August 2nd - 3rd

Another couple of days gone by since I've updated my Tally Book but this time it is not the "internet's fault"... we've had it every day.  No the problem is we've been having too much fun and getting home too late to fix pictures and update the Tally Book.  So here is the latest…

Sunday started out bright and sunny which was nice after about 10 days of rain.  We headed to the local church for Mass which was to start at 10:30 AM per the internet.  I'll bet you can guess what comes next... yes Mass was underway for about 20 minutes when we arrived.  It seems that this church does not have a permanent priest but when one does come, then they schedule the time based on the priest.  In this case, this was the same priest we saw in Palmer... he said he was going fishing.  So I guess we know where he fishes now.  We went for the rest of the Mass... made Ernie's seem like a long Mass!

After church we ate a great breakfast at a local restaurant (it was delicious) before we headed to the docks to board the Lu Lu Belle for a tour of Alaskan waters and Ice Fields.  This trip is advertised as a 5 - 6 hour trip but Captain Fred is known to forget about time as he is more concerned about finding animals for his "guests".  Our trip lasted almost 8 hours and was fantastic as the pictures show (Valdez Boat Tour).  We saw and learned so much during the trip it was worth every penny.

An example of this is the Columbian Glacier.  There is good news and bad news such as the ice is melting but NOT from global warming. It is melting because of an earth quake (9.2 for 4 miniutes) in 1967 which caused a huge fissure in the Columbian Glacier.  This broke off about 13 years later creating a 7-mile long fjord filled with ice and water.  So as the water comes in contact with the ice, it melts it. The good news, there is still lots of ice for cocktail hour.

As for the animals, we saw some we had seen previously such as sea otters, eagles, cormorants (they are everywhere), and gulls... it wouldn't be a sea port without the later. We also added some new ones to our list... sea lions, puffins (horned and tufted), pigeon guillemot, porpoises, orca or killer whales, arctic tern, and bayline whales. 

Some other tidbits we learned from Captain Fred include Puffins.  These are seabirds that nest in holes in the ground on islands. Puffins have colorful bills that can hold many fish.  Mom and Dad puffins rub their bills together (called "billing") to show affection and will raise only one or two baby pufflings each year.  The family leaves the nest near the end of the summer.  People enjoy their clown-like behavior and little stubby wings that must be flapped very hard for flying out to sea to get fish.  Though they are only distantly related to the parrots and penguins of the southern hemisphere, they are sometimes called sea-parrots.  Puffins stand 10-12 inches high and are related to the extinct Great Auk which reached heights of four feet!  Backwards pointing teeth in their colorful bills allow them to catch many fish at one time, to bring back to the 1-2 young pufflings waiting in the burrow.  There are two other types of puffin found in Alaska... the Horned and Tufted Puffins.

While the Port of Valdez does not freeze in the winter and is accessible by ships, the port is used only for oil.  The biggest reason for this is that the road between Valdez and Anchorage goes through the Thompson Pass on the Richardson Highway.  While Valdez averages 362" of snow a year, Thompson Pass gets around 600" making it unreliable for transportation for most of the year... many avalanches result for this much snow.  In fact, only 3 months of the year, June, July and August get zero snowfall on average.


Today (Monday) we decided to stay in Valdez for a couple more days while Arda recovers from a cold and her back is once again very sore.  A couple of days rest will cure this.

It is also not a bad day to stay south of a line between Fairbanks and Tok due to the amount of smoke in the air from the many forest fires in the area.  There are over 100 fires burning right now with several large ones consuming over 400K acres.  To give your an idea of the large areas that these fires cover, the Alaskan Firefighters have asked for firefighter help from the lower 48.  They are not fighting the fires directly, they are just protecting property that may be endangered by a fire.

Did you know?  Twenty percent of Alaskans suffer from allergies.  Not a surprising stat considering all the trees around here.

Take care and keep your loops open.