#13-15 Anchorage AK 8/26 thru 8/29

We arrived in Anchorage in the evening of Aug 26.  We stayed at the Marriott downtown.  Dinner was on the train so we went right up to our room and relaxed. This is the last night of our land tour, but because we didn’t get to see any ice bergs or glaciers, we booked a glacier tour to Portage Glacier, which is on a fresh water lake.  It is about an hour and a half out of Anchorage.  Our tour guide was a young man who worked for tour groups in different parts of the states.  He has made his home in Anchorage for the past five years!

Our first glimpse of a glacier a hanging glacier.  That is a glacier that doesn’t touch water.  I didn’t know that.

Our next stop was unscheduled.  Our guide spotted some Beluga Wales swimming up the Turnagain Spit, which we were driving by.  So we stopped and got to see whales.  These are the smallest of the whales and they are hunting for food.

We make it to the boat just in time to board.  The captain takes us out to an iceberg.  The definition of an iceberg is a floating piece of ice that is over 15 feet tall.  And this one was.  Look at the beautiful blue color.  The captain explained that the blue color comes from the water being compressed.  To get out to the glacier, we travel through a lot of pieces of floating ice.  So we know the glacier is “calving,” and we hope we can see a piece break off.  The boat gets very close and goes back and forth in front of the glacier, we hear it pop (sounds like a pistol shot), but nothing breaks off. 

The water coming off the mountain is from melting glacial snow.  It is very clear looking, but when it enters the water it is carrying a lot of glacial silt.  So the lake and the rivers that it feeds always look dirty.  It is made up of ground up rock from the movement of the ice.  See, I listened and learned a lot about glaciers!

The black line in the glacier is where two glaciers have come together from each side of the mountain.  I thought the little upside down icicle was an interesting part of the ice flow.

The temperature near the glacier is 10 degrees colder than out on the lake.  As the boat gets closer the wind is cold on my ears. so up goes the hood and on goes the jacket.  Sure can tell I’m a desert rat.  The captain has on a windbreaker and baseball hat—and there are two people paddle boarding on the lake.  Brrrr  Hope they don’t fall.  That is ice water!
After we get back from the tour, my niece, Brenda picks us up at the hotel and we get to visit with her and her family for the next two days!

Brenda was aware of how tired we were and so we just hung out.  Both her and husband, Leonard, took time off work to be with us.  One day we went downtown to the Brewhouse for lunch.  It is a busy place with great food.  The flowers this year are just beautiful.  Brenda said it has been a great summer for flowers.  This is a vine with purple trumpet looking flowers.  It grows this much in just the few summer months, that’s what lots of sunlight does.

Leonard and Brenda in their living room,  Brenda with Frank and I on the day we leave.  Brenda took us to the airport and we flew back to Vancouver, BC on the 29th. 
We got into Vancouver, BC at about 7 pm.  Took the shuttle to the hotel, spent the night, picked up our car at long term parking the next morning and headed back to our RV and Gidget in Yakima.  It was the first day of a 3 day holiday—traffic was awful as we were going through Seattle!  Lots of boats and RV’s.  Last weekend of summer!