June 17 - 18, 2018

Unfulfilled Plans

June 17, 2018.  Our city days are done and now we’re off for our water week on the Kenai Peninsula.  It is still spitting rain this morning.  Whatever the giant crane was used for last night is not evident to us.  We got up at 6:00 this morning and the crews had already dismantled the big derrick attached to the crane and were packing up the rest of their supplies.  Round the clock daylight comes in pretty handy for jobs in traffic areas.

We’re on the road before 10:00 which is pretty good for us.  It is not a long driving day but there are some stops we want to make along the way.  The first is Costco where we pick up some breakfast bars and try to buy some booze but liquor is not available on Sunday until noon. 

There are just a few highways in Alaska and while they have numbers, they are usually referred to by name. Today we are on Alaska 1 south which is the Seward Highway.  When we went to Palmer we were on Alaska 1 north which is the Glenn Highway.  Our first stop about 15 minutes into our trip is Potters Marsh.  This is a several hundred-acre wetland across the road from the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet.  There is about a mile of elevated boardwalk that allows humans to invade this natural area without disturbing the flora and fauna that exists there.  It is mostly a habitat for birds but there are bears and moose who venture in from the nearby woods and hills.

There is a small problem for us.  The wind is blowing at a sustained 40 mph with gusts into the 60s.  It is 57 degrees so walking into the wind is blinding which is inconvenient on a sight-seeing trip.  We do see an eagle in it’s nest and tons of geese with brand new hatchlings.  Our only other discovery is a collection of moose tracks paralleling the boardwalk.

We are staying in Girdwood tonight at Hidden Creek B&B which is near the Alyeska ski hill.  We explore the neighborhood around the ski area and nose around in the Alyeska Hotel.  The hotel, at this time of year, seems to be a wedding destination.  They also have a restaurant on top of the mountain which couples a dinner with the tram ride up for 39 bucks.  It would be very attractive on a sunny day.  There are leftovers from our last two dinners in our backseat that become lunch at the base of the ski hill which is also very attractive if you’re hungry.

We continue south for our next adventure, the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. But, and this will be a continuing theme, it is starting to rain.  There is a mile and a half walk or drive which is one of the highlights of this facility, but we would prefer the walk and we aren’t going to do it in the rain.  We will go past here two more times this week, so we will wait for better weather.

We veer off to the east to Portage Glacier.  There is a well maintained welcome center manned by the National Park service where we spend a couple rainy hours watching movies and meandering through displays of all the stuff we would be looking at outside if it were sunny. There is a “Salmon Viewing area” just up the road and we pull up our rain hoods to look into this shallow clear creek, but the salmon didn’t get the message.  None present.

We give up for the day and head back to Girdwood and our B&B.  The hosts aren’t here but have left a note to get us into our room.  They have three guest rooms on the lower level of their very nice home and all are occupied tonight. John visits with hosts Ron and Michele and dog Bailey when they return from a walk while Mary gets us settled in.  They recommend “Chair 5” for a burger and beer which is our preferred dinner for tonight.  We change our tune when we arrive however and each get a dinner salad and split the “Halibut & Chips” dinner.  Everything is mediocre but the place is packed by the time we leave (including a walk-in party of 22) so it must be a local favorite.

It is cloudy, spitting rain and mosquitoes so we forego an after dinner walk and go back to reading and computer stuff until bed time.

Today’s observation:  Weather affects attitude as much as activities when traveling.

June 18, 2018. There is a reason these two days are combined. Because today was non-existent. We are up and at ‘em at 6:00 this morning.  At 6:10 the power in our room goes out.  Host Ron has a generator that keeps some upstairs lights and the pump running.  That means we can shower by the light of the Kindle and pack by the light of a borrowed flashlight.  The stove is gas so we can join fellow guests Gary and Nonnie from Roanoke and Georgia and Dennis from Indiana for a candle light breakfast.  There is a lot of smoked salmon and reindeer sausage with scrambled eggs and bagels.  All’s well that ends well.

It has been raining all night but it is letting up as we get our stuff to the car. We have a glacier cruise scheduled today and need to make the 10:30 tunnel opening to get to the port city of Whittier. We backtrack our route from yesterday heading east to Portage.  As we go through Portage the wind is going crazy and the rain has returned in full force.  The car is rocking back and forth and the windshield wipers can’t keep up.  The phone chimes with an email message from the cruise company telling us all cruises have been cancelled today. Our lodging reservation is in Whittier tonight so we have nowhere else to go. We make it through the tunnel, check with the hotel (Whittier Inn) and they hope they will have some rooms available for check-in about 1:00 pm.  The guy at the desk says the problem is that none of the people currently there want to leave in that weather.

There is no sense dragging this out. We do the five minute drive around town and the only point of interest is the skeleton of a building that housed 1000 soldiers and sailors in the 50’s.  Now it is only a shell.  We read until we can get into a room at 1:00 as promised.  Then we have some really good smoked salmon chowder with a beer.  Then we read.  Then at dinner we have some really good smoked salmon chowder, a bottle of wine and a flatbread.  The we go to bed.

The evening news tells us that we had 4 inches of rain today with a brutal wind. One of the front desk guys says his other job is on one of the cruise boats and they have never cancelled—today was the first.  The only boat that would have gone out would be an Ark piloted by Noah.  It was biblical.

More News:  The “Slam’n Salm’n” fishing tournament has been cancelled because there are no fish.