Category: alaska

Today we made our way from Juneau to Seward via Anchorage. I’m sure y’all have heard of both Juneau and Anchorage, but you probably have not heard of Seward. And although you have heard of Juneau and Anchorage, you probably have no idea where they are. To make it a bit easier on everyone, I have included a couple of maps. The first one is a bigger map of Alaska showing the places we’ve been so far. The second is a close up of south central Alaska.

To give you an idea of scale, it takes almost as long to fly from Juneau to Anchorage as it does to fly from Baltimore to Orlando, Florida. Once we arrived in Anchorage, we rented a car and drove south to Seward, which is located on the Kenai Peninsula (pronounced “keen-eye”). Looking at the map below, the body of land below and to the left of Anchorage is the Kenai Peninsula. Seward, indicated by the green arrow, is a town on the Kenai Peninsula. Just below and to the left of Seward is Kenai Fjords National Park, the real reason we came here in the first place.

One more map reference for you before I describe our day… the body of water directly below Anchorage that separates the city from the Kenai Peninsula is Turnagain Arm.

Now that my geography lesson is complete, I can continue…

We flew into Anchorage, rented a car, and headed south to Seward on the Seward Highway, which follows the shoreline of Turnagain Arm for quite a few miles. There are mountains all over the place. On a cliff beside the road we saw our first Dall sheep.

On the way to Seward, we stopped at Exit Glacier. There you can actually walk to the face of a glacier. The guidebooks forgot to mention that the half-mile trail would likely still be covered by snow.

Last but not least I have to mention the highlight of the day … we saw a Mama moose (cow) and two babies (twins!). Mike and I estimate they were about a week old.

NOTE: I am a day behind in my posts because our connection is really slow. Hopefully I’ll get today’s (Saturday) highlights posted, too.

There isn’t much to talk about today because we basically spent the day getting from one place to the other. The journey wasn’t long, it was just the only goal for the day. Well, that and relax, too. This is vacation after all.

We left Glacier Bay National Park–sadly–and flew back to Juneau. Tomorrow, we catch a 7:22 AM flight to Anchorage. Once there, we rent a car and head south to Seward, the jumping off point for a visit to Kenai Fjords National Park. The entire Kenai Peninsula is supposed to be gorgeous, so I expect there will be more pictures to see tomorrow.

There was one really cool thing that happened today, but I didn’t get a picture of it. While Mike and I were waiting for lunch to be served, enjoying the view from the deck of the Glacier Bay Lodge (see photo below)…

… Mike noticed some Bald Eagles flying toward us. There were three of them. The one on the left was about 6 feet away from the two on the right, who appeared to be chasing each other, playing. Well, they kept flying straight for us. When they were about 15 feet away, they banked sharply to the right. They were so close, we heard their feathers ruffle; it sounded sort of like a kite or a flag sounds when being whipped about on a windy day. That is the kind of stuff that is common at Glacier Bay. It was sad to leave. Knowing we still have lots to look forward to made it easier.

I expect Kenai Fjords will be just as incredible, but topping Glacier Bay will be hard.

Sitka was nice. The ferry ride to Juneau was awesome. Our Juneau experience was not so great. But today we flew to Glacier Bay National Park. It is amazingly beautiful. I seriously don’t think it can get any better than this. There are snow-capped mountains everywhere. And lots of water.

There’s wireless Internet access in the main lodge, but not in our individual room. In-room access would be better, but I am actually surprised there is access from here at all. There is no cell phone service from the park, that’s for sure. It is quite remote.

We left Juneau around 10:00 AM on a six-seater plane (that count includes the pilot). Mike and I were the only passengers. It was sunny and clear in Juneau, but a huge fog bank was hanging between some of the mountains. In the pictures, what looks like a flat white snowfield is actually clouds.

It was actually a pretty clear day in the park, but it is cold here. We were both happy to have brought our winter coats. Tomorrow we go on the actual Glacier Bay cruise, so the pictures should be more exciting. We hope to see some whales. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

It is late, so I’ll sign off for now. I hope you enjoy today’s photo installment!

