, despite my efforts, I was not the first to spot any of the animals we saw(a few groups of sheep, a couple caribou, and a moose). By the time the bus ride was over, I was exhausted. I think my hyper-vigilance for six hours was more tiring than driving for the same amount of time would have been.

It was a great bus ride and we got to see the park and learn a lot about it.



The Last Frontier!

As our plane landed, I told the man next to me that as of that moment, I had been to all 50 states. He didn't have very many good things to say about Alaska, but he lives in Las Vegas, and I don't have many good things to say about Las Vegas. If you don't like the country, well then sure, Alaska may not be for you, but if you have any kind of appreciation for mountains carved by glaciers and trees so close together you can't see through them and beautiful wildflowers along the side of the road, it's just fine.

Last night we drove to our hotel. Mom was pretty loopy. It was late(but still light outside, of course). We had a vigorous argument about I Street, which Mom insisted was 1st Street("Why else would it say One S T?" she said). This morning, she thought L Street was I street. We had a good laugh about it.

Our first stop was in Anchorage, at a Bakery our friend Lousia had recommended(who was here last week!) The basis for her recommendation was that they give really big free samples. And they did!


Next we stopped in Palmer, which was a bit off the highway, but a great stop! There was a visitors center where I got a free poster and there was also this awesome sign with mileage to destinations all over the world. 

Note the mileage to Los Angeles: 3573. 

Also at the Visitors Center in Palmer there was a fairly large garden, full of flowers and vegetables.

Of course, any of you who know my Mom know that quilting was definitely going to be a part of this trip. (In fact she's quilting right now!) Well, here are our two quilt shop stops. It won't be long until I too am fluent in quilt lingo.

We stopped in Talkeetna for lunch on our way to Denali(about a four hour drive, which we stretched out to be all day). I ate a Salmon Caesar wrap, and she had Seafood Chowder. Yum!



We're at our 'rough and tumble'(as Mom said) or 'rustic'(as I say) lodge right now, about to eat what should be a great dinner. Everything is gorgeous, from the creek just yards in front of our cabin, to the view from the hilltop restaurant. Should be some pictures tomorrow...

On our way

I'm not quite to Alaska yet, but here's a quick post from the Seattle airport.

This is our pre-leaving picture.

Our path to Alaska is a bit counterintuitive. Long Beach to Seattle to Portland to Anchorage. This is how we found the best deal. So it goes with the airline companies, right?

Uneventful day so far. The best thing that happened was a woman's electric toothbrush going off (for the full toothbrushing minute) in the Long Beach airport. We all heard a vibrating sound that definitely wasn't a phone, and just as Mom asked me what I thought it could be, the woman finally found it and pulled it out, such that we could see it was a toothbrush. We laughed. The worst thing was the fact that there wasn't a movie on the airplane.

The thing about airplanes, in comparison to cars, is that you can't sing at the top of your lungs to entertain yourself. I plugged in to my iPod for a bit, but it's not really the same when it's not a 4-hour singalong.