ALASKA – Beaver Creek/Haines

July 17 Tuesday Left Valdez this morning and we are facing two long days of driving to reach Haines. Our stop for tonight will be at the Beaver Creek RV Park which is actually in the Yukon Territory so we will be crossing the border into Canada about 20 miles before this stop. The day is sunny so our drive back through Thompson Pass was much nicer. We backtracked to Glenallen, which is where we turned off to head to Valdez two days before. This time we went about 8 miles beyond Glenallen and took the Tok cutoff. Not too much to write home about here. We reached the Canadian border crossing around 4pm after driving 8 hours. Crossing the border, we lost an hour, since the Yukon Territory observes Pacific Time, but tomorrow we will cross back into Alaska so we will be back on Alaska time.

July 18 Wednesday Headed to Haines this morning. Another beautiful sunny day. We traveled some extremely rough roads for about 3 hours from Beaver Creek to Destruction Bay. Lots of frost heaves and construction. While traveling slowly we caught sight of three moose across a lake. Also got some nice pictures of Kluane Lake-- reflecting the mountains & clouds. 

A real nice stretch of the road...NOT! Mr. Skunk probably wonders where we are going!

Three moose!

Reflection on beautiful Kluane lake

We stopped for lunch right before Haines Junction...just pulled into a turnout along the road. I got out to take a picture of an unusual flower I had been seeing along the road. Right after I stepped back into the RV to sit at the table and eat, Gary saw a grizzly bear just a few feet away from the RV! He was getting some pictures of it just as some motorcycles went past and the bear meandered back into the woods.

 We crossed back into the US about 40 miles north of Haines. Mountains were just beautiful heading into Haines. Our car was so dirty from today's drive...just had to take a picture of it as we parked at the Haines Hitch Up RV Park. This is one of the nicest parks we have been stayed in and we will be here until Saturday when we board the Alaska ferry with the RV & car and head down the inter-coastal waterway for the next stage of our trip.

Driving into Haines

One dirty car!!

ALASKA – VALDEZ Day Two

July 16 Monday Beautiful sunny morning! We headed to the Valdez Museum. Took a walking tour with a guide, Faith, who just moved here from central NY 10 months ago! Small world, she grew up in Corning! The tour was of the houses and business buildings that were moved from the original Valdez location to the current location after the 1964 earthquake. We had lunch at the Harbor Cafe and got some pictures of the harbor. So pretty in the sunlight! The mountains surrounding Valdez are absolutely beautiful. 

Valdez harbor

Another view of Valdez from across the bay

Thompson Pass early 1900s

We toured both museums, the Valdez Museum and the old Valdez Museum. Thought this picture of Thompson Pass in the early 1900's was interesting.   It was hard enough to drive through it in the fog in our RV...can't imagine traveling through it like this!









We decided to head for the salmon hatchery a little earlier tonight to see if we could catch the bears eating dinner. They were there!  I guess it is pretty unusual to see a bear with 4 cubs.  She gave the cubs a couple of salmon which they fought over, and then she got some for herself.  When it was time to leave, she didn't seem concerned at all by the crowd that had gathered.  Gary got some good pictures!

Mama bear and her four cubs (notice the sea lion in the background)

Mama has her dinner

Mama and cubs heading back home after dinner

ALASKA – VALDEZ

July 15 Sunday Left Anchorage about 9am for Valdez. It was raining pretty steadily. Not too great for picture taking until we were almost to Matanuska Glacier on the Glenn Highway. This glacier trends northwest for 27 miles into the Chugach Mountains and its' average width is 2 miles. As soon as the sun was out, we started taking pictures.

Pretty sight on the drive

Mr. Skunk enjoying the views

Liz in front of Matanuska Glacier

Another view of Matanuska Glacier

 

Look closely to see the snow reflecting poles for snowplowing

The nice weather kept up until we headed into Thompson Pass. We heard in town that Thomspson Pass got 75 feet of snow last winter! And, it even snowed some there last week! As we approached the summit, it was very foggy and raining.

Top of Thompson Pass ---YIKES!

Descending Thompson Pass

  Once we descended the fog cleared but the rain continued. It was still raining when we stopped to take pictures of Bridal Veil Falls

Bridal Veil Falls and our RV

When we got to Valdez, it was raining and only about 44 degrees! We heard that a grizzly bear and her 4 cubs had been showing up about 6:30pm at the salmon hatchery for dinner each night. We drove out there, but did not see the bear. However, we did see many bald eagles and sea lions. Gary got some great pictures of these.

