Alaska Highway Travel Tip

Travel Tip: If you ever leave Alaska...and you are driving down the Alaskan Highway through the Yukon Territory... and you stop to fill up the gas tank..... and you get back on the road ....and notice that the dust from the gravel is blowing the exact opposite direction...and somebody says "Hey! There is another one of those native memorial things that we saw back there on the other side of the road"... and later somebody says "Another Copper Joe Creek! They must have really liked Copper Joe to have named two Creeks after him!"... Check the compass and turn around or you will end up back in Alaska!

But if we hadn't driven the extra twenty miles, we wouldn't have gotten another chip in the window, so there is always a silver lining.

Prince William Sound

We took a cruise on the Lu-Lu Belle, out of Valdez on Friday the 13th. Luckily disaster did not strike. (Warning: This blog contains an excessive amount of otter pictures)

The trip lasted about eight hours.  Captain Fred took us all the way to Columbia Glacier, the second-largest tidewater glacier in North America, and we stopped along the way to see all kinds of cool wildlife.

We saw Sea Otters, Stellar Sea Lions, Dall Porpoises, Eagles, Puffins and tons of other sea birds.

It was a great trip and worth nearly freezing to death. Who knew that glaciers could be so cold? Canada, here we come!

Oh, and the Captain let Leslie pilot the boat when he had to go down into the engine room. (and apparently she did better than the Captain of the Exxon Valdez)

Seward

Three days in Seward, Alaska are plenty. We had plans to do a boat trip in the Kenai Fjords National Park. We did a trip about six years ago and the sea was rough and the tiny ship was tossed and it was a complete barf-o-rama. We had a blast though and saw tons of wildlife. 

We booked the trip for Tuesday, thinking that the rain would stop by then, and went to the Alaska Sea Life Center on Monday. It is a really nice aquarium and we saw tons of cool ocean life, including seals and sea lions and an adorable sea otter pup in the I.Sea.U. which had been rescued.

But it rained and rained and rained.. 

Things looked better on Tuesday morning so we headed to the harbor to board the ship and they advised that there was a rough seas warning and we could cancel, book for another day, or take our chances and go out and have rough seas and possibly have to turn back. So we cancelled without booking for another day. One can only spend so many days in the dreary rain soaked town of Seward.

Later in the afternoon we hiked to Exit Glacier which is also in the Kenai Fjords National Park. Even in the rain it was beautiful, although receding. 

So we are leaving Seward and heading to Valdez with hopes of enjoying a boat trip in The Prince William Sound, in between the rain. 

If you visit Seward, Ray's Waterfront is a nice place to eat dinner and watch sea otters playing in the harbor. (okay, they probably aren't playing, but it looks like they are)

Firewood Forest Fair

Girdwood, Alaska, a small town about 30 miles south of Anchorage,  has their annual Forest Fair on Fourth of July weekend so we headed back that way so we could check it out. We were glad we did.

Three days of free live bands, vendors and “exotic foods.” We ate exotic foods like Spinach Bread and French Fries. I am not sure how exotic the food was, but it was delicious.

There is a main stage where we watched a wide array of different types of music and two side stages with performers in between.

The vendors have everything from smelly soaps and hand carved spoons to Tarot Cards and raccoon tails. There are also artist booths with some incredible artwork.

Days since we have seen a Moose: 17 

Days since we have seen rain: 9 (but we see it coming..)