Alaska Marine Highway

Our morning was pretty boring. We hung out in Whittaker, which is a pretty dumpy little town. Started out as an Army base during WWII, and seems to have just gone downhill since then. The view out our room window was of the town dump/scrapyard. Got to listen to the workers breaking up an old metal container for most of the morning. It was raining pretty good, so we couldn't really go anywhere. Watched old movies on 1 of the 4 or 5 TV stations in the room.

At 1:45, we headed for the Alaskan Marine Highway terminal (in other words, the ferry system). We went from Whittaker over to Valdez. Left at 2:34 and arrived at 8:30. Pretty good ways traveling at 14 knots. Probably took more pictures during the trip than at any other time. Went from really cloudy/foggy to starting to clear off as we neared Valdez.

A pretty typical shot:

We even got to see a couple of whales. Look to the right side of the picture and you can see one venting. I just about missed it.......
The blue junk in the foreground is an iceburg. Pretty good sized just floating out there by itself. Broke off one of the glaciers that dominate the area.
Here is a shot as we were nearing Valdez. Starting to clear off a little.

During the trip, we saw porpoises, sea lions, whales, eagles, sheep and some seals. It was unbelievable!! What a way to finish the day. Valdez is 180 degrees different from Whittaker. Saw the oil terminus. Huge holding tanks for the oil coming down from the North Slope. We will probably get some pretty good shots of the pipeline tomorrow if it isn't raining too hard.

Tomorrow we start our way back to the Alaskan Highway. Once we reach it at Tok, we will officially be working our way back home. Still not sure of the exact route yet, but we know we will take the Alaskan Highway back to Watson Lake. There, we will start south on the Cassiar Highway (route 37) through British Colombia.

After what we saw today, it will be really hard to leave here. It is so beautiful. Been meeting all kinds of people (still/again, whatever) with different stories about why they came up here. Some stay, some don't, but they all have something in common. A sense of adventure.

Well, it is 11:45, the darkness is finally starting to show up, I'm tired, so I guess I'll finish this and go to bed.