Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Driving with Rick

Day 8
Sunday – 7 September

Well after the excitement of the early hours of the morning, a sleep in was required. We missed breakfast. As we were packed and ready to go we checked out of the hotel and bravely hit the road again. Overnight Rick’s driving skills on American roads hadn’t improved and my hair was going greyer by the minute. As we were both suffering from disturbed sleep, it took the two of us to concentrate on what side of the road we needed to be on, what the speed limits were and where we were going. Mind you the Alaskan roads were a might scratchy in that they have sunk into wheels ruts and when you drive you need to stay into the already created ruts or the car will wander into the next lane.

We were off to t he Alaskan Zoo. Although it wasn’t too far away, we didn’t have precise directions but a vague idea of where it was. We figured we’d just drive until we found it. And we did.

After having been to the Wildlife Park the yesterday, we found the zoo to be really disappointing. The animals were in small cages and had that ‘caged animal’ sway. Most looked sad and didn’t want to be seen if they could find a hiding place. Our objective was to see the DAHL SHEEP. When we found them they were hiding at the top of their exhibit and could barely be seen. Not happy! Time was getting on so we decided it was time to go as we needed to return the car. Just as we were walking out two little squirrels ran across our path. Here was wildlife running free. Yippee! We spent about 20 minutes watching and photographing these playful and elusive little critters. They were so cute and we did manage a photo or 2.

Our next stop was the Hilton Anchorage. This was to be our hotel for the tour we were going on. As you can imagine it was rather swish, with an eager Bellhop racing out to grab our bags from the car and footpath. Thank god because they are heavy. Once we checked in and sussed out the shampoo and extras it was time to go shopping.
Yes, it was time for the shopaholics fix. Richard had spied the signs for the Labor Day holiday sales. As Alaska has no sales taxes clothes, shoes etc are so much cheaper. So after a significant period of time we came out with a new pair of jeans and six pairs of socks – all greatly cheaper than in Australia. More weight for the suitcases! Hopefully the shopping bug has been fed and we don’t have to return to the store again.

The Hilton was nice enough but not as spacious as the Clarion. We had a great view from our room over the whole of Anchorage to the south, east and west. It was like a fairyland at night.

Alaskan Wildlife Conservaion Centre

Day 7
Saturday – 6 September

A later start today as we were tired. We thought we would hire a car for the day and go down to the Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Centre. It was down near Portage but not as far as Whittier. We had a little trouble doing this as it was the Labor Day weekend and lots of people were visiting or holidaying. We were however lucky to be able to get a car at 2.00 from Avis (just a block away from us).

So at 2.30 pm we headed out down the highway in the very nice Chevy Impala. Needless to say I’d didn’t drive it. The Americans drive on the wrong side of the road, the car’s controls are in reverse and the auto was a column shift. I swear Richard had a love affair going on with the right-hand side of the road. We seemed to be constantly veering into the next lane or narrowly missing the gutters. I had to keep reminding him of which lane to use. It was quite confusing to start with. Coupled with the fact that we were in holiday traffic, it was somewhat terrifying. Eventually we made it to the highway and didn’t need to worry quite so much. The drive was a scenic one along the Turnagain Arm so it ended up being quite pleasurable.

The Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Centre was originally set up to protect and rehabilitate injured and orphaned animals. T has in recent years branched out to research into the breeding of bison for return to the plains of North America. So this was a great opportunity to see some buffalo in real life. They are big, hairy and they smell. They are slowly increasing in number and who knows where they may be found in years to come?

This place had our interest for several hours. It doesn’t close until 8 pm as the sun doesn’t set until about 9.30 – 10.00 pm. We saw elk, musk ox, porcupine, brown bears, caribou, moose, black bear (from a distance) bald eagle, horned owl and orphaned moose. It was fantastic to be able to get close to them and know you weren’t about to be eaten or gored. We have some amazing photos of just about all of them.

