The Great Alaskan Holidays Part 2--Day 4, Day 5

Jeannie checking out the views

We are on Day 4 of our stay in Alaska. If you missed part 1, you can view it here on Blogger. The weather continued to be rainy and cold, but we were having a blast. Jeannie's words almost every day were, "OMG"...."OMG".....We were so happy she was loving her visit. she was a fabulous traveling companion and very flexible. If we had to change plans or switch gears, she was right there with us.

Day 4--We were headed to Valdez. We had run into a problem. Eldy was feeling sick. We made a fast trip by the major falls headed into Valdez and got a few photos. The drive into Valdez, through Keystone Canyon, is AMAZING! Waterfalls after waterfalls cascading down the cliffs. Even though it was raining hard, it still was so beautiful.

We landed at the Bear Paw Resort in downtown Valdez almost right on the waterfront. We had stayed here before and loved it. Site 10. It's basically a gravel parking lot, but you don't care, it's Valdez and you have the most amazing views right outside the park. It is spectacular, is it not? This is right outside our campground at the harbor, right in town.

Eldy continued to feel worse. It was obvious we were going to have to find a doctor or an urgent care center. By this time we were headed into Memorial Day weekend, and in Alaska, the stores close for the ENTIRE HOLIDAY WEEKEND THRU TILL TUESDAY. There was NO PHARMACY open within many miles. The only pharmacy there was was closed till Tuesday. There were no urgent care clinics open. The only solution was to go to the emergency room of the local hospital in Valdez and pay an astronomical fee even with insurance to get seen by a doctor and get antibiotics. Sparky called the hospital, explained the situation and low and behold, a wonderful doctor who just happened to own the clinic next door, listened to all his symptoms and our predicament about everything being closed and said, yep, you need an antibiotic. She could sell the antibiotic at her cost. We said bless you! and Sparky hoofed the 10 blocks to the hospital, (we couldn't unhook the RV easily in the park and just go drive and get meds!) The nurse met her at the door, and we got the meds we needed for Eldy and Sparky got her steps in for the day. (And some brownie points says a grateful Eldy.)

Day 5--We are still in Valdez and it's time to go for a glacier/whale watching cruise on the Lulubelle, something we had done before and found to be fantastic. Eldy was on meds and too sick to go, so Jeannie 1 (Sparky) and Jeannie 2 (Sparky's friend) headed out on the Lulubelle with Captain Fred. The next series of photos are from the Lulubelle cruise. Sparky couldn't resist the Titanic pose after she started seeing icebergs.

Captain Fred is now in his 80's but still captains the most beautiful boat for seeing wildlife and glaciers out of Valdez Harbor and Port William Sound in Alaska. 

He is a wealth of fascinating knowledge about marine wildlife, the oil industry and he pretty much discusses all of it over a 7.5 hour voyage, which can easily extend longer if he sees lots of wildlife. Captain Fred will get you up close and more personal than any other cruise ship in the area because his boat is a little smaller. This is a sea cave and we thought we were going to crash into the side of it! Jeannie doesn't look too worried, does she!?

This trip is a MUST for anyone visiting Valdez. There are a couple of other options in the area for seeing the glaciers and marine life, but we love the Lulubelle. The other cruise does not extend their time, it's a set time schedule and they head back when it's time. But not Captain Fred--if we are seeing wildlife, he stays out longer.

We saw two orca whales, Stellar sea lions, Dall porpoise, eagles, multiple glaciers, whales and speaking of whales, Sparky got the most lucky shot of all time--a humpback whale's mouth opening while feeding. All Sparky remembers is the captain saying, "He's going to open his mouth, get ready for it, here it comes...." and she just hit the camera button and this was it. She never saw the mouth in the viewfinder. Shot of a lifetime. Sparky is posting it through the camera viewfinder because she hopes it won't get stolen that way.

At one point, the captain asked if anyone wanted to drive the boat, and of course, Sparky and Jeannie both did! It was a lot harder than it looked to keep the boat straight on course! We returned from the cruise tired but exhilarated from our cruise today. Eldo is on the mend, yay! Tomorrow we get ready to leave Valdez to head to Fairbanks but not before visiting a couple of cute little places before we go. We just had to have breakfast at the Potato down at the harbor...a breakfast burrito for Sparky and and an egg sandwich for Jeannie....see you later!

On to Juneau!

Up the inside passage we went....Juneau was our next port stop.....the capital of Alaska with no dome, just an ordinary looking office building. The area of Juneau is almost as large as the states of Delaware and Rhode Island, yet the population is small for the area, about 32,000 people. Steep mountains 3500-4000 feet high surround Juneau. At the top of the mountains is an ice field and 30 glaciers flow from this ice field. Yep, THIRTY glaciers! The Mendenhall Glacier is here, one of the more well known glaciers that the rest of the world is familiar with.

We were surprised to hear that the town likes to blow up snow. It fires Howitzer cannons at the mountains in the long winters to break up snowfall in order to manage avalanche flows. We were even more surprised to hear that there is a gated community in Juneau. Really? Yeah, it's the Lemon Creek Correctional facility.  Haha!

