Day 24 Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Bev and I awoke to cloudy skies(!) and a bit of a shower (!!) as we packed up and said

 good bye to our second night in Portage RV Park’s Cabin #4.  We loaded up our new, 

maroon Nissan Sentra Alamo rental car and headed for our final journey of this trip 

along the gorgeous Turnagain Arm Highway to have a grand breakfast at the Alyeska 

Hotel, back in Girdwood.

The cloudy drizzle abated somewhat as we were seated in a dining room at the great 

hotel, with a fine view of the mountain,  up-side-down hanging flower pots, and the 

frog-stocked pond.  We both enjoyed the $20 per person buffet and filled up big 

time.   If fortune shines on us ever again and allows us to return to Alaska, I want to 

make a stay at the Alyeska Hotel a definite part of that revisit.

From Girdwood, we drove through the one-way-only tunnel to reach the coastal town 

of Whittier, site of the Alaska Inland Marine Highway Ferry Terminal.  The town 

of Whittier exists only to accept, process, and transfer freight and cruise ship 

passengers.  There is absolutely nothing to see or do of any interest there, and I spent 

the hour that we languished there before we could check in for our ferry journey to 

Valdez aimlessly wandering around the outskirts of the rail yard and looking out at the 

drizzly harbor. 

It wasn’t until 1 o’clock that the Ferry Terminal Office began accepting check-ins for 

the 1:45 P.M. ferry.  We properly registered ourselves and our car and drove onto the 

ship and settled into our comfortable seats for the 6-hour crossing of Prince William 

Sound to Valdez.  Beautiful views of the mountains, floating glacial ice in the Sound, 

and the many wooded islands throughout the voyage made for some good but challenging 

photographic opportunities during the windy, cloudy, and rainy trip aboard the .

We arrived in Valdez, relaxed but hungry and we came upon a wonder Mexican 

restaurant with a super gracious waitress and owner/chef.  We complimented them 

on one of the best and most memorable meals in recent memory, commenting that 

we wished they would open a similar restaurant in Philadelphia.  They beamed 

with pleasure at receiving such praise for their good and tasty work. 

We settled into our comfortable Best Western Hotel for a comfy overnight rest.

Day 22 Monday, July 21, 2014

Impossible!  Astounding!  Unbelievable! Yet another crystal clear blue sky day in Alaska during what is reputed to be the rainy month- July!

We drove back to Girdwood for breakfast and to be ready to catch the morning bus transportation that I had arranged and pre-paid months ago with Manny, owner of the Seward Bus Lines, for the 80 miles from Girdwood to Seward.  I screwed up and failed to print out the e-mailed confirmation that I had received from Manny, so I was unsure of the time that the bus was to pick us up at the Girdwood, Alaska Tesoro Gas Station on the Turnagain Arm Highway.  With sketchy wi-fi and Internet connections, looking up e mails was challenging.  I managed to connect to the restaurant’s wi-fi and looked up the months old e mail from Manny and discovered that we weren’t scheduled to be picked up at the Tesoro Gas Station until 2:45 P.M.!  We had 4 extra hours to enjoy that we didn’t think we originally had!

We drove back to Portage and headed to the Chugach National Forrest Glacier Visitor Center and hiked in the sunshine to the Byron Glacier.  On the hike, a fun and amazing chance encounter- as we hiked towards the glacier, coming in the opposite way on the path I recognized and embraced none other than Sean, the Victory motorcycle rider with the flat tire 50 miles outside of Whitehorse in the far-off Yukon!  Truly a chance encounter on the way to the Byron Glacier!

To walk on a glacier- What an experience!  To actually walk several stories in height up and around on the glacier, feeling the cold and ice and massiveness of the thing, is to get a true perspective on what we had been marveling at only from afar.  The way the light refracts blueishly, the size of the crevasses created by the movements of this active structure, the shapes of the chunks of broken-off ice, and the roar of the river of run-off water from the melting glacier right at our feet were truly memorable sights to behold up close and personal.  A real wow experience to treasure.

Then………… the wheels started to come off.

We drove back to the Tesoro Gas Station and were ready and waiting for the 2:45 P.M. bus to Seward by 2:30.  We waited at the gas station for an entire hour and no bus came.  I called Manny, and asked if the bus was coming at all.  There was a screw up- his records showed that we were supposed to be picked up at the nearby Girdwood Train Station at 10:30 A.M.  He told me that his driver waited there for us this morning for twenty minutes and then left.  He said he would refund at least part of our $80 in bus tickets and apologized for the mix up, but I think it must have been my fault- I think I read an old e mail which didn’t have the finalized correct information. 

