We stayed in the fabulous City Garden B&B the first night....it is without a doubt the nicest place we have stayed so far. Decorated to the T.....not a beat missed.....great location and a great host.
We were then very sad....we were seemingly smart and called ahead and reserved a room in this other place, that was not nearly as nice and almost the same price...boooo. You see...sometimes it pays to just cruise up and take your chances Chris. [eyes are rolling.]
We spent the next rainy day in the museum there....mainly learning about gold....how it is formed, extracted, and gazing upon a variety of masterfully crafted pieces from all over the earth.
the earth....what a grand gift. [the exhibit was really cool. there were large chunks of gold, small crystalline gold, and fine crafted pieces from each major civilization since the incans.]
then I was able to visit with my friend Bridget (Hawaii marine turtle pal) who lives here now with her hubbie and 2 (I am sure amazing) little ones. Hi Bridge....wish we could have hung longer! It was really good to see you again!
And Chris was able to go salsa dancing....[sweeeeet] we were driving downtown to our favorite restaurant in town (Glacier Brewhouse)...well, its the only one we went to.....and chris sees a neon sign with SALSA lit up....he cheered with glee....yipeeeeeeee.
He found some Russian action that night....yeah baby! [2 russians in fact. hey, alaska is cold. apparently they were both trained in ballet, so they were fun to dance with.]
Doh! (slap to the forehead)
Homer.
Were going down to Homer just for the helofit. (If you say hell of it really fast, it sounds like halibut)
It was raining when we arrived....then cleared up....just for us.
Chris's favorite thing about Homer was the food...and I aint gonna lie....that green curry halibut was the buz-om [i think she means bomb, which in modern lingo means it was great.]. (the waitress on the other hand is in serious need of a massage (or smack in the face)). [Smack in the face is modern lingo for mean.]
My favorite thing was fishing for halibut...for the hell of it. And the Salty Dog saloon where they brew their own beer and serve it in Sobe bottles [they don't brew their beer there...they brew it at Homer Brewing Co., and 1 sobe bottle was a measly $7.50]....the label even says that they will kick your ass if you make off with one of the bottles...now that is recycling folks! [i wonder how sobe feels about that?!]
Unfortunately I did not win the derby, ( at the beginning of each fishing season the Homer Derby officials tag a few halibut and if you catch one, you get the price marked on the tag.....and the big jackpot goes to the lucky soul who reels in the biggest catch of the summer) but I did catch 2 little guys that gave my arm quite the workout. Actually...I caught about 7, but kept throwing them back in hopes of the BIG one....he never came, so I settled for these 2.
I tried to get Chris to join me.....he was not having any of it....he sure didn't complain when he was eating the fish though! [it was tasty. i was spending 6 hours on the images from Denali while she was fishing, for your view pleasure.] I am pretty sure that we are human thermometers at this point....I even began to get these bad headaches....mercury poisoning!!!!. Unless Chris is trying to poison me so he can make off with Sunniebee and hide in the Alaskan wilderness...oh wait...he wouldn't last a day. [yep, i'm a city boy.]
Bar time with a drunken local that kept passing out and waking up and asking Chris the same question over and over again [wow...yeah...think fighter. a bad one...the one that gets beaten up everytime he picks a fight...]....Chris obligingly answered every time after viewing all of the fresh wounds on this dudes forehead and hand....uh, yeah.
It was annoyingly funny. [he finally gave up, put his head down on the table and fell asleep even though the musicians were playing with their amps turned to 11. oh, and they were good.]
Su Su Seward. [Named after Seward, you know, William H. Seward...Secretary of State Seward under Jackson, the expansionist.....He was the guy who made the whole deal with Russia for the purchase of Alaska. At 4 a.m. on March 30, 1867, Seward emerged from a meeting with a desperate for money Russian minister. The Russian minister left with 7.2 million ($100 million in today's scratch) in his countries pocket. Seward was mocked heavily by the public and the media for having purchased such a large piece of unknown ice.]
It was raining when we arrived in Seward....then cleared up....just for us.
Actually, it was flooding rain...for about 2 weeks...then we arrived and brought miss sunnie.
