A tour of Resurrection Bay on Good Friday!

So I'm over 24hrs late posting this because we have been non-stop on the go since we woke up Friday morning.  We got up and enjoyed a wonderful continental breakfast and the hotel (it was the best I've ever seen) then headed down the street to do some shopping. (Imagine this: the town of Seward is like Mayberry, nestled between mountain ranges and set on the coast of beautiful Resurrection Bay).  After purchasing the last goodies to bring home, we went back to the hotel and shoved everything in the suitcases, which we actually were able to do.  We packed up the car and checked out of the hotel and headed (pretty much next door) to check-in at the dock.  The weather was really messy, raining on and off, sometimes very hard and visibility was very low but a few low clouds can't cover the beauty of what our God has created!!  We unfortunately didn't get to see any whales, but we did see: Dal Porpuses, Otters, a seal, Sealions, a Coyote, mountain goats, and tons of the majestic bald eagles and non-stop beautiful scenery!! Here are just SOME of the photos that we took...

 A spotted seal

 An Otter doing flips...

 Munching on a fresh catch

 A different Otter, floating and grooming himself

 Look at the color of that beautiful water!!

 Mountain Goat

 This is when the water started getting really rough

 Snow melt waterfalls

 Three more Mountain Goats

 Stellar Sea Lions lounging (this was one of 3 rock formations that were covered with them)

 One all by his lonesome

One of the many bald eagles

I tried to post a video that we took of the porpoises but it wouldn't load!! They look like little mini Orcas and were so active and playful!!

After our boat cruise, we jumped in the car and made the 2 1/2hr drive back to Anchorage to have one last Alaskan meal (for this trip)... we ended up at a place called Snow Goose.  The food was soooo delicious, it was so good that I completely forgot to take a picture of our appetizer (Reindeer stuffed mushrooms) and I didn't take a picture of our entrