My belly is FULL! We just finished our huge breakfast in Sterling, AK. I had a "Strawberry Fields Forever" shake for breakfast. It didn't help my chills from the cool morning, but it tasted so good. Who says you can't judge a shake by it's name?
The last two days have been two of the most enjoyable of the entire trip! You need to see all the photos to get a feel from it...go to the bottom and work your way up.
We left Anchorage 2 days ago and decided to stay in Seward, AK. On our way we stopped for some breakfast and we both tried deer sausage. Well it sounds good, but it wound up having the consistency of a hot dog and the taste of well...hot dog. The rest of the ride to Seward is an enjoyable ride along Chickaloon Bay and through Moose Pass. Seward is a coastal town just west of Prince William Sound and at the tip of Resurrection Bay. We found a hotel with a great rate, dropped off our stuff and went on a 6 hour bay and glacier cruise with Kenai Fjord Tours and did the Northwestern Fjord Tour.
We saw Orca whales, porpoises, a humpback whale, lots of birds (including horned puffins and seagulls), harbor seals, sea lions and more. Our destination was the Northwestern Glacier, one of the fingers off of the Harding Ice Fields. The captain of the ship pulled us within a few hundred yards of the glacier and
turned off the motors so we could look closely at the glacier as it advances about 3-6 feet a day. The rate at which the glacier advances does not equal the speed of the recession. We saw a photo slide show of the the alarming change over the last 100 years vs. hundreds of years before. Dinner and a sunset was included with the tour and that was icing on the cake! We returned to the hotel by 10 p.m. and were exhausted from the bike ride and the water ride but seeing all the animals helped to make up for our lack of other animals we haven't seen during this trip.
Early yesterday morning we headed from Seward to Homer, AK. Homer is the western and southern most part of our trip on Alaska and we got a chance to spend some time with an old friend Taz Tally. He's shown me pictures from his deck before and it just doesn't seem to do it justice. Let me say that people (like me) take pictures of glaciers, print them and hang them on the wall in their offices...Taz merely looks out his office window and sees these things everyday and they are amazing. When he's not teaching graphic arts topics he's busy kayaking, hiking, skiing and biking. His most recent book he's working on is about hiking the mountains on the other side of Kachemak Bay and part of the same Kenai Mountain Range. Taz gave us some suggestions for dinner and an evening ride and we enjoyed it all.
We had dinner at Captain Patties on the Homer Spit. The crab legs have been described "as long as your forearm" and I have to agree. The food was tasty and fresh. From there we went back past Taz's and out the East End road all the way to the end. Once again I got to enjoy the dual purpose bike and I proceeded down a dirt road that Don chose to avoid. Steep, steep, steep...but it was worth it. I came out on the beach and got to ride a long it awhile and snap a few photos before mountain goating my way back up.
We arrived back at Taz's and opted to sleep out on his deck under the stars and I was rewarded by late night shooting stars and watching satellites pass by.
We're heading back to Anchorage for service on Don's bike and then up to Denali National Park.
It seems that the lower region of your bodies would be aching at this point, but with those smiling faces you've so graciously shared with us makes me wonder if there is any discomfort to be had!
Posted by: sans | August 13, 2007 at 04:20 PM
Looks like you had a beautiful day with Kenai Fjords Tours. We were out on the boat on a "blue bird" day and saw a superpod of orca whales. It was the most fantastic part of our Alaska Adventure so far! Thanks for sharing your photos!
Posted by: Upper Lake Alaska | August 14, 2007 at 02:17 AM