The Willimers in America

Alaska Day 12 - Back to Crow Creek

This morning we rose and headed back to Crow Creek. It's become increasingly important to try and give Tom some say in what we do. He is feeling a bit put upon, since most of the time the adults tell him where we are going next for his enjoyment, not expecting any reluctance. I think his ill temper has a lot to do with this. Despite the fact that everything we are doing is meant to be enjoyable, we are packing a lot in and there is often not a lot of room for debate.

Crow Creek was historically an active gold mine, but has now become a tourist attraction. There are several original mine buildings, and a path to the creek where visitors can pan for gold. On entry we were given a shovel, a pan, and a lesson in how to pan, as well as a small sample containing gold with which to practice. I am sure that many visitors, like us, lose even the small amount of gold in this packet without perfecting the panning technique. After about 40 minutes of fruitless panning, much of it in standing in a heavy downpour, we decided to leave. At the time I could not decide whether this was a quaint historical document being kept alive by dedicated enthusiasts, or whether there was a very clever marketing ploy, playing on people's instinctive desire to 'strike it rich'. Shane assured me that he knew the people who owned it, that his brother had been married there, and it was indeed a genuine landmark. The sight of a family of gold-diggers, returning from the creek with their generator, pumps and highly advanced filtering equipment also vouched for it's genuineness, if not the historical side.

         

There are more pictures here.

In the evening we headed to Tina and Jake's for a family barbecue, where we met several new members of Ryan's family, and sampled his efforts to grill salmon on cedar planks and a large prime rib of beef - not bad at all, Ryan ! I took Tom away for a while, as his mood had not improved. We went to Barnes and Noble to look for his summer reading books, but when we got back food was served, Frisbees came out and Tom had a thoroughly good time before we dragged him away, at what appeared to be an all-too-early hour.

In fact we have been thrown several times by the 'midnight sun' here in Alaska, even though we were warned about it. It's not the brightness in the night sky that is the problem. Soon after midnight, the sky gets dark and overcast - not truly night, but with the duskiness in the sky and quietness in the street you can tell it's late. No, the problem is the evening, when the light in the sky does not change from 4pm in the afternoon till after 11 o'clock and there is no sensation of time progressing. Often we have got up from our evening meal ready for the next activity, only to find that it is after 10.30pm and  certainly time for Tom to be in bed. Alaskans (like Bob and Mary) are obviously disciplined about this, and get themselves off to bed at 'normal' times. Not for the first time, it is after 1am before Linda and I settle down.

Alaska Day 11 - Leaving Seward

Saturday dawned, and we anticipated a leisurely drive back to Seward. After all, we had packed in so much already on our road trip. WRONG ! After another rudimentary breakfast at the Marina Cafe, we gathered our belongings and headed out. The drive back from Seward to Anchorage is the shortest of the three legs we did, but as we stopped multiple times, it turned out to be the longest.

Our first stop was the Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Center. This is essentially a pet refuge for wildlife, and very well done too. In large open and wild enclosures, the center accommodates wild animals that have had misfortune, particularly young animals that have been orphaned. We saw moose, bison, sitka deer and elks. We didn't catch site of any of the three brown bears, hiding in the undergrowth of their 18 acre compound (though we did see the coyotes that shared the enclosure). We also saw Adonis the bald eagle, who had been shot and wounded by a hunter and had his left wing amputated. The place exuded an overall feeling of goodness and decency, and we left well satisfied (although I still hadn't seen a bear).

       

On our way out, we took a brief detour to drive up close to the Portage Glacier, an impressive blue ice floe sliding down from the mountains. We drove through the adjacent campsite, which was very picturesque and allowed hundreds of campers in tents or RVs to have the equivalent of their own 'private rooms' between the trees.

From there we headed to Girdwood, a small ski resort town, which housed the Alyeska Resort Hotel. We met up with Shane and Missy again at The Bake Shop where we ate lunch, before taking a long hike through the local trails to the hotel. En route, a woman stopped us to say that a brown bear and her two cubs had been seen around the chalets we had just left. I walked the rest of the way both nervous and excited about finally seeing a bear, not sure whether I would run or stop and take pictures.

