Saturday, September 25, 2010

Alaska: Anchorage part 3

A few of the last pictures from the Seward Highway. We tried to get to this glacier, but the road was closed. We were about 2 weeks to late :)
A huge block of ice in the water from the glacier.
The pretty river running through the area.

The sunset from the airport.
We went for the drive along the Highway when we got back from Dutch Harbor on Sunday. We were glad we did too, since it was foggy and cloudy on Monday when we got up. I spent the day wandering around the city. Visiting all the gift shops :)

Alaska: Anchorage part 2

While driving down the Seward Highway we stopped at the Wildlife Conservation Center. eh, it was okay. These are the only wildlife we saw the entire trip. Except for the eagles at Dutch Harbor. Anyway. We got there at 5:30 and it closed at 6, and they still made us pay the full price. Uh, okay. I guess it was a good cause, so I didn't complain to much :)
Mr. Moose. He had the velvet hanging off the other side of his antlers. The brown bear. Um, can't remember her name. The caretaker was there feeding her a grapefruit.

ReindeerBull elk. The elk are in the rut at the moment. And he didn't like us looking at his ladies. lol. So he charged the fence. I knew there was no was he was getting through, since there were two fences an the one closest to him was 3 feet from us. One of the guys said it was electrified, but as you can see, he's touching a pole, I don't think it was on, if it was electric. Anyway. he got this close, and I got this really cool picture!The black bear. Right next to this encloser was a house that was demolished by the 1964 earthquake. It looked like half a house. I can't believe the environmental freak in me didn't take a picture, but that would be typical. There are large tracts of trees that are dead. They are from the earthquake, the ground dropped 10 feet and was inundated with saltwater, killing all the trees. Wish I would have taken a picture. They were really cool.

















Alaska: Anchorage part 1

The view of one of the glaciers from the plane. Thought it was pretty cool how 4 of them were coming together. The snow blower for the train tracks. Well, it's actually a has been. It used to be the snowblower. It's retired now. Along the Seward Highway the mountains were on the left and the bay was on the right. Pretty cool. There are small turn outs all along the road. This is an area where you can actually get down to the beach. It was pretty chilly next to the water. But it was pretty. Pretty view.
The train tracks where the Alaska Railroad runs. I wish we could have rode on that.


Alaska: Dutch Harbor

After Fairbanks we headed to Dutch Harbor. Holy end of the earth!! The flight was 3 hours on a little puddle jumper that only had 30 seats. Fun. When we got there we went to a SMELLY fish plant. yuck. I could have really skipped this part of the trip. I mean the entire part, as in even seeing Dutch Harbor. I really didn't need to go. There was no map data there that I needed. anyway.
This is one of the mountains that could be seen from across the bay. It is really pretty scenery. Too bad half the time it's covered in fog. And raining. One of the many boats in the harborCrab pots. We missed the crew of The Deadliest Catch by 2 weeks. Not that I really wanted to see them, but ya know :)There are 2 museums on the island that we got to go to. The first was the Museum of the Aleutians. Pretty cool. This bald eagle was sitting outside of the building on a pole. He yelled at me, but let me get close enough to take this picture. We learned while were there that the island is really called Unalaska. Yeah, UN, as in not. Kinda dumb, but said that way cause dumb white people can't pronounce it right :) The real name of the island is Ounalashka, after the natives that live there. And it's pronounced A-un-a-lash-ka. (the un in like in Uno) yeah, anyway. enough on the name. The hats above are native design, out of wood. Pretty cool. They also had examples of gut coats. Yep, you guessed right, if you guessed that the coats are out of the intestines of seals.
The other cool place in town was the Russian Orthodox Church. It's the oldest Russian church in the US. Built in ...... 1800 something. I think. Outside there were bushes that had salmon berries on them. Kinda like raspberries. Not as sweet and not as tart. You can find them all over Alaska, but most places you have to compete with the bears :) Not on the island though, there are no bears. Besides the Aleutian museum, there is also a World War II visitor Center. Pretty cool, not sure why I didn't take a single picture. Anyway. The story of the bombing of Dutch Harbor and how the US took back the islands after the Japanese took the last 2 islands.

This would be the airport. Uh, yeah, the airport. There is a restaurant, and only one boarding gate. Small place. Where we got stuck. We were supposed to leave on Saturday night. The flight that we were on was returning to Anchorage. However, it didn't leave Anchorage until late, and the pilots wouldn't have had enough rest if they were to return right away. Sooooo, we had to leave on Sunday. bummer. But at least the plane was able to land in Dutch, sometimes they can't even land because of the fog or the low cloud cover. We were really worried that we were going to be stuck there more than just 1 extra day. We lucked out, I guess :)












































Alaska: Fairbanks

I love my new job! Partly cause I get to go to Alaska and I've only worked there for a month. And partly cause this is EXACTLY what I went to school for and what I've wanted to do. So ya, I love my job! So this Alaska trip, could have been so much better if I had been driving :) But I was at the mercy of the two guys I work with and they had control of the rental car. sigh. The first day in Anchorage we saw nothing but fog. Complete bummer, since we found out that that night the northern lights were out. booo, we missed them cause of the fog. The second day we headed up to fairbanks, ya, that would be flew. There and back. In one day. yuck! After we finished with the meetings for the day our host, Brent, drove us around so we could see a little of the city/area. This is some musk oxen from the Large Animal Rescue S.....omething :) I can't remember what the S is for. The Trans Alaskan Pipeline. The section of the pipeline that is above ground and a tourist attraction. A tree left in a fire break. Thought it was a pretty cool picture. I have to say, Fairbanks is a pretty boring place scenic wise, when compared to Anchorage. It's pretty flat. The last two are pictures of melting permafrost. There are actually houses in the area that are sinking into the ground because the people built them on the permafrost. Smart, I must say :/