life in the desert: August 2011

After just getting used to the temperature down here, we took a little trip to the opposite extreme: Alaska.

This vacation was for our anniversary and a much needed break for HM. My mom just happens to be working in Anchorage at the moment so it was a good opportunity to see her and save on some lodging expenses! Itinerary was as follows:

Friday, 8/5: fly overnight to Anchorage, "sleep" in the airport until our 6am flight to Kodiak Island.

Saturday, 8/6: Arrived in Kodiak, wandered around the town for a bit, saw almost everything there was to see in 2 hours flat. We had a scheduled seaplane adventure up to South Frazier lake for brown bear viewing, but due to the low cloud cover and rain we crossed our fingers for better weather and rescheduled for Sunday. We did discover Kodiak brewery however, which was not a restaurant, not a pub, simply a guy at a counter inside their small brewery right off the dock pouring samples and cheap pints. A couple of chairs and couches, and a whole lot of locals in their rubber boots made for a great place to spend an hour, chat, and share a pint.

Sunday, 8/7: Woke up to a beautiful morning with clear skies. Jumped on a sea plane, which was quite an experience in it's own right, and flew for about an hour to the other side of Kodiak Island to Frazier lake. This was an amazing two hours of seeing almost 15 brown bears. What is a brown bear? Will it is a grizzly that lives within 15 miles of the coast which make them relatively placated since they are fat on salmon. Frazier lake has a fish weir here where the salmon stack up and consequently so do the brown bears. There was a lot of sockeye salmon in the stream at the time, and we were even told that it was late in their run. Definitely a once and a lifetime experience. We got back ate a meal and then headed on back to Anchorage on a tiny Era aviation plane. No security, no overhead compartment, no flight attendant. just about 20 seats on a no nonsense propeller plane where there are only two seats in each row meaning everyone gets an aisle.

Monday 8/8: Mom was back to work on Monday so HM and I just tooled around Anchorage for a bit. We went to the Cultural Heritage Center, which is actually a pretty amazing place. Had some lunch and then went on a short hike up to Flattop mountain, overlooking anchorage. Our only moose sighting was on this hike, a big guy way down the slope from us.

Tuesday 8/9 (Our 3 year anniversary): Tuesday morning we headed south to Seward. Seward is probably my favorite town in Alaska. It is small but a couple of good restaurants. What makes it so spectacular is that it sits on the end of Resurrection Bay with mountain rising up from both sides. After the picturesque drive south we went on a hike toward Cain's head, which skirts the beach along Resurrection Bay. The hike was amazing; running silver salmon (also known as coho), bald eagles peering down at them, and an amazing beach and tidal flat with all sorts of birds and sea creatures. The evening was capped off with a great seafood dinner at "Ray's." Scallops to start. I had a seafood linguine and HM had some really good salmon. It's been a good three years. It deserved some celebration.

Wednesday 8/10: Still in Seward we took a 9 hour wildlife and glacier boat tour. My family had done this the last time we were in Seward and it was one of the most amazing things we did in Alaska, so i wanted to be sure that HM got a similar experience. Again we woke up to a beautiful morning (with calm seas...whew) and the tour did not disappoint. 3 humpback sightings, 2 run ins with Orcas, 650 something harbor seals, sea lions, sea otters, porpoises, puffin's (HM's favorite), and of course the massive Northwestern tidal glacier that put on a pretty good show calving into the ocean. Interestingly enough though it is receding so fast that it probably only has a few more years of actually being a tidal glacier before it starts to retreat back up the mountain. It was an great trip!

Thursday 8/11: Still in Seward today was our day to check out Exit Glacier, which is one of the only glacier's in the world that has a road to its base. Again an interesting area as they mark the glacier's progression by year up the valley (about a mile from the parking lot). There is a sign about 3 miles before you get to the lot for 1821, which is the farthest documented extent. So obviously we did the short jont to the edge of the glacier to check it out, but that was of course after a monumental hike to a climbers shelter at the top of the glacier. Exit Glacier originates form the massive expanse of the Harding Ice field, and if you think a glacier is impressive just imagine a slab of ice as far as you can see of which Exit Glacier is just one small finger. It took 9 miles total with 3500 vertical to get there but it was gorgeous the entire way. A black bear even decided to wander in a meadow, quite a bit lower down from us, but still a great means to cap off the adventure. On the way back we stopped and ate outside at a great lodge type restaurant. I had a IPA from Moose Tooth which I must say was one of the best IPAs I've had. Suffice to say we were a bit beat that evening.

Friday 8/12: Drove back to Anchorage Friday morning, determined to have a better moose sighting than the one way down the hill. Well, after being on the lookout for 2 hours in the car with no luck we stopped at the wildlife conservancy place at the start of the Kenai Peninsula. They have large enclosures with all of Alaska's big mammals so we definitely go a closer look at a moose, as well as bison, bear, musk ox, elk, and reindeer. Once back in Anchorage we met back up with my mom and had dinner at the glacier brewhouse, which had some great food and good beer, but not as good as the Moose Tooth stuff I had.

Saturday 8/13: Spent the morning at the anchorage museum, which was a great cultural exhibit, and a good compliment to the cultural heritage center. I would highly recommend both. The museum also has a lengthy history exhibit, while dated about a decade, lots of information on the development of Alaska. After the Museum we headed up the 40 miles or so toward Wasilla to check out the Independence Mine site. Again a really interesting place, full of history. I continue to be amazed how people were able to deal with such an extreme climate even 50 years ago, let alone the hundreds of years that native people were coping with the conditions in Alaska. I was perhaps particularly interested as I have the same amazement about Arizona, with it's extreme climate. I can only say that I love Oregon.

Sunday 8/14: Today we headed to Girdwood and Alyeska for the blueberry festival there. We arrived a bit early so decided to take a hike in the mud to Winter Creek Gorge where there is a hand drawn cable car in lieu of a bridge to cross the gorge. HM and I took a little ride across, and it was a bit more difficult than I anticipated to pull us over and it was not something for people like me who don't like heights. None the less it was fun. Alyeska was a nice resort, the blueberry festival was a bit of a let down, we did not even find any blueberries to pick! There was some good blueberry inspired food though. Fortunately it was rather small and we made it through most of it prior to the downpour we found ourselves in. So we had a wet car ride home blasting the heat to dry off. Back in Anchorage we ate dinner at Moose Tooth Pub and Pizzeria, after passing on it the night before due to what appeared to be a huge wait. I tried two more of their beers, a stout and a ESB, both pretty good. So my review for their beer overall will have to be the best in Alaska. Our flight back was as grueling as our arrival. A 1am departure back to phoenix and arriving for a full day of work Monday with virtually no sleep! It was a great trip though!

life in the desert

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Alaska and Back

Phoenix update