We reached the hotel without incident, and walked into the hugely impressive lobby. The hotel exuded luxury, and we could understand why Amy's brother Nathan had his wedding here. However the main attraction was the Tram Railway, which took us to the top of the mountain. This would have been heavingly busy in the winter skiing season, but in the summer just a handful of us rode up to the summit. I couldn't persuade Linda to go up (too much like a roller coaster, I guess) - just Tom and I with the others. I don't know why I was surprised to see snow at the top - we'd seen snow at the top of all the mountains we'd driven past - but it did feel strange walking out onto a snow-capped peak in the middle of July. While walking around, we spotted a couple unpacking large rucksacks, and sorting out some interesting equipment. Turns out, there is a healthy trade in tandem paragliding, and once set the instructor and his passenger simply jumped off the summit and glided gracefully down to the valley below. We saw two other groups go while we were there, and Ryan was very tempted...but not tempted to descend the mountain on foot, as Shane and Missy did, managing to get back to the cars first and scrawl a (clean) message on the dirty window.

     

Shane had mentioned their trip to the Crow Creek Gold Mine, and Tom was very interested. While Amy and Mary took Natalie back to Anchorage, we drove three miles up a dirt road to find that the place was now closed. It was after 6pm, and this was turning out to be a long and tiring day, which was why Tom's temper was not good. We promised that if he really wanted to do this, we would return, and set off home ourselves.

Returning to Bob and Mary's was just like coming home, and we had a marvellous evening with a simple but delicious chicken salad (so enjoyable after all those restaurant meals) and a late evening of card games and far too much wine...

Alaska Day 10 - 4th July at Seward

Today was a big day, with festivities and races all morning, and the big race at midday. The big race is the Seward Mountain Marathon, an annual event where runners leave the centre of town, run to the top of the nearest mountain, then half run, half tumble back to the finish line. For the best runners, going up takes about half an hour, coming down takes much much less. The town was filled with street vendors, with every kind of food and drink available.

So it was a big surprise that when we finally hit the streets just after 10am, nowhere was serving breakfast. Whilst Linda and I were looking forward to trying the street food, Tom wanted pancakes, but had to settle for pizza and fries for breakfast, which didn't put him in a good humour. We had some rough times of Ryan and Amy's schedule, which gave us plenty of time to wander around. The town had a real community vibe, and the day felt not unlike the Shadfest in Lambertville (where Ryan and Amy live) so there was no surprise why they like it so much.

  

During the morning, we went to the Alaska Sealife Center, where Bob Hicks had worked previously. We watched sea lions and seals pirouette gracefully around the tanks before heading back to town to meet up with the gang. After ice cream, our group dispersed, while the Willimers stayed with Ryan to watch the race start. A huge field of runners of mixed ability set off, and we tracked them from the centre of town as small dots disappearing up the hillside. 50 minutes later the leader returned, mud-spattered and bruised to cross the finish line. The end of the race was surprisingly low key, as the crowds of earlier seemed to have thinned out. And apart from a few groups of young herberts letting off stink bombs, the anticipated rowdiness never materialised. We finished the evening with a fine meal at Cristo's Palace, where I was able to extol and demonstrate the virtue of serving salmon with melted cheese, in my excellent Salmon Quesadilla.

  

More pictures of the day are here.

Alaska Day 9 - Kenai Fjord Tour

Today was anticipated as the highpoint of our vacation, and as you will see, we were not disappointed. One of the main reasons for being in Seward was to board the Alaskan Explorer and tour Resurrection Bay and the Gulf of Alaska to see the amazing wildlife. The weather so far on this trip has been amazing, so we were a bit disappointed that this was the first day that some light rain was forecast, and indeed as we pulled out of Seward Harbour, a light drizzle began. The promise of these tours is that you will see whales, puffins, seals and porpoises around and about the boat, and it was not long into the first leg of the voyage that we came across a pod of orcas, ducking, diving and generally entertaining the passengers. You never know how valuable the experience is going to be - will these whales be a small dot in the distance of your photos ? At least we have Linda's long lens...Well, first we heard the sound of wales singing on the hydrophonic microphone, then we saw them dancing around the boat, then the most active pod of about four wales turned and swam right alongside the boat, giving everyone the perfect photo-op.

