Alaska Day Four: Glaciers and Otters

Early Saturday morning, Frances drove to the north side of the city to watch for the lights but no luck.  In the morning, she ran two miles, the last step of her training.  Our first stop of the morning was Walmart again so Frances could get a watch for the race.

Then we headed out again on the Seward Highway towards Whittier.  Since we weren't crossing into Alaska so no welcome sign, we opted for the photo op with the Alaska Scenic Highway sign for my collection.  Several more photo ops along the way, with few clouds in the sky and no rain.

Outside Whittier, we paid $12 and got in line to go through the one lane Anton Anderson tunnel, which is 2.5 miles through the mountain.  The tunnel is open in each direction only once an hour, and we went through during the 10:30 opening.

We paid $5 to park in tiny Whittier, where the skies were beginning to be overcast again.  We walked around and checked in for our glacier cruise.  Because we had opted out of the buffet on the boat, we grabbed some food in one of the tiny shops.  There isn't much to Whittier, but a lot of boats. 

There was a cruise ship in port.  In the shop where I bought my pizza, there were some guys who had been up in the mountain hunting and seen 3 bears, but as it was not bear season, they had to leave them alone.

After lunch we boarded the Fairweather Express II.  The boat was only about half full which was nice.  The tour was narrated by a Chugach National Forest ranger named Mary.  From the time we left Whittier, the sky was cloudy, drizzly, and cold, but we had a great time anyway.  Mary pointed out some valley and hanging glaciers, identifiable by their blue ice.

We passed several fishing boats, and we weren't able to visit the fish hatchery because the boats had their nets stretched across where we needed to go.  We went out around Esther Island and traveled through Esther Passage.  We came upon a whole bunch of sea lions "sunning" themselves on rocks. 

After the sea lions came the sea otters, which are bigger than the otters I've seen in the zoo - around 100 pounds each.  Frances was able to get good pics using her zoom lens.  We spent time out on the deck of the boat but got too cold and wet so went in for awhile.

The highlight of the cruise was our arrival at Surprise Glacier, a tidewater glacier, meaning it touches the water.  The boat stopped near the glacier and we had lots of time to take pictures.  Most people gave up and went inside, but there were a few of us still out there when a harbor seal popped his head up between the ice.  He came up one more time and then disappeared before anyone could get a photo. 

We finally had enough of the rain and cold and went in to have hot chocolate.  The crew had fished glacier ice out of the water to make glacier ice margaritas.  I was too cold, but Frances did try some glacier ice water.  On the way back to Whittier, some junior rangers were sworn in and brought around an otter pelt for everyone to feel.

Near Whittier, the captain announced some whales had been spotted, and we were able to see a whale a few times.  Frances, who is scared of whales, did OK and called it "exposure therapy."  The last stop was at a bird rookery just across the water from Whittier.  Once we got off the boat, we hurried back to the car to make sure we were in line for the 6:00 tunnel opening.



 The drive back to Anchor- age looked complete- ly different than that morning - overcast, drizzly, low tide with low clouds.  We took a picture at Beluga Point to show the difference from just 7 hours earlier. 

We arrived back in Anchorage around 7:15 p.m. and both thought Panera sounded like awesome pre-race dinner.  Unfortunately Panera has not make it to Alaska and we finally stopped at a Schlotzsky's, which had horrible service.  We had to return our rental car and called the hotel to get a shuttle.  They told us to call when we had our luggage, so we waited until we were done checking in the car.  When we called, they told us it would be 30 more minutes.

While we were waiting, I discovered I had left my phone in the car.  I called the rental company and started walking back over there.  The guy said he would go up and check and call me back.  When I got to the car, it was still there with my phone in it.  I told the guy in the booth I had it, to let the other guy know when he came to look for it.  Apparently he had already been there.  He didn't even look in the car - just asked the guy in the booth if anyone had turned it in.  Seriously!

I made it back to the shuttle stop before the bus arrived, and we finally got to the hotel at 9:30.  The room was clean but the customer service was lacking.  Frances studied the race map and made her final preparations, and we went to bed.