Bye bye parents

Well my my Mom and Dad left today. It was sad to see them leave, but I think I have them convinced to move up here someday.... or maybe to visit again.

Well during the week we did a couple things. They mostly explored while I worked my butt off at the hospital. But when I finally got off work, we hiked Flat Top Mountain, went to The Bear Tooth (a brew and view), explored the base, drove the scenic byway Seward Highway, hiked a bunch of different trails, visited some local parks, and explored the beach.

Yesterday was the big finale. We went to Seward Alaska for a sea expedition of Kenai Fjords National Park. The morning started off crazy because we pulled out on a main road in Anchorage to head south, and there was a huge bull moose just walking down the middle of the road. We pulled up right next to him and got within 10 feet side by side to take a picture.... probably not the best decision especially since most big game at this time is in rut and looking for a good fight!!

Anyway, back to the expedition. It was an amazing time. The first thing we saw was an extreme close up of a sea otter. We were then served lunch and told the history behind Seward and the Park. The next thing we saw were Orca Whales AKA Killer Whales! They weren't jumping like I hoped they would, but they were surfacing for air all around us. The male Orcas were the most impressive with their 6 foot dorsal fins sticking high out of the water whenever they surfaced. We probably saw a total of 12 different Orcas. Just after we left the Orcas, we saw a couple of spotted seals relaxing on the shore. And further up the coast, a huge group of Sea Lions were lounging among the rocks.

The next thing we saw were puffins, Alaska's penguins. There weren't many around since most already migrated south for the winter. But that reminds me... this place was REALLY cold, especially since we were in the middle of mountains that were dumping ice and glaciers into the Kenai Fjords Bay. And the glaciers were one of the coolest things to see on the trip. We got to cruise right up next to a glacier and just sit and watch it. These glaciers were moving a bunch yesterday. You could hear loud cracks and thuds every 10 secs. But the coolest thing to see was a HUGE chunk of ice spanning the height of this 1000 foot high glacier, falling off into the ocean creating its own tidal wave. It might seem weird but I could sit, watch, and listen to a glacier for hours... something you have to experience to believe.

Well the glacier was our main destination for the trip, and on the return, we came across my favorite part of the tour..... the doll pourpusses (sp?). They looked like dolphins but with the colors of killer whales. Our tour guide said, "let see if we can get these guys' attention." So he slowed down and the pourposses immediately swam over to us. They LOVE to play at the bow of a big boat. It was amazing to see these dolphin like creatures swim and play all around us, trying to keep up with the boat. Disappointingly, we only got to play with them for about 10 minutes before we pushed the boat to full speed again :(

The last thing we saw on our return was a couple of mountain goats. This was a first for me and I doubt I will see many more while in Alaska since they live high in the mountains, especially in the colder areas of this state.

The animal I forgot to mention that we saw throughout the expidition was a bald eagle. There were more bald eagles than I could count. And did you know that it's illegal to have a bald eagle feather in your possession, even if you find it and pick it up for a second?!? Weird!

When we got back to port, we were moseying around the docks and saw some jelly fish. There were a couple of really big jellyfish, probably the size of a football, and then there were hundreds of really small, clear jelly fish, about the size of a quarter.

On our way home, we decided to stop at the wildlife conservation center so Mom and Dad could see the other animals Alaska housed that they did not see during their stay.

Overall, it was an AWESOME week with the parents. They loved Alaska so much, that I think they would seriously consider purchasing a cabin here to stay for summers. I know that any chance they get, they will definitely be coming to visit... and that's alright with me!

Valdez for Labor Day

Why hello there!!! I haven't wrote in the blog for quite a while, so I'm relieving Danielle of her updating duties today (plus I get the day off to spend it with mom and dad). That's right, MOM AND DAD ARE HERE!!! Mamma and Pappa Harris arrived Friday evening.

Ever since the plane touched down we were in a mad dash to get ready for the weekend.... camping in Valdez. We rented a pop-up camper for the weekend and at about 8 PM, we were finally ready to head out. Valdez is 5 hours away from Anchorage. You can't drive directly to it, you actually have to go up and around a huge mountain range and various bays to get there.... but it's one of the most beautiful drives, that is, if it's light out!

We got to Valdez at about 2 AM, after dodging 4 different suicidal porcupines and passing 1 lazy moose on the way there. We set up an ocean front camp site at a place called Allison Point, a known hot spot for shore fishing silver salmon.

After a short night of sleep, we woke up ready to fish, although we weren't too sure on how to catch silver salmon. It turns out, the silver salmon fishing this year was poor compared to the past. In the past, it was common for people to easily catch their limit in a day (6). Now, it was rare to catch more than 2 fish. Well, we got skunked the first day (although dad had 2 fish on, but both got off) and checked it off to a learning experience, but didn't feel too bad since many veteran fisherman had equivalent luck. The second day was a little different. We fished at the harbor 2 hours before high tide and I hooked into a fish immediately. I then landed another fish 20 minutes later. Nobody else caught one and we only ended up with two at the harbor. But on our way back to our camp site we notice someone catching fish in the shallow water of the reseeding tide, so we stopped to try our luck. Nobody could catch any fish by fishing rod and reel, so I got my net out to try and scoop them up without bait. It worked pretty well because I ended up netting 3 salmon within 20 minutes... the biggest being a 13 pound silver!

Turns out, bears love the dying salmon that are everywhere when the tide goes out. Every day during low tide, we would see a black bear making his way through our campground and heading for the ocean to snack. He was harmless and didn't mind people. It was a pretty cool site to see having a bear come feed next to you while you're fishing for salmon.

That was pretty much our weekend... fishing, hiking, relaxing at camp, walking the town, and taking in the beauty of our surroundings. We got pretty lucky while we were in Valdez, because that town is supposed to get the most precipitation of all places in Alaska, and it was sunny and warm the entire weekend (minus Monday).

We decided to leave early Monday to leave some time for side trips on the way home. We stopped at a couple of the many beautiful waterfalls coming out of the mountains from melting glaciers. We also stopped at a glacier called Worthington Glacier. Here, you can hike right up to and walk on or in the glacier. It was magnificent to say the least.

There was this one part of the glacier that was melting and creating a cave like structure. We got up to it, and you could see water drops dripping everywhere and rocks falling from different places. It was tempting to explore the glacier, but obviously dangerous. Dad, finding the kid in himself, decides he's going to explore the cave and ignore Mom and Danielle urging him against it. Because I wanted to go to, and Dad not having his hearing aids in, I HAD to go and be his ears for him (you can hear the falling rocks coming before they drop from above). We go in there, and we find out we are acutually on the glacier and not the mountain anymore. There are HUGE melted out holes in the ground and the cave seemed to go fairly deep into the glacier. I went in partway, but dad attempted to go the whole way, until he came to a dead end. He returned to meet up with me and as we were standing in the middle of this cave, I heard a HUGE boulder break away from the mountain, I look up and see this massive rock dropping off the ledge at a B-line for Dads head, I screamed at him and pulled away just in time for it to hit the ground directly behind him bouncing off the ground and nailing his ankle. He ended up getting dirty and falling down a little rock hill from my pull. We knew he was OK tho, because he was laughing as he was rolling down the hill. We immediately got out of the cave after that close call!!!

The animals we saw on our trip included: moose, porcupine, black bear, seal, sea lion, otter, jellyfish, silver salmon, pink salmon, chum salmon, OTHERS???

We will be working during the day, but Mom and Dad will be taking a car and doing their own thing, hopefully meeting up after work.