Bald Eagle - one of 20 we saw

Four young eagles...they will be prettier when fully mature

Fisherman and sea lions - here for the salmon

Got my salmon!

Where's our salmon?

ALASKA- Soldotna/Homer/Anchorage

July 14 Saturday- Anchorage We left Homer and headed back to Soldotna to pick up the jeep which we had left at Buddy's. Just as we reached the Soldotna city limits three moose crossed the road. As usual I was so unprepared, I only got a picture of two of them. Once we had the car hooked up to the RV and ate a quick lunch we took off for Anchorage. Thanks to Marc, we will be parking the RV at the Alaskan Pacific University for the night and in the morning will continue on our trip to Valdez.

Two moose at Soldotna city limits

Where the RV spent 10 days

RV at the Moseley Sports Center for the night- thanks Marc!

July 13 Friday - Homer Went for breakfast at Louie's in Kenai after we checked out of the Duck Inn. Buddy called just after we had ordered breakfast and said the RV was ready!! Wow! We are so excited to move back into our “home”! It has been at the garage for 10 days! We were able to sleep in it the first two nights, but hadn't been in it for 8 days. Buddy and Mike were great though...they really worked hard to get us back on the road. We decided to make a short trip just to be sure all was in working order, so we took the RV back to Homer which is about 72 miles away. As we approached Homer we got a great shot of the Spit. Be sure to click on the picture once to enlarge it and view the Spit at the top of the photo. It was a sunny, non rainy day and we found a spot on the beach to dry camp. Beautiful night...not warm, only about 51 degrees, but water was calm and the view was wonderful. We spent the night. It was great to have coffee and breakfast in the RV this morning!

View of the Spit as we drove into Homer- top of the photo

View of the mountains around the Spit

View from our RV - please note this was taken about 10:30PM!

July 12 Thursday- Soldotna Thought the RV might be done by the end of the day so we left Anchorage and headed to Soldotna. Rainy day. But, as usual, Turnagain Arm was still a pretty drive even in the rain. On the way, we stopped at Portage Glacier, but it was so rainy and cold we didn't even get out of the car. However, as we drove off we saw a pretty view of  Bryan Glacier, so we stopped to take a picture.  Hope you can see the beautiful blue of the glacier at the top of the photo. When we got to Soldotna, Buddy told us that the RV would be done in the morning. Not a lot of motel rooms available as net dipping season has begun. Net dipping is when the salmon start running and people stand in the river or on the river bank with huge nets and dip them in and scoop up salmon. We understand that the salmon were not running good yet, though. Probably will be better in a few days. Buddy had called a motel called the Duck Inn and they had a room available so we went with that. We took a drive out to the Russian Orthodox Church in Kenai, since we had not seen this when we were here before.  Not much else exciting today!

Pretty view of Turanagain Arm - tide is out

Bryan Glacier at Portage River

Russian Orthodox Church in Kenai

Alaska - Anchorage days 3 & 4

July 11 Wednesday Decided to check out the Anchorage Museum today which is in downtown Anchorage. This is a huge museum and much more formal than others we have visited. A guided tour was just starting has we got there so we went along for the tour. So glad we did! Our tour guide was wonderful and very informative. We went through the Alaska History Gallery with her and enjoyed it so much we decided to join her next tour of the Art of the North Gallery and the Changing Exhibitions. Very interesting. 

Outside of the museum..talking with Brooklyn on the phone

Huge painting of Mt. McKinley by Sydney Laurence 1929

 

We took Mr. Skunk with us and went to the children's area of the museum. There were some things here that were very similar to the Ithaca Science Center. Brooklyn would have really enjoyed this. Mr. Skunk tried a few things.

Mr. Skunk at the ocean wave which is made by pulling a rope

Mr. Skunk at the hands on sea life exhibit

Mr. Skunk in a  play with Alaskan animals

I got a phone call from Brooklyn as we were leaving the museum. She is glad to have Gage & Reid home. They are going to play Minecraft with her which is her favorite video game. She said there was an upgrade coming in August and Reid promised to download it for her. So nice talking to her!

We still do not have our RV but we heard from the mechanic tonight and it should be ready tomorrow! So, we will plan to leave Anchorage and head for Soldotna in the morning. Sure will be nice to move back into our home on wheels!

July 10 Tuesday Looking for something to do to occupy our time while we wait to hear that the boys arrive home. They should be in Ithaca by midnight NY time and 8 pm Alaska time. We decide to head for the Alaska Native Heritage Center. It was a good choice. This is a beautiful place that takes you through 10,000 years of Alaska Native history and culture through art, dance and Native Games demonstrations, exhibits, traditional Native dwellings and movies. It was informative and entertaining. Most of the activities were presented by teen Native Alaskans. The Native Games that were demonstrated were ways to improve hunting skills. Such as the walking in a push up position on the ice to hunt seals. And, the one leg ball kicking was for improved skill in the whale hunts. If I remember correctly, when the men were hunting shark they would signal to the village with either one kick or two...one kick meaning that they did not get the whale and two kicks meaning there is a whale and everyone should come down to the shore to help bring the whale in. All of these games are done today and there is an olympic version of Native Games in the North. 

 

The dancing was very interesting. Each song/dance told a story. One story I recall is about a man who traveled to his in-laws to join them on a hunt for seal. The morning of the hunt they forgot to awaken him, so he dreamed of hunting seals. In the picture the hunter is in the middle and the dancers on the side represent the seals.

The seal hunting game

Kicking game

Seals and hunter

There were also six life-sized traditional Native dwellings that represented 11 major cultural groups. We viewed these on a tour with a guide.

One of the dwellings built into the ground

Inside the dwelling

 

We heard from Angela about 8:30pm our time...the boys were home!

Alaska – Anchorage

July 9 Monday 

Gage & Reid's last day with us in Alaska. After breakfast at the Bagel Factory we headed downtown to see what there was interesting to do. Reid noticed segways for rent at Bear Square. We checked into it and they could do a 2 hour tour of the city on segways! Everyone was up for that and so we booked a tour for Gary, Gage & Reid for 2pm. Checked out the visitor's center and then they grabbed a quick lunch of reindeer hot dogs before the ride. For those of you who are not sure what a segway is, I have included some pictures. The tour starts with a 15 minute crash course on how to ride a segway and they all took to it like fish to water. 

In line for reindeer hot dogs

Ready to tour!

On the tour!

Gage chilling after tour!

Reid chilling after tour!

 

We met Marc & Ann Phillips for dinner at Bear Tooth Theater Pub.  This is a great local restaurant which has delicious pizza (among other things) and is a favorite with the locals. Marc is the brother of Carol Peters who I worked with for years at Cornell. When she heard we were headed to Alaska she introduced us via email and what a great connection they have been! Marc is the Director of Recreational Programs at the Moseley Sports Center at APU (Alaskan Pacific University). The first thing he did for us was to provide a spot to park our RV at the Center while we were in Anchorage. Then he offered to give Gage & Reid a guided tour of Mt. Marathon. Marc and his wife Ann have run that race many times. That didn't work out as the mountain was closed while were in Seward because of the missing racer which I had mentioned in a previous post. Both Marc and Ann have been so welcoming to us...we sure have appreciated their hospitality. We had a great time at dinner talking about our adventures and Marc and Ann's experiences of living in Alaska. They lead an adventurous life...both having climbed Mt. McKinley several times and are avid bicyclists, hikers and outdoor enthusiasts. Thanks Carol, for the introduction! 

With Marc and Ann at Bear Tooth

11:30pm came too quickly. We had to have the boys to the airport in plenty of time to get through security and catch their 1:43am flight home. Our 17 days with them went by way too fast. We had such a good time with them here. Tried to squeeze in as much Alaska and adventure into their visit as possible. We will miss having them here with us. 

Leaving Alaska! :(

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July 8 Sunday 

Time to head back to Anchorage so Gage & Reid can catch their flight early Tuesday morning (1:43am). The first time we drove through Turnagain Arm it was rainy and foggy, not very picturesque, but on our return trip it is a sunny day and the scenery is beautiful. 

Turnagain Arm

We got to Anchorage about 12 and first on the agenda was to find a motel. Finally secured a room at a Motel 6, not far from downtown Anchorage and the airport.

Plugged in at Motel 6

We ate lunch at Humpy's where Gary and I had eaten when we were in Anchorage waiting for the boys to arrive. Very casual place, but good food. We did some walking around downtown since the boys had not seen it yet. We did some shopping. Lots of activity as it was a Sunday so we decided to come back the next day and find an adventure for the boy's last day in Anchorage. Don't know if I mentioned before how beautiful the flowers are in Alaska...thought I would include a few pictures of some of the ones in downtown Anchorage. 

 Beautiful flowers!

Oh, by the way, Gary ran into Sarah!