The bears were most interesting as they were being fed. The biggest of 3 was hogging all the food (an entire moose hind quarter) tied to a rope so he wouldn’t run off with it and visitors were able to stand just 10 feet away and watch and hear him feeding. Oh what BIG teeth he had! He wasn’t about to share with the other bears and ran the younger male off with a loud growl and bared teeth. He can move very quickly too. The younger bear knew his place and sat well away salivating. Every so often he would inch forward trying to get a little piece. No such luck. The female was of wondering in another part of the paddock, eventually going in for a swim and a play in the water. She too decided to challenge for the food and just waltzed in and crawled in and took some knee joint for herself. A few minutes later she had the lot and big bear up and left. Young male was off sulking and looking pathetic a short distance away. This interplay between the bears was interesting to watch.

We headed back to Anchorage and the traffic stopping along the way at a Fred Meyers supermarket – like a big Woolies. It was almost 10pm by the time we arrived back at the hotel. We needed to pack as we had to change hotels the next day.

But first the washing needed to be done as we wouldn’t have another chance for a week. Rick toddled off to bed having checked to see if the machines were free. It was now midnight and there was I sitting in the laundry waiting for the wash to finish and a dryer to be freed up (another lady was also as stupid as me and up doing her washing and hogging the dryer. In the end I finished up and 1.15am and barely awake. But the washing was done and we still had the hire care so we could make the most of the day.

I had no sooner gone to bed when the phone rings. There was excitement at the other end of the phone with Meg delivering the news that Kaitlin had given birth to a baby boy who has been named Blake. What delightful news to receive!
Eventually we both were able to get back to sleep and happy knowing that both Kaitlin and Blake were well.

Prince William Sound - Glaciers Galore

Day 6
Saturday – 5 September

Trip to Prince William Sound

Another beautiful day dawns as we are about to head south for the day. An early start was necessary as we had a fair way to travel. We were picked up at 8.00 am at our hotel and then travelled a short way around town to collect other souls. Once done it was down the Old Seward Highway heading for Whittier and the cruise.

On the way we worked our way down the Cook Inlet –discovered by Captain Cook in 1778. He made landfall and traded with the natives. There was an artist on the ship who did some incredible sketches of the landscape and the natives and their day to day lives. There was a couple in the Alaskan museum - very detailed. We travelled along a section of the Inlet called Turnagain Arm. Cook named it because the sailors he sent to explore it had to keep turning again and tacking the ship because of the tides. The tides, on average, vary by between 35 -40 feet each day. The water rushes in to fill the almost empty inlet (which turns to massive mudflats as the tide recedes). This is the third largest tidal exchange in the world, behind Broome and somewhere I can’t remember. When the returning tide meets the outgoing tide twice a day, it creates what is called a BORE WAVE. It is quite extraordinary to see and we lucked upon it twice. The wave can range in height from a few inches to 6 feet rushing into the inlet. It was probably only about a foot high when we saw them but that will increase as the size of the tide increases. The locals told us that when the BORE Wave is 5 – 6 feet high the local surfers ride the wave to the end of the inlet – some 60 – 70 kilometres. What a buzz!

It was in the inlet that we saw some Beluga whales. They were only immature ones – grey not white as the adults are. They don’t jump out of the water but just roll out and in quickly. You have to really watch to see them as they move quickly.
To get to Prince William Sound we had to go to Whittier. This turned out to be a unique experience as we had to go through the longest tunnel in the North American continent. It was 2.5 klms long and perfectly straight. It was built in 1941-42 by the army as a means of transporting soldiers/goods to Anchorage and beyond if the Japanese invaded. They did bomb the outer islands of the Aleutian Islands, so the threat was very real. Seward was vulnerable, as was Juneau and Whittier – the only all year round ice free ports. The tunnel in only wide enough for the train, so it is shared on a rotational basis with the public - that is it is open at one end for 30 mins and then the other end has its turn. The locals are always keen to make the tunnel opening time or they have to sit and wait for an hour. The tunnel is carved into solid rock and has no internal supports and was built in 11 months. Quite an engineering feat!

