This morning we got up at 8 am and by 10:30 we had dressed, packed, shopped at the commissary for snacks, returned movies to Blockbuster, filled up the truck ($70), and picked up Roxie at the kennel. Our $28 room at the North Star Inn on Elmendorf did not allow doggies. The Inn was just fine – but the free laundry room was the best – huge floor to ceiling windows looking out at the cloud covered mountains. It stopped raining in Anchorage about 4 pm yesterday. I was getting a little bit of a rain phobia. In Chevak we always wish for a good rain since all we get is fog and drizzle. Now here in Anchorage it has just been rain, rain, rain, rain…I wished for only one clear day and we’ve got it TODAY for our ferry ride to Valdez!!

We were the first car in the line for the tunnel. It used to be only for trains but now the cars and the trains take turns. Roxie was a tad apprehensive. Since we were in the front we could lower the windows and actually breathe the cool air inside.

Our ferry was the fast one – going from Whittier to Valdez in less than three hours. We saw an otter and two whales. Tom saw several birds he liked. The ferry was the MV Chenega and it was a fine and dandy ferry – way nicer than out ferry last year we took to the Aleutian Islands. In fact the bathroom stall on this ferry is as large or larger than our cabin was on the ferry last year. Maybe that ferry was for people who lived in the area and this one is more for tourists – indeed, we have heard many languages being spoken on board. Roxie had to stay in the truck downstairs. She was not pleased.

The scenery is just overwhelming – huge snow capped mountains all along both sides – glaciers everywhere we look.

Later after supper:

We pulled off the ferry in our truck and drove right into town – well there’s not much of a town – the houses are on one side of town and the tourist stuff in on the other by the water. Lots and lots of boats were docked, well literally hundreds. We enjoyed walking among them looking at all the different types and their names. There was a little folks fishing contest going on and I got a couple of shots of the girls. They were pretty proud of their fish! We watched some of the folks who had caught fish bring theirs in to be filleted (sp?) and got a few photos there.



We ate at the Totem Inn – I had Halibut and Tom had chicken steak – we are by the ocean and Tom has chicken steak! No rooms at the Best Western ( we have ceased planning ahead of time) so we are in a place called Keystone Hotel. The room is tiny – we have to be very careful with all our stuff so we don’t trip and bump. The bathroom is nice though. I just hope we don’t have any problems with the mosquitos. In the morning we are going to check out the museums.