It’s been a few years since the four of us vacationed in a new and distant location. It didn’t seem realistic during the pandemic years, and travel was mostly limited to camping in California and visiting family in Utah, though we did make it to Tucson. This year, things worked out for a 10-day trip to Alaska. As is our way, Vicky did all the planning. She made sure it worked with everyone’s schedules: Henry’s concerts, Tre’s conventions, and college classes starting up in late August.
I didn’t have many specific expectations. I like to visit used book stores when we travel, and there were a few around where we’d be, but none that were particularly interesting. I was hoping to eat fresh seafood every day. I knew we’d be on boats a few times, but I didn’t think too much about it. I figured I’d be relaxing, reading and drawing. Vicky, naturally, was hoping to spot birds. I don’t know what Tre or Henry expected.
We flew out of SFO in the afternoon and landed in Anchorage around 9pm local time. This time of year, it doesn’t really get dark there until almost 11pm. The extra light distorted my sense of time. It’s already hard to sleep in strange surroundings. Shifting one timezone earlier and then having the sun still above the horizon so late was strange.
The next morning, Vicky and I walked around a lagoon in Anchorage while the boys slept in. She was looking for birds. I was trying to circle the whole lagoon, which involved walking through a neighborhood street. I snapped a picture of a magpie on the roof of a house. It seemed bigger than typical to me. A guy walking his dog quizzed me about why I was taking a picture of his neighbor’s house. I don’t know what kind of mischief he thought I might be up to taking a picture with my phone.
Later that day, we visited the museum in downtown Anchorage. Among the displays was unusual leather armor. It used a cone of leather strips to form a skirt held up by suspenders. Behind the head was a shield, meant to catch arrows fired from the rear. The next day, I sketched what a warrior in such armor might look like.
We drove down to Moose Pass, which is about 20 minutes north of Seward. Along the way, we stopped to look at wildlife and to hike up to see a glacier. The day in Anchorage had been sunny and cool. The drive to Seward dropped some light rain on us. The next day, we spent the whole day on a large boat that took us to the Kenai Fjords to see a glacier slowly dropping ice into the ocean. The overcast day enhanced the blue tones of the ancient ice.
On the way back from the glacier, whales were spotted. The first we saw were sei whales. They were just cresting the water in the distance. The real excitement came from the humpback whales. The boat had underwater microphone so that we could hear the calls as the whales chased fish to the surface with curtains of air bubbles. Soon, the gulls would begin diving on one spot followed by the sudden emergence of several gargantuan whale heads. We saw several rounds of this feeding activity.
The next day was Tre’s 21st birthday, and we celebrated with a vigorous hike up to Exit Glacier to see the Harding Ice Fields, which is the big expanse of ice over the top of the mountains. The ascent is about 3,000 feet of elevation over about 4 miles. It added up to over 10 miles of up and down. The first part of the trail was a series of stone steps, but then we climbed above the tree line and then across loose gravel and patches of snow. The change from lush rain forest to barren mountaintop was dramatic.
The next part of our trip was spent camping on a remote peninsula across Resurrection Bay from Seward. We left our rental call and half our luggage behind for a 40 minute boat ride to Shearwater Cove. Yurts sit on stilts in a narrow canyon. That night, Vicky and I went on a guided kayak tour to a nearby island and then we all relaxed in the yurt, which offered small kitchen and a heater. The weather that day and the day before was perfect. The following day, a storm rolled by the afternoon and delivered heavy rain. However, we managed another kayak trip in the morning to see spawning salmon in a nearby cove.
Shearwater Cove can only be reached by boat. A little creek runs through canyon. It became a raging river overnight. The operators have put in many yurts which are connected by series of decks and stairs. There are several trails to explore with wild blueberries and salmon berries to pick along the way. Propane powers a heater, a stove and a shower for each yurt. It was very comfortable except that we were four adults crammed into a 20-foot yurt.
This has been a challenge for us that’s intensifying over time. We no longer have the dynamic of the two adults who can dictate a schedule to the two kids. We’re four adults with different preferences, including some preferences for solitude that are hard to satisfy on the road. We definitely got cranky with each other at times.
We wrapped up our trip by driving north, past Anchorage to Talkeetna, which is a tiny town at the foot of Mount McKinley (aka Denali). The original plan was to catch a good view of the mountain, but the weather didn’t cooperate. We even tried driving north for an hour with no luck. The rain wouldn’t let up. The last day was spent driving back to the airport and flying into SFO.
Other places we’ve visited offered unique food. In Cancun, we’d eat mangoes every day, plus restaurants would serve regional dishes, all of which we’d want to try. I figured on lots of fish in Alaska. I imagined eating fresh salmon every day. It didn’t turn out that way. There are a lot of breweries in Alaska, but I’ve given up drinking beer and anyway, there are plenty of similar breweries in the Bay Area. The one delicacy we ran into was birch syrup in Talkeetna. None of the food was bad. It was just relatively generic American.
I also often look for used bookstores on trips. That didn’t work out. There weren’t any interesting places in Seward or in Anchorage proper. I think I saw more used bookstores near Homer on the map, but we didn’t make it that far.
I went into the fjord cruise with neutral expectations, but it was a really interesting day, and amazing to see the whales fishing. The experience at Shearwater Cover was probably the highlight of the trip. The vibe was so friendly. Other campers were sharing a good mood.
Overall, it was a good adventure.