Once on the water we cruised past a bird rookery – Kitty Winks (we call them sea gulls). They migrate to the same area every year and are very specific as to where they roost. We moved on to the salmon hatchery. Here they breed and return in the order of 600 million hatchlings back into the wild each year. The salmon had just about finished their run for this year so we only saw a few stragglers in the water nearby. Very big ones, or so they seemed to us. We saw a couple of bald eagles sitting in the trees - USA native bird emblem – out hunting for whatever they could find.

We headed for the glaciers, which was the exciting. On the way we glimpsed a couple of sea lions chasing some fish. They are quite large in the water and very swift.
Next we came across some gorgeous sea otters. The hang about in “rafts” (groups) lolling on their backs and grooming themselves. They are very shy and don’t stay around for too long so are very difficult to photograph. We did manage a couple of long distance shots though. They had an otter pelt on board so we could feel how soft their hair is – it is hair not fur.

All the way we were surrounded by mountains and glaciers. Many of the glaciers are known as hanging glaciers as they never come to the water and remain high up in the mountain valleys. They shimmered and appeared blue in the sunlight. ‘Blue ice’ is not actually blue, but it is a trick of light refraction and blue is the only colour of the spectrum not absorbed by the light. We saw many glaciers and as we went further into the Sound we saw the magnificent tide water glaciers. These do come to the water and below for some hundreds of feet. They too, have a blue ice effect but also carry the dirt and rock from millions of years of having been grinding their way to the water (called moraines). They groan and creak and moan and crack really load pops like a shotgun being fired, as they move along. We were able to stay very near to the front of the Surprise Glacier so we could listen to it and watch to see if it ‘calved’. It did – 3 times – while we were there they were quite small calvings though. Below the front of the glacier were piles of floating ice and sunning themselves on the ice were seals. We weren’t able to get too close to them as they would just slide off the ice floe and into the water.

Photos don’t do the glaciers justice. They are so grand and big and impressive. Truly awesome! Although we hear that the glaciers are all receding and melting, this isn’t exactly true. Yes they have receded, but they have done this throughout history. Some of them are actually getting bigger and some have remained unchanged. Whatever one believes about global warming, we are glad we had the privilege of seeing them. Just awe inspiring!

So this day was long and gratifying and we were able to tick another box for the things to do in Alaska. A great day all round.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Day 5 - History Lesson

Day 5
Friday – 4 September

Today was a quieter day as we needed to regroup and do mundane things such as THE LAUNDRY. This took a couple of hours in the hotel laundry, but at least there was a laundry in the hotel and we didn’t need to go and find a Laundromat somewhere in Anchorage.

Just 2 blocks from the hotel is a shopping mall. They do nice enough coffee so we like to go there for our daily caffeine fix. There is also a department store that Richard has fallen in love with. He found that the American stores are very much to his liking and he fairly salivates when the shoe section is found. (always for joggers) So needless to say we spent a bit of time shopping (imagine coming to Alaska to shop!) Eventually I removed him from the store so we could go and do Alaskan stuff. We went and booked a cruise to Prince William Sound for the tomorrow. We hoped the weather would hold.

We went to the Alaskan Museum for the afternoon. It was only a block from our hotel and only a short walk away. It is still in the building phase and some exhibits are not yet completed. However, the Alaskan Gallery was open and we luckily arrived just in time for a guided tour through the gallery. The exhibits followed the history of Alaska from the pre history, original inhabitants through to the invasion by the Japanese during WW2, the big earthquake of 1964, the building of the oil pipeline and to Statehood. Really interesting. Bec there was a large section on the Tlingit people and we have interesting photos to show you. All in all we spent a couple of hours there.