Bev was rightfully pissed at me for causing us to wait around for an hour in a gas station parking lot for a bus that wasn’t ever coming.  I somehow convinced her to come up onto the shoulder of the Turnagain Arm Highway, dragging our large, wheeled suitcase to try hitch-hiking the 80 miles to Seward.  No luck.  Feeling like a complete jackass, I drove the rental car to Seward, knowing that, due to my goof up, only one of us would be able to ride the Alaska Railroad back as planned from Seward to Girdwood tomorrow and the other one of us would have to drive the rental car back to Girdwood- alone.  Feeling like a complete putz for my mistake, I volunteered to drive the car and let Bev take the rail journey but she refused, saying that taking the train was a really big deal to me and she didn’t want to take that experience off of my plate.  Pretty good wife, huh?  Thanks so much, honey.

We arrived in Seward early in the evening and checked in to the Breeze Inn.  Some months earlier, I had read an on-line article in Traveler Magazine that sang the unqualified praises of a little known gem of a Seward restaurant that, in gest billed itself as serving “Warm beer and lousy food” called the Exit Glacier Salmon Bake.  We found it two miles out of town and were warmly greeted by our waitress, the smiling Nicole.  The food and drink were wonderful and memorable, as was Nicole’s service.

After dinner we drove about 7 miles to the Exit Glacier Visitor Center, and after donning our mosquito netting, set out on the trailer to go to visit up-close our second glacier of the day.  This glacial visit was not as impressive as the Byron Glacier visited in the morning- much longer hike, couldn’t walk on the Exit Glacier (closed off due to instability of the ground at the edge of Exit Glacier), colder and windier, but we did get to see clearly the recession of where this glacier extended to, compared with the greatly shrunken size it is today.  Still an impressive and worthwhile visit.

Day 23 Tuesday, July 22, 2014



How boring!  ANOTHER fabulous weather day in the supposedly rainy month of July in Alaska.  My cup has truly run over as far as weather goes on this trip- thanks, God!

The day's magic started early- we decided to eat breakfast at our hotel's restaurant before purchasing our excursion tickets for a day out on the sea, viewing the abundant wildlife of Resurrection Bay.  We were led to our table and no sooner sat down than we were shocked to see that our server was none other than Nicole, the same wonderful waitress that served us our great meal last night at the Exit Glacier Salmon Bake Restaurant!  What are the chances of that?  We'll she did another fine job and despite working at two different restaurants and handling back to back meal service duties, she displayed the same delightful, smiling, informative, personality that she displayed last night.  You go girl!

After breakfast, The Bev went to the gift shop to browse while I walked across the street to buy our $69 excursion tickets for the 3 1/2 hour noon boat tour of Kenai Fjords National Park.  Disaster!  At 11:05 the sympathetic gal at the ticket counter told me that there was only 1 ticket avaiable for the noon departure!  Ah, crap! 

Our only alternative was to grab the 6-hour, much better and more extensive tour leaving at 11:30 A.M., in only 25 minutes!  New cost?  How's about $149 per person, plus tax?   Argghhhhh.  But what could we do?  When ever would we have another shot at seeing such wonders?  I ran to Bev to update her to the change and time crunch and ran off to buy the tickets for the 11:30 sailing and I hurriedly dragged our packed up luggage to the rental car, grabbed the necessaries for the voyage, and met her at the dock for boarding with just a few minutes to spare.

The good people at Kenai Fjords Tours took great care of us during our 100+ mile catamaran-based tour of  Resurrection Bay's bald eagles, colorful puffins, seals, sea lions, porposes, Humpback whales, and rare Orca whales.  We shot some wonderful video, especially of the playful and speedy porposes, just a few feet from my feet at the front of the catarman.  For me, the high point of the day's marine tour was the time opposite Aialik Glacier, hearing the crashes as chunks of the cliff-like edge of the glacier broke off and fell into the water.  The low point of the day for Beverly was the significant bouncing of the ship as it attained its 40 MPH top speed causing her severe sea sickness and a lengthy purging session in the ship's restroom.  Yech.

