After a late night yesterday we decided to take it easy this morning as we made our way south to Alyeska Resort in Girdwood.
First stop was for some coffee at the Flying Squirrel cafe
. A pretty cool cafe that looked to have good food all prepared by hippies, tie-dye and dreadlocks included.
We made our way south to Wasilla where we took a Starbucks break. Today has been dry with mostly cloudy skies to this point. As we pass through Eagle River and into Anchorage the skies are filled with clouds, but still no rain.
We visit a few shops in Anchorage and walk around the downtown area before heading for lunch at the highly recommended Moose Tooth restaurant. The high recommendations and Yelp ratings were well deserved.
We drove south from Anchorage along the north shore of the Turnagain Arm. The water with steep rising mountains with fields of snow and blue glaciers was beautiful - even with the scattered clouds and occasional rain. We drove through the Anton Anderson Tunnel, which is a single lane, multi-use tunnel. That means it is for cars and trains, not at the same time though
. The tunnel is 2.5 miles long, which is currently the second longest tunnel in North America. Through the tunnel you pass under Maynard Mountain.
Whittier is a small fishing and tourist destination. The harbor is filled with fishing and sight seeing boats. A ferry takes cars and passengers to other towns around Prince William Sound. There is a large abandoned building that looks really creepy. It is and old military facility that was damaged in an earthquake and left to the elements. We took some pictures, browsed some quirky gift shops and set back for the tunnel.
On the other side of the tunnel we were in Chugach National Forest. Glaciers are high above us with streams and waterfalls carrying ice cold water to the rivers. We stop at a salmon viewing spot and see lots of salmon swimming in the creek. Tomorrow we hope to catch some salmon as we go fishing.
We make our way back to Girdwood and up to the Alyeska Resort to check in. The resort is nice and has a feel similar to the Couer d'Alene Resort. Vintage modern items that were built into the rooms 30 years ago. We tour around the hotel and the grounds and see there is a huge variety of activities right at the resort. Hopefully we will have time for some of them.
We enjoyed a good dinner at the hotel followed by Jack entertaining us and other guests on the piano in the lobby. We have a very early departure for our fishing adventure tomorrow so we went to bed before the sun tonight.
See you tomorrow.
South to Girdwood
Tuesday, August 09, 2016
Anchorage, Alaska, United States
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2025-02-11
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Judi
2016-08-10
Well, here I am again. Whittier used to be only a military outpost. After rhat was abandoned it was pretty much left alone. There was no road there, only to be reached by railroad through that tunnel. Whittier was where my senior class went for our sneak day. And, of course, kissing of couples going through the tunnel. There were about 15 people in Whittier at the time of the earthquake. The story goes that they all went down to the waterfront to watch the tsunami. No one in Whittier survived. I will have to show you the magazine I have that was published after the earthquake. We have been having cooler than normal temps and rainy days, courtesy of Alaska I bet!