We took an excursion tour at this port--a whale watch....The bus ride out and back was really fun with a funny driver from Hawaii (!) who cracked a lot of jokes and made the ride extra enjoyable. He told us a lot of eagle facts and tidbits which we had not heard of before. Like the male eagle's talons lock when they catch prey. If the prey, like a salmon, is heavier than what the eagle thought he could handle, he literally sinks like a rock to the water and has to swim with his prey to where he can manage it. Guess sometimes the eagle drowns. The driver also had a story to tell about a woman naturalist who was rescuing a bald eagle and she had to transport it in her car. The eagle went crazy in the back of her car, ended up in the front and dug his talons into her leg while she was driving. She couldn't get the eagle's talons to release. She had to drive herself to the vet/ hospital to get the bird released and get treatment. Painful, for sure! She made it, but the eagle didn't. The driver told us more interesting facts about the eagles.

They have polarized eye lens. They can see a mile away and extremely far down into the water. They also have a 270 degree field of vision. Those poor little turtles, ducks, or whatever the eagles are eating, don't stand much of a chance! Especially since bald eagles can dive up to 100 m.p.h.!  Females are larger and stronger than the males--that's something different in the usual species traits. Their nests are HUGE--about 13 feet deep (!) and about 8 feet wide, and over a TON in weight. WOW! A group of eagles is called a kettle.  And, eagles mate for life....Gotta share the juvenile eagle photo once more time in case you missed it the first time....

(Hey, Sparky, what about the whale watch?) reminds Eldo.  Well...we didn't see a whole lot, but we did learn a few things. The humpback whale, the most common whale in Alaska, has a throat the size of a grapefruit. When they are feeding, they eat 1500 pounds of fish a DAY, and they feed for 23 hours straight!

They are just beginning to return from their long migration from Hawaii back to Alaska starting in June and through July. They mate and have their babies in Hawaii.  Stored blubber from eating in Alaska allows them to nurse their calves for about 8 weeks in the warm Hawaiian waters. The babies gain 7 pounds per HOUR while nursing! Then, when the humpbacks are ready to migrate back, they do it WITHOUT EATING all the way back to Alaska. Alaskan waters have the perfect environment with all the plankton, plant life and long sunlit days for optimal feeding for the whales. So the whales are starving when they get here, and all they care about doing is eating and gaining weight. They don't play early in the season, they are not showing off--no breeches, no playful fin slaps, just a gentle curve of their backs and down they go again. We saw two on the trip....We are thinking that this is really not the best place but more importantly, NOT the right time of year to be seeing any great whale action out there on the water.

Downtown Juneau is basically a one main street deal....The same in Skagway, the same in Ketchikan. Walk up and down the main street a few blocks and you've seen the town. LOTS of jewelry shops--guess they think you will fall for Alaska being the gem state (it's not, it's Idaho,) or that you associate Alaska with gold and great jewelry prices. Actually, the gem stores in all these towns hope you'll buy from them from the time cruise ships start arriving in May and stop coming around September, and then they close their storefronts, pack up and head to the Caribbean to sell down there when the cruise ships change their sailing patterns. The prices of tourist items in the ports really wasn't bad at all, but we didn't check jewelry prices. There really were some great deals on stuff like tee shirts and other things. Sparky did however, buy a cool scarf that had the look of native American Tlingit artwork on it and a tee shirt for a tee shirt quilt she's going to make from all the shirts from the national parks and travels we did as RVers. Sparky was also tempted to buy this bikini, but NOT for herself...as a gift, maybe? (Well, phooey! says a disappointed E.) She didn't see how much it was.

She DID, however, have a close encounter with a bear....

We decided to check out the Red Dog Saloon, supposedly a famous saloon back in the day. It's been redone, of course. But it looked just like an old bar/saloon from the gold rush era and just like the ones you see on old western shows---girls dressed in off the shoulder "madam" outfits, deer heads and antlers all over the place, lots of funky junky stuff on the walls, etc. etc. The staff was a really fun bunch and appeared to enjoy their jobs and interacting with the public.  Eldy liked the beer here.....He said it was one of the best beers he's ever had.

The menu was amusing....

And so was the entertainment...The Great Baldini....about 80+ years old and he still could sing!

Every time someone walked into the bar, he'd yell..."WELL, LOOK WHO'S HERE!" Then, "WHERE YOU FROM?" The crowd yelled, "WHO CARES?"  He'd say, "Where you goin'?" The crowd yelled again..."WHO CARES?" He says, "Who's buyin'?" The crowd yelled one final time, "YOU ARE!"

in the port of Juneau

The scenery was getting more and more amazing. It was so wonderful to have a veranda cabin where we could step outside and watch the mountains go by....and the temps were now down to about 58 degrees during the day. It felt so refreshing!

We have two more stops, and they are Sparky's favorites....because a HIKE and a raft float were on the ticket and the final port, a glacier....See you in Skagway!