Traveling through Alaska Days 9, 10 The End!

 Day 9... We signed up for the Kenai Fjords boat tour. It's much nore expensive now than the last time. It was 275.00 a person for about 6-7 hours out on the ocean. We've been on it before, but we never get tired of seeing the beautiful whales and wildlife on that trip, and the spectacular glacier views, so off we went! We hadn't been five miles out of the harbor when we saw our first humpback whale! 

He did a little whirl and twirl around and then he was gone....

We saw otters....They are too cute! Sparky did not know some specifics about them so she was happy to learn some new things today. Alaska is home to about 90% of the world's sea otters. Did you know they have a little pouch of skin under their arms that act as a storage bag? They keep little snacks in them! They are one of the few known non-primates to use tools. They bring up rocks from the ocean floor and use them to crack open hard shelled prey. They don't have blubber but DO have the most dense fur with up to a MILLION hairs per square inch! They have a super fast metabolism and eat up to 20-25% of their body weight every day. A group of otters is called a "raft"...To keep from drifting away in the ocean current, they will hold hands with each other and/or wrap themselves in seaweed and kelp. An otter pup's fur is so dense they can't dive underwater until they get their adult fur. They can live their whole life without ever leaving the ocean. They spend many hours cleaning their fur to distibute the oils throughout their fur. They weigh 75-100 pounds...

We saw mountain goats on the rocky hillsides above us..too far away to get a photo...We saw puffins fly by in front of us..They looked like little footballs. Again, too fast a fly-by to get a photo. We saw the Steller sea lions. Pee-ewww!  Man, do they STINK! From quite far out....

Two Dall porpoise jumped over the bow. They were so fast and left just as quickly. Onwards to Ailalik Glacier and Bear Glacier...

The ship gets in fairly close to the Ailalik glacier...it is always a thrill to see the humongous height of these beautiful glaciers. 

We saw three humpback whales in total today...and to celebrate,  Sparky decided to have a glacier margarita! Here's how they are made...One of the crew was on ice chunk capture duty. 

He scooped up a big chunk of iceberg ice and brought it in to be chopped up and served in frozen drinks of your choice. How cool is that? (see what I did there?) tee-hee....So Sparky had a Ailalik Glacier Margarita, haha.

When we got back, we ate at Ray's restaurant in Seward, the food was just ok, but there's a wonderful view out the window onto the bay. 

After dinner, we had missed the last free shuttle back to the campground. Well phooey! BUT--Seward does have three taxi services and we managed to get one to get us back to the campground. We could have walked, it was slightly less than a mile away, but we were too tired to do that.  One restaurant that WAS recommended by several locals, that we missed, was The Primrose, in town. Ah, well...maybe next time...(hint, hint, Eldy....) He says, maybe, in about two years time, which has been our average between visits. 

Tomorrow is our last full day in Alaska....we will be heading back towards Anchorage to fly out on Saturday morning.

Day 10...Driving back towards Anchorage. First, we stopped at Potter Marsh. It's a fantastic area for bird and wildlife watching with a lot of boardwalks to explore in and around the marsh. We have been there four times and only seen a moose once--make that TWICE! Today--a bull moose! Moseying his way fairly quickly across the marsh. 

Potter Marsh

Turnagain Arm Inlet

After a nice visit at the marsh, we headed to Palmer, AK to spend our last night. Staying in and around Anchorage was a bit expensive, and Sparky did not want to stay in a "parking lot" like Cabelas or a Walmart, so we picked Bear Creek Campground to try first, near Anchorage. Bear Creek is right beside the Turnagain Arm inlet. 

The Turnagain Arm is a dramatic 40 mile long inlet in the Gulf of Alaska. It's known for its extreme high tides, stunning scenery and wildlife--moose, beluga whales and Dall sheep). At Bear Creek, there's a great trail right behind the campground. BUT--sites were short and the small campground was quite busy, so we headed out and picked the KOA in Palmer, instead, with a view of the mountains in front of us.

KOA Palmer, AK

While checking in, Sparky went to pick up some candy bars, and overheard a gentleman checking in, give his phone number and it was the same area code as Eldy's! It turns out he is from the Elkhart/Bristol IN area and just lives a couple of miles away from us! Wow! Small world for sure! He drove up the Alaskan/Canadian Highway (the Alcan) on his motorcycle. Although paved, it's one of the roughest roads and toughest on your vehicle, should you decide to drive from the US to get to Alaska. It's due to the many frost heaves, potholes and construction areas. It's a 1387 mile trip! It runs from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, to Delta Junction, AK. Amenities and automotive help are sparse, so it's not for the timid traveler. The guy we met was retired and tenting it at the campground. Quite the traveler! Eldy enjoyed having a long conversation with him, once he found out he was from our area.

Sparky busied herself with packing up and finishing up last minute details and a good book. While the guys were talking, Sparky was sitting outside reading and somebody's darn carbon monoxide detector started going off. Those suckers are LOUD! After about 20 minutes with the alarm still going, (it ebbed and flowed decibel-wise with which way the wind was blowing), Sparky went over the the fellas and said, "I wish I knew whose rig that was! Why don't they shut the darn thing off and air out their rig?!" Uh, Sparky, says Eldo, that's our rig. Oh, crap! Sparky had set off the propane gas detector again by microwaving some popcorn and had bumped the loose gas stove knob again. Geesh! Once again, we aired out the rig and the alarm silenced itself. That is a real design hazard if you can bump a stove knob and start the gas flowing that easily!

Alaska Airlines

Our final destination--the Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage was just a 40 mile drive the next morning. That airport is the third largest cargo airport in the world. Sparky loves that airport. So many cool things to see there.

The glass panel of the salmon swimming upstream-"Migration"-by Luftz Haufschild is one of Sparky's favorite installations at the airport and it is really beautiful. It features hundreds of individually cut strips of glass laminated into a steel base to represent the outdoors of Alaska and the annual migration of the salmon.

We always get a photo of the airport's resident moose while we are there.

First we had to fill our propane tank and gas tanks before turning our rig in, so we did that. We turned in our rig and Great Alaskan Holidays checked it over and we got the green light to head to the airport on the company shuttle van. 

several planes hanging overhead at the airport

We were flying from Anchorage to Portland, to Dallas, to South Bend. Our Dallas flight got cancelled but we were rerouted to Charlotte NC, then to SB. We made it! But our luggage didn't.  Two days later, however, we got our baggage and settled back in at home in Elkhart, IN. It was a really really great trip! Sparky didn't think about being ill- not once the entire time we were away. That was an added blessing! 

Thanks for following along. We aren't done traveling yet...We'll post again one of these days..Stay tuned!