Oh, you thought we were done with Alaska vacation recapping? Hahah. Noooo! So far we’ve showed Anchorage, Fairbank and Denali, and now, to wrap it up, an Anchorage encore.
Day 6: Whittier and Glaciers
The day after returning from Fairbank and Denali, we set out to enjoy a day on the Prince William Sound, cruising around to see glaciers. The weather was AWFUL. Rainy, cold and windy. We took the 26 Glacier Tour, and while we certainly didn’t see 26 of them, we did view quite a few impressive hunks of ice.
The rotten weather didn’t even matter. We were so in awe, we just stood in the wet. Cute, right? #USAUSAUSA
The tour was narrated by a forest ranger and included a fried cod lunch. Oh, and the boat had a bar! Haha. On one of the glacier stops, some crew members fished a giant chunk of ice from the water, chopped it up, and the bar used it for iced drinks! We also saw some calving, including a piece so large that its waves shook the boat enough that we had to hold on – and we were on a big boat!
In addition to food, drinks and really old ice, we saw awesome wildlife! The sea otters on the ice were so cute! They would slide off and float around on their backs in the water.
The sea lions were really cool too, just hanging out on the shore. They are HUGE.
The tour was about four or five hours, and while it was a little pricey, it was a lot of fun. Oh, and let’s talk about the town the boat launches from, Whittier. It is WEIRD! But in a cool way. About 200 people live there and it’s only accessed by boat or tunnel. The tunnel is WWII era and two miles long. Until about a decade ago, it was only a train tunnel. Now, cars can go through, but only at scheduled intervals since it’s one lane and train tracks still operate! And the tunnel is a true tunnel – rock and dripping water everywhere. Whittier is pretty, too – there are waterfalls everywhere (as seen in a few pictures above), running off the mountains from snow melt!
Anyway, after Whittier we stopped by the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. It was really cool! We heard an elk bugling, which just sounds crazy. The bear that walked right up to the fence was standing there staring, and I said, “Hey bear, do something funny,” and he lifted a leg, balancing on three. True story, ask my husband. (I am a bear whisperer)
The drive between Whittier and Anchorage was beautiful. It’s a scenic highway with lots of places to stop and take photos. We saw the tide coming in, which was super violent looking (apparently the mud flats can be dangerous!), and generally enjoyed the scenery. Had it not been so windy and cold, we probably would have stopped to hike a bit, but we were not dressed for that, unfortunately.
Glaciers and plate tectonics are officially my favorite earth-shaping natural occurrences.
And for dinner that night, we went to a popular pizza place called Moose’s Tooth. It was good! It reminded me of Mellow Mushroom.
Day 7: Hiking & MOOSE ATTACK (Kind of)
We took it pretty easy on the last full day of our trip. We drove up to a trail at the Eagle River Nature Center. It was beautiful there! We actually didn’t see any wildlife, but some of the trails were closed because of bears.
On the way back to our bed and breakfast, we spotted a moose! FINALLY. We had only seen a couple at Denali and desperately wanted to glimpse one near the city. It was just chomping on grass and we were watching it, taking photos, and suddenly…the moose charged us. And we had wandered much farther from the car than we should have. ACK. We sprinted back to the car and the moose gave up pursuit. It was still about 30 yards away from us, so it wasn’t a close call, by my pumping adrenaline and heart in my throat begged to differ.
Day 8 & 9: Travel Home
The last day of the trip was pretty lazy. We drove around a bit, got lunch at Great Harvest Bread Co. and just enjoyed the last few hours in Anchorage.
The trip home was fine. We hit Seattle, did a red eye from Seattle to Chicago and finally landed in Raleigh around 9:30 a.m. after a nearly sleepless night. I slept most of Friday, and we both had our sleep schedule sorted out by Sunday.
Wow, what a great vacation! Alaska is still on my travel bucket list, but someday, someday…!