The weather is still spectacular. More Alaskan seafood for tea tonight.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Day 3
2 September - Wednesday
Well the Holiday Inn Express proved to be a really good option in the end. The bed was soooo comfortable and the pillows were luscious. Our problem was we couldn’t work out what time it was. We needed to sleep in the day and get up at night and basically our body clocks were totally confused. Both of us kept waking up thinking it was time to go to the airport. After a restless sleep (no fault of the hotel) we had the complimentary breakfast and dragged our packed bags back down to the shuttle bus for the return trip to the airport.
Perhaps today we would see an improvement in the airport – we were waiting for something that would grab the travellers of the world and say “WOW! You lucky guys have landed in the glitzy capital of the world! Welcome”. We were once again disappointed by the dull, drab, untidy, poorly organized, loud and uninviting airport surrounds. Brisbane leaves them for dead, as do Melbourne and Sydney. Our international airports are the opposite – bright, spacious, inviting (Duty free everywhere you look) well signed and organized etc. We were glad to leave LA. Maybe one day we’ll go back and look at it with different eyes. It is a convenient stopover point for other exciting places in the world. Bye Bye LA!
Yes you guessed it – our next flight was to Portland Oregon and then on to Anchorage. Back to the real world of flying “cattle class” AKA “sardine land”. We flew with Alaska Air to Portland in the oldest plane we had seen in a very long time. The seats were dreadful, bloody terrible in fact. Thankfully it was only a 2 1/2 hour flight and somehow the pilots managed to have us 25 minutes ahead of schedule. Must have been a great tail wind and we were grateful. The pressure really got to me and my ears are still blocked. I forgot to put in my earplugs – never again!
Landing in Portland was a pleasant surprise and the airport was bright, colourful, clean and well signed etc. - Complete opposite to the LA experience. We had a 2 1/2 hour wait for the last leg of the trip to Anchorage. Dad, unfortunately, didn’t have the opportunity to phone Audrey (I couldn’t hear anything anyway because of my blocked ears). I was going to send you a postcard from Portland but couldn’t find one - it seems that everything is electronic now, including postcards.
When leaving Portland we spotted the cutest plane. It was straight out of Disneyland – painted a bright, cheery blue with a huge Mickey Mouse on the tail and back of the plane with stars and other smaller Disney characters sprinkled across the fuselage. It turned out to be our plane – even the inside was decorated, with the bulkheads painted a pretty blue and filled with stars. This too was an Alaska Air flight and turned out to be slightly more comfortable. With ear plugs securely implanted I didn’t suffer any pressure problems this time. This was a nearly 4 hour flight and about half way through we had our first glance of the snow covered mountains from the window - VERY impressive and just like the brochures. Once again Alaska Air came through and we landed 15 minutes early. Obviously the pictures haven’t been Photoshopped!.
Anchorage airport reminded us of landing at Norfolk Island but on a bigger scale. Coming in to land we had a view of all of Anchorage. It is quite spread out and was larger than I thought. The terminal again put LA to shame; it let you know immediately that you were in Alaska. There were displays of bear, Dahl sheep, raptors etc. There was a chill in the air but it wasn’t cold. There was an astounding array of very large vehicles. It appears that the locals’ vehicles of choice are big F150, F300 4 wheel drives. Our hotel has a shuttle service to and from the airport, so after just a short wait it arrived and off we went. It was 7pm when we finally got to the hotel so it had been another long day.
We are staying at the Clarion Suites and they are very nice, quite spacious and will do very nicely for a few days before we start our tour. I’ll get Richard to break out the camera and we’ll take some photos for you all to see. As it was tea time we asked the receptionist to recommend somewhere to go for tea. She thought “tea” was for us to drink and suggested we look in the room. Once we sorted out the language issue (they are after all Americans!) we had the name of a local café to try. So off we went to “Phyllis’s Café and Salmon Bake” where they served local seafood and other local cuisine.
Upon looking at the menu we realized we were truly in a wilderness area. The first item to jump out us was reindeer sausage, followed by elk burger. King crab featured high on the menu as well along with snow crabs. The king crabs are those giant crabs caught by the Alaskan fishermen on the “World’s Deadliest Catch” TV show. They are huge. The legs don’t even fit on a plate but hang over. They are sold by the pound, so on the menu you order ½ pound or 1 pound of legs depending on how hungry you are. With the snow crabs you eat and eat them (All you can eat..) . They aren’t big on veggies or salads here so Bec you would have a hard time. But crabs and halibut are standout items. We had reindeer sausage (sorry Santa !) in BBQ sauce, and they were beautiful. We shared a plate so as not to offend the reindeer lovers too much and thank heavens we did as it would have been a complete meal for 1 person – BIG serves of everything here. That was our entrée so for mains we tried halibut and a side of clam chowder (Rick) while I had blackened shrimp (prawns in Cajun sauce). Both meals were yummy. We also tried the local beer – Alaskan Summer Ale – which was really nice and much like a XXXX ale but sweeter. Rick describes it as simply “VERY drinkable”. You don’t get a choice of glass size either - they just come as a schooner. Thankfully we had a 3 block walk back to the hotel to walk off dinner.
Back to the hotel for a minute. When we arrived the room was quite warm, even by our standards so we turned on the air con to cool it down. When we arrived back from dinner the room was now unbearably hot. Rick trotted down to tell the office who kindly sent the Maintenance man up to fix it. An hour later it was unchanged, so back to maintenance. It was now about 11.00 pm and we were tired. The maintenance guy agreed that the air con was broken and they moved us a couple of rooms down to a room that was blessedly cooler. Thus we had a good night’s sleep (and in Rick’s case a long sleep in as well).
Our body clocks are just starting to get into sync again. So far since leaving home we have crossed the Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer, the Equator and the International Dateline. We have gained almost a day – we did Tuesday twice – and crossed from Eastern Standard Time, Pacific Time (LA) and Pacific Time (daylight saving Alaska) so we have had to adjust to 3 different time zones and can barely work out what day it is. Confusing!

