Whittier Glacier Cruise

Whittier is about an hour's drive from Anchorage and they offer day cruises to see some of the glaciers around AK.  Amy and I decided we could handle another hour in the car, so decided to sign up.  It's pretty easy to get around Alaska as there is really only one main road to get to most places.  And Whittier is unique because you actually have to pass through a 2 1/2 mile tunnel to get to the town...the only difference, is, it's a one way tunnel, so you have to plan your trip according to the tunnel timetable - everyone goes OUT of Whittier at the top of the hour, and everyone goes IN to the town on the half hour.  It's all very organized...and you pay a toll to pass through.

 waiting for the next tunnel passing

the tunnel entrance / exit

beautiful place to wait to pass through the tunnel

playing w/ the camera - blurry foreground, sharp background, then sharp foreground, blurry background

 My friends whose home I am staying in are here for the summer, their daughter Anna, and her cousin Kelty, joined Amy and me on the glacier cruise.

The town of Whittier has approximately 180 people who live there full-time but there are no individual homes or residences ~ all of the residents live in this one (see above) 'condo' building...

 waterfalls cascade down the hills

 more waterfalls coming down the hillside

 our 'cruise ship'

We saw bald eagles...

 this one flew from one spot and landed on a nest - there was a 2nd eagle in the nest

We saw some playful sea otters...

 and some lazy sea lions...

but our end destination was to view some glaciers...

 notice the waterfalls off to the right?  There were a LOT of them - really beautiful and sounded so nice too!!

 the blue hues were so cool

 the blurry / white fuzzy part is ice falling in to the water

 LOVED the color of the water here

 Our boat stopped at one of their shrimp pots to see if they had anything ~ there were 4 shrimp, they brought them on board and passed them around for anyone who wanted to see them...

 The glacier cruise is something I would definitely recommend!  You wouldn't think it would be terribly interesting watching the ice, but it was really cool to see how massively large it was, and such a beautiful area as well...we didn't see any large chunks of ice calving, but even the smaller pieces we saw falling off were really cool - it was amazing how LOUD it sounded when the pieces cracked off and splashed into the water.  The only thing we didn't see were whales ~ and they said there had been several sightings on recent trips...I think that just means I have to go back and do it again sometime! :)

Anchorage Moose

After our gazillion hour car ride, the last thing we wanted to do was hop back in and spend 4 more hours driving anywhere else, so we ruled out visits to Homer and Seward while Amy was still here.  I definitely want to get to those areas eventually, just not right this minute.  On Friday, we went exploring in downtown Anchorage so Amy could get some souvenirs and see some of the downtown sites.  On our way out of our neighborhood we watched a mama and her baby cross the road in front of us... and then later that evening, we drove to a nearby park and saw this pair having dinner in the ravine below the road we were on...

 After we left the park, on our drive home, we either spotted the same pair again, or found another pair (we thought it was another set b/c we hadn't been in the park too long and this pair was a little distance form where we'd spotted the first two).

We thought it was ironic that we saw more moose in one day than we did our entire week on the road. :)  And notice the stop sign in a couple of the photos?  This wasn't exactly a remote area... :)