Blue sky? what better than a little boat ride? We took a fiord tour up to Aialik Glacier ( really, how many glaciers can one person see....geeeeze). [It was awesome! The below glacier is 3/4 of a mile wide at the water's edge.]
Perfect day.
3 types of whales....humpback of course ( I mean, who hasn't seen these a hundred times ), followed by the fin whale (it is the second largest whale and the second largest living animal after the Blue Whale, growing to nearly 27 meters), then I had to get all Whale Rider and call up the Orcas. They came of course. [She did. She emitted a high pitched whiny sound for about 10 seconds. I glanced at her, giving her the, are you crazy? look, then about a minute later they all appeared. It was uncanny, especially since all she had been talking about the entire trip was 1. Orcas, and 2. The northern lights. Check 1.] A little Shamu [Orcas for those of you who don't visit Sea World] pod....daddy, momma, baby, and sis.
Bald eagle...finally. Seals, sea lions, Glaciers calving (why do they say that?....every time i hear it i think of my dad pulling out a calf from a cow's butt [and she is a biologist folks.]....gross...anywhoo)
PUFFINS! my muffins are a puffin. they can swim down 300ft! then they can barely fly because they are so fat with food. I like the ones with the mohawks the best. [Puffins are cool, they only head to land to do the egg thing.]
5 or so other types of feathered friends, but the creature who stole my heart was the otter. Oh i love them.....I really really want one....soooo cute. here i am.....just laying in the middle of the sea scratching my belly.....laying on my back....yeah yeah yeah....scratch scratch scratch.....lick lick lick....slick slick slickin the hair back. [They are so cute, it makes you want to club one to take home for a pet.] We were able to touch an otter pelt in a museum....no wonder they were almost hunted to extinction....[ It was Jesus fur.....JESUS it's soft! ] They are the hairiest animals ever....literally.
On the next day (which was just a nice as the day before) we trekked up to the Harding Ice Field.
Only an 8 miler, but you forget how hard it is to hike straight up for 3 miles [3,500 ft. elevation change + 500 ft. more for the part we did to get some pics!], then back down.....and you forget how sore that will make you for the next 3 days or so......SO sore....we are currently in that state of painful acidic goodness. But was it worth it you ask? Hell yeah!
Chris labeled it as the highlight of the trip thus far...wow. Chris! He was a champ...I guess it was just a matter of fuelage. [Ferrari baby] Pure Ice..blue Ice....mounds and mounds of Ice... [1,100 square miles of ice with 40 glaciers spawning from it.]
It was chilling it was so cool.....[The most dificult thing to convey is the sheer size of the ice fields, so I'm including a couple extra pics to give you an idea of scale...the bottom two pics have people on the ridge line to give you a sense of size. You can match up the mountains from the panorama with the first image, then the part of the ice from the second to see the scale for the third.]
and what I almost found more impressive than the ginormous glacial fields surrounding us was the couple that we passed as we were hiking down.....each with a child strapped to their backs! [That was amazing...the mother mentioned surrendering a child to a bear if they encountered one....i guess that is one way to lighten the load.] It totally changed my perspective on traveling with children...I've never viewed them as bartering tools. Seriously though, some people just amaze me....wont let anything stop them! Good for you guys!!!! See people with kids....its not the end of the world....you can do everything you could before....its just twice as hard!!!
And then sadly, we had to say goodbye to Alaska. Our grand plans of hiking through Wrangle – St. Elias National Park were smoked....really, smoked. [Cheeched, Chonged, Up in Smoke. I was really looking forward to seeing this park too...Locals all told us that it was the secret gem of Alaska. Especially since there are no tour buses there...]
There must be a huge forrest fire right near by [aka, in the park....Wrangle-St. Elias Park is the largest park in North America, and it is wild. Meaning no trails, no cars, no nothing, just wilderness, so I guess they just let the fire burn if it is going to burn. You can imagine the amount of smoke generated in a park the size of New Jersey...]....you cant even see for 50 ft as I look out the window now....so sad. OH well, I guess we have to save something for later right?
So we are Vancouver bound.....back to the AlCan and down baby, down. And let us know if you have any connections in B.C. or Seattle area! wink wink.
love, joy, and a bit of heart ache as we leave this oh so grandiose countryside. [Back to Canada, where groceries are cheap, but the gas is pricey.]
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