Day 4
3rd September – Thursday
SO nice to be in one place for a few days and not have to drag the heavy suitcases around again. We started off slowly this morning – but this was anticipated and planned for after 2 days of travel to the other end of the world. Even though the distance is great, the world is really a small place and people are the same everywhere (they just have some quirky ways….).
Anyway after breakfast – complimentary with the room - we came back to plan the day. Unfortunately the washing needed to be done, so after Rick had a short morning nap (9.15am) we headed to the laundry. We used the intervening time well and decided to do one or two activities depending on how the day went. It had showered overnight but had cleared away early to a fine and sunny day. We have brought along our cold weather gear and are still waiting for the cold weather to arrive - not that we are unhappy about fine, sunny days.
We decided to do a Trolley Car Anchorage Orientation Tour. The red trolley bus is an original – the first in Alaska and owned and operated by 3 generations of the same Alaskan family. It took us past historic sights such as the Alaskan Railway, some of the housing typical to Anchorage – very average and old by our standards. We saw Earthquake Park more a siding at the edge of the road, but historic following the 1964 earthquake that almost destroyed Anchorage and sent a tidal wave as far south as San Francisco. Whole areas of Anchorage – suburbs and 4 city blocks dropped 30 feet. We also went past Lake Hood which is the largest and busiest float-plane base in the world. There were hundreds of little planes moored to the shore – just like boats. Owners can wait up to 9 years for the privilege of a ‘parking spot’. They simply take off and land on the water of the lake. In Alaska you can get both your pilot’s and car license at 16 years. Planes are more prevalent than cars, as the country is so rugged that there are no roads in many areas. Because it was such a clear day we were able to see Mt McKinley in the distance (125 klms away). Quite a majestic sight really – and in a few days we get to go right to it.
Tonight we went to Phyllis’s Café so we could have a crab encounter. The pictures are self explanatory….
Love
Janet & Richard