The journey continued in this vein - we saw mother and child humpback wales sleeping - yes, sleeping - as they bobbed along, we visited the Chiswell Islands, and pulled within 10 feet of a giant cliff face covered with puffins, kittyhawks and cormorants nesting and wheeling in huge crowds above us. The high point for me was our arrival at Aialik Glacier. Captain Mark pulled the boat up to within 1/4 mile of the giant blue wall of ice, and silenced the engines, while we stood in the icy rain listening. The glacier is literally alive. It creaks and groans as the huge mass slowly slides down the mountain till it reaches the waters edge. There it cracks, and calves - huge chunks of ice, the size of houses, tumble into the water with the awesome roar of a thunderstorm. The anticipation of this event is electric. The glacier is a mile from side to side, and 200 metres high, and dwarfed us in our relatively large boat. Quite simply one of the most awe-inspiring sights I have ever seen in my life.

As we turned and picked our way back through the miniature icebergs, remnants of previous ice falls, the rain seemed to turn colder and the wind stronger. We felt for the kayakers, who had set up camp close to the glacier and were out in the middle of the water in front of the face - at least we could go inside. The deteriorating weather kept most people in the cabin out of the rain, and reduced the opportunities for photographs. In fact, as we reached the end of the fjord and entered open water, some people started to reach for sickbags as the waves grew, along with our sense of unease. This weather was not forecast, but the crew worked calmly to reassure passengers, and to hand out ginger ale and napkins to those in need.

As more and more passengers turned green (including both Linda and Thomas) Captain Mark apologised yet again for the unexpected weather, but added that there were other mariners in difficulty, and we were going to assist. So instead of heading to the safety of port, we headed out into the Gulf, looking for a small fishing boat. After about 25 minutes of roller-coaster waves, we found the boat. Our large pleasure cruiser left a smooth path in it's wake, which allowed the little boat to turn safely and follow us slowly to the shelter of a nearby island. In the calmer waters, we transferred supplies and left it moored, waiting for the weather to abate, while we headed for our salmon dinner at Fox Island. As well as a marvelous wildlife cruise, we got a huge adventure into the bargain, even at the expense of a few upset stomachs.

We did get our pictures...

Leaving the boat, we had the familiar but more tricky job of finding something for Tom to eat. His limited food vocabulary means that there is no way he will get a meaningful meal out of grilled salmon, wild rice, salad and sweet corn, and as often happens, we end up looking for chicken tenders or pizza  for him before he can settle for sleep. In our quest, we got an idea of what kind of town Seward might be. The diner Tom wanted to go to closed at 7.30, just as the town was filling with evening revelers for the pre-July 4th festivities. The next restaurant had a 45 minute wait for a table. The next did Greek and Italian food (no chance), the next fish restaurant was closed for the evening. Meanwhile, we had walked past at least four 'redneck' bars, with buzzcut adolescents drinking beer and spilling out onto the pavement. Bob told us that the town of Seward has laid on extra security for tomorrow, since a similar annual July 4th festival up the road has been canceled this year, since last year it descended into drunken violence. Many of those revelers are expected here tomorrow....watch this space...

Alaska Day 8 - Homer and Seward

The Chocolate Drop Inn was so comfortable and homely, that although we rose at 8am for breakfast, we just chilled till 11am, and Laurie had to remind us about the check-out time. Once we had packed the cars, we drove back down to the Spit to do some beachcombing. You have to keep reminding yourself that the grey beaches around here perfectly normal - the weird grey sand comes from the smooth grey river pebbles, and is normal in every way except for the disconcerting colour. The road to the end of Spit is apparently the most southerly point in Alaska you can reach by car without using a boat, so we had to check that out before leaving Homer for good.

Pictures of the last day in Homer here.

Since we were retracing our steps, the drive back was uneventful, until we reached the junction for Seward. Then we headed east, and drove through Moose Pass, which even though it is a town, and not a mountain pass, contained more of the idyllic scenery which has become so commonplace. Ryan and I tried to imagine Bob riding his motorbike along this road in the summer, feeling much more part of the scenery than you would in a car.

The centre of Seward looks a little rough, so we were relieved to be heading out of town tonight for dinner at nearby Resurrection Roadhouse, with the extended Warren and Hicks family - Tina and Jake have driven down to join us on the cruise tomorrow. The restaurant is really good - very much like a trendy restaurant in some urban metropolis, but of course with the ubiquitous fresh salmon and halibut - but the service was a bit slow, and a considerable wait for the table, which was already booked, was followed by an extremely long wait for our food. The long day, the long wait and the travelling all contributed to a tired fractiousness, and leaving the restaurant at 10.45, we were glad to back to the hotel and our beds.