There was a bit of drama on the way back to the dock.  We were on track to return to Seward at our scheduled 5:30 P.M. docking time, when inexplicably the ship did a complete 180 degree turn and accelerated hard, heading away from Seward!  We could see a plume of smoke rising from something ahead of us on our new course.  Our female ship captain told us that we were heading to help out a "marine incident" that was reported over the ship's radio.  My heart sank, thinking that I would now miss the 6:00 P.M. Alaska Railroad departure due to this emergency situation.  After a few minutes of full throttle, the captain cut the speed and swung around, executing yet another 180 degree turn back towards Seward.  She told us that there was a boat fire in progress, with three individuals in the water, but they had been fished out of the water and were safe, with at least 10 boats on site, with at least one with large scale fire-fighting equipment on scene, so we weren't  needed on site.  Whew!

We ended up docking virtually on time and I quickly found a shuttle bus to deliver me to the nearby Seward Train Station for a long-awaited 3-hour train ride to Girdwood on the Alaska Railroad.  The Bev was scheduled to walk around Seward a bit, then drive our rental car to Girdwood ahead of the slow-moving train, and pick me up at 08:50 P.M. at the tiny Girdwood Train Station.

I had carried with me during the ride to Alaska, a cool photo torn out of a brochure, showing a conductor of the Alaska Railroad standing up on the railing at the front of a locomotive.  I was determined to ask if I could be similarly photographed in the same pose, on a locomotive, wearing the conductor's hat.  Crazy, no?

I got to the Seward Train Station by 5:15 P.M. for the 6 P.M. departure and I picked up my boarding pass at the ticket office and headed for the "C" car.  When I asked the female attendent for car "C" how I might go about having my photo taken while up on the front ladder of the locomotive, she told me that wasn't allowed.  Sadly, I boarded the car and found my seat.  Dumping my stuff on the seat I decided to give my photo dream one last shot.  I hopped down off of car "C" and told the attendent that I wanted to take a picture of the front of the train.  Who should be on the platform heading towards the rear of the train as I was walking towards the front?  You guessed it- Vern the Conductor!  I showed him the photo and told him of my dream photo.  He told me absolutely not, that it wasn't allowed for me to climb up on the front of the train, but I could stand in front of the train and have myself photographed.  I thanked him and started walking toward the front of the train and asked him who I might ask up there to take my photograph- he volunteered to walk up front with me and take the photo himself!

What a character he turned out to be!  When we got to the front of the locomotive, he said to me, "You are not permitted to get up on the train ladder- okay, get up on the train ladder."  (????)   So I climbed up one rung on the ladder.  And he said to me, "DON'T CLIMB  UP THE LADDER;  okay, climb up the ladder."  (?????????)  So I climbed up all the way up on the ladder.  I then asked him if I could borrow and wear his hat for the photo, and he said to me, "No, you cannot wear my Conductor Hat"; he then took off and handed me his Conductor Hat and told  me, "put it on" and he took my picture while I was standing on the deck at the front of the locomotive- my dream photo had come true thanks to Vern!

The train ride was great fun and I ordered and thoroughly enjoyed the highly-touted, super-tender pot roast for a very reasonable $16.  I moved around from the dining car to the gondola car and finally on to the domed observation car to take in the superb scenery.   The 2 hour and 50 minute train trip was just the right length and although I missed having Bev along to enjoy the ride as well, I hoped that she enjoyed her time in Seward and the 87-mile drive from Seward to Girdwood.

Then came the absolute worst moment of the entire trip.  I got off the train in Girdwood and watched my fellow passengers leave the train station until I was the only one standing around with no Beverly in sight.  I became increasingly concerned as I stood there waiting with no way to contact her- my Verizon cell telephone service did not work at all in Alaska and my e-mail/text messaging system was extremely spotty at best.  I waited for a half an hour wondering what on earth I was going to do to find my wife and what had happended to her.  An older woman named Pat was walking her dog near by and asked if I needed help.  I told her of my situation and she volunteered to drive me the 1/2 mile to the Tesoro Gas Station so I could make contact with the Alaska State Police at their office in the adjacent shopping center.  In the convenience mart of the gas station I tried to send an e mail Bev while I still had 18% of battery power left, telling her that "I am waiting for you at the Tesoro Gas Station in Girdwood- are you coming?"  I had no earthly idea what I should or could do next, thinking that I would spend the entire night in the mart of the gas station trying somehow to discover what had happened to my wife,  and then........

There she was, finally driving into the gas station fueling area, arriving at 9:40 P.M., a full 50 minutes after she was supposed to pick me up.  She had gotten confused and drove past the gas station for 10 minutes before realizing her mistake, u-turning and going back to Girdwood to the train station.  When she saw that no one was at the station, she drove to the Tesoro Station and got us back on track together.  Double whew.

We drove back to the Portage RV Park and familiar cabin #4, glad that things had worked out, thank God.