Alaska – Day 3

Before I forget…it is 10:30 PM as I write this and it is still not fully dark…

Mike and I have finished Day 3 of our journey. The goal for today was to get from Sitka to Juneau via the Alaska Marine Highway (ferry system). Flying would have been much faster, but I chose the ferry ride so we could experience a bit of the Inside Passage by boat at least. It was amazing. I just can’t believe how pretty it is here.

Some of you may be bored by these pictures, because they are mostly scenery shots taken through the window of the ferry. They are not super high quality due to the window reflections and salt spray on the glass, but they should give you a good idea of the beauty we got to enjoy during the trip.

Wanna hear something funny? We flew from Washington, DC to Los Angeles in just over 5 hours. The trip from Sitka to Juneau on the HIGH SPEED ferry took 5 hours. It really was high speed, too. “Knots” doesn’t mean much to me, but Mike had his GPS unit turned on and there were times when we hit 48 miles per hour!!! (Average speed for the trip was 35 mph.) And you should have seen some of the small channels we were going through.

The journey was one hundred percent worth it. We saw at least one whale (just its back and the spray from spouting) and some other things that were either dolphins or smaller whales. And the scenery way breathtaking.

Juneau itself is quite underwhelming, but we’re only here briefly on our way to Glacier Bay National Park. Speaking of Glacier Bay… it is a national park, and it is remote. Chances are good there won’t be Internet access. If there are no updates for a few days, that is why.

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The following image appears on the front of the newspaper machine at the ferry terminal and I just could not resist sharing it with all of you…

Alaska – Day 2

Day 2 (May 25, despite what the blog post date says) was a “cushion” day. I built a couple of those into the itinerary in case we got delayed (Sitka’s airport is frequently closed due to fog). Also, so we could rest. After the long travel day on Saturday, we were both beat.

Mike, who usually sleeps a little later than me, actually got out of bed first, at 5:18 AM. That’s the time zone effect. I slept a bit later, but we still were out and eating breakfast at about 6:30. The hotel has a free continental breakfast, but we opted for a full breakfast at Victoria’s restaurant in the Sitka Hotel. It was quite yummy. Afterward, we spent some time shooting pictures around town, which you can see for yourself is a very pretty place.

After a brief rest, it was finally “late” enough (around 9:00 AM) to head out. We didn’t have any definite plans, just a couple of options, so we chose to walk to the other side of town to see the Sitka National Historical Park and the Alaska Raptor Center.

The historical park was all about the history of the Indians who first settled here–Tlingit–as well as the Russians who later claimed their land and the Americans who later bought it from Russia. The raptor center is a place where they rescue orphaned or injured raptors (eagles, hawks, falcons, owls, etc.) and either rehabilitate them for release or give them a place to live if they are not able to be released due to their injuries.

It was very cool to see the Eagles and all of the other birds close-up like that. Although there are wild Eagles all over the place here–I see one flying outside as I type this–you really can’t appreciate their size until you see them like that. Bald Eagles have a 6-8 foot wingspan!

After that, we walked back to town, dropped our stuff at the hotel, then went out for what turned out to be a surprisingly fabulous meal at a place called Pasta Roma Pizzeria on Seward Street, a bit off the beaten path. We are 100% convinced this is Sitka’s best-kept secret. It isn’t all that appealing from the outside (it is in a strip center with a copy center and a Subway) and were both a bit nervous when our Diet Cokes were served in bottles along with a glass of ice.

But we each had a cup of the most delicious, homemade minestrone soup, I had chicken marsala (perfectly cooked and seasoned) and Mike has lasagna, which he said is the best he has ever eaten. For some reason, the chef gave us a free bruschetta appetizer AND creme brulee cheesecake for dessert. That may prove to be, as Mike said, “the culinary highlight of our Alsaka trip.”

It is about 9:15 as I type this. Time to close things down and pack up. We leave Sitka today for Juneau, the state capitol, which means a 5-hour ride on a high-speed ferry (the regular ferry takes 9 hours!).

Hopefully we’ll have Internet access tonight. Until then, you can view some of our photos from today by clicking on the image below: