25th June -‘Get off my Ship” day.
We woke up the last morning in Seward. Or rather Sarah stumbled in at 6pm to see that our view of the town didn’t give such a great impression. The ships dock beside the giant coal loader on the industrial side of the dock. We disembarked, sadly, collected our car (with the steering wheel on the wrong side) and headed off to Girdwood.
We went to Portage Glacier, a mountain glacier flowing into a lake. It has receded over four kilometres in the last 50 years! We went on a cruise to see it and had our intro to ‘real Alaskans’. It was a lovely trip with more stunning scenery. While doing her commentary the lady was asking people where they were from. She spoke to one group from Florida, and went a little nuts and was amazed by how far they had come. She then spoke to some guys that had ridden motor bikes from the mid west. This was almost beyond her comprehension.When she asked Sarah, there was a blank stare and a pause, followed by “Gee, long drive from there, hey”. She had either truly not heard of Australia, and thought it was from the lower 48 or just could not conceive the thought of someone travelling so far. . Hahahaha.
Then the ‘Girdwood Wildlife Centre’. A zoo for rescued native animals. They only had native animals including moose, caribou, bison, wood bison, reindeer, eagles, owls, porcupines and bears.
The enclosures were brilliant. The Brown bears had four hectares of woodland with trees, lake and grasslands. They were happy – playing, wrestling, swimming!!! The porcupine was so cute. We got a great tour of the porcupine as the zoo keeper was keen on Nathan and gave us special attention. It looked very cuddly, apart from the painful quills under all that fluffy coat. We got to see feeding time and the keeper brought him a piece of corn and he did love it. She tried to take it off him a few times to show us the noise he made in protest. It was like a dog whining but with a cute little grunt and snort thrown in there too. He looked like he would make a great pet with so much personality. Only problem….. (besides the pointy bits), he reeked! Really reeked, hard to imagine how bad. We then headed off to the amazing ‘Hidden Valley B&B’. Luxury!! Absolute luxury.
Anchorage 26th June
The drive up Cook Inlet and Turnagain Arm to Anchorage was spectacularly stunning. The drive is designated as an ‘All American Road’ which means it is one of the best drives in the US. ‘Best Drive Ever’. The mud flats up Turnagain Arm were amazing. They say that if they measured the size of Alaska at low tide it would be three times that of Texas – not just twice the size.We had reached the Turnagain Arm dead forests caused by the 1964 earthquake where the land literally dropped and ocean water rushed, in poisoning the soil and killing the trees. Very scary to see how far in the tsunami came.
It was then off to the Alaska Zoo. We were so excited. We had seen the web site and were looking forward to seeing so many Ice Age animals. Well, the Zoo was revolting. Sad, pacing animals with dull eyes in small dirty enclosures that actually smelt. We left. None of their web site photos were taken at the zoo itself.
We then went to great markets and tasted many of the local offerings.
Fish Creek, in the middle of town, has a weir with a fish ladder. Hundreds of huge salmon rest before jumping the ladder and continuing up stream. We saw a seal who had swum 3km up stream to go fishing. Both sides of the creek were lined with hopeful fishing people.
We hit Wal Mart and bought a GPS and a phone among other things. Alaskan Wal Mart sells GUNS!
It was then off for our Segway tour. We still love Segways. They are awesome. We know it was unkind, but when Nathan stacked his Segway we nearly had heart attacks laughing. He hit the ground and the Segway just kept on rolling. We could do nothing but laugh and cry with sheer delight. It was one of the “Funniest Things Ever”. Sarah considered herself to be the ‘Lord of the Segway’ and cut one corner so close she left mm’s between herself and an unsuspecting man. But she made it. He has probably recovered.
The daylight was amazing. Sun up at 3.30am. Bright sunlight by 4.30am. Dark at 11pm. That evening we sadly took Nathan to the airport. He was leaving Alaska and heading off to Thailand. We would miss him and the fun he created. Off he went on his own adventure. One that included: international flights booked on the wrong day, being robbed (again), nearly being arrested for causing a disturbance and all of this with no licence, no credit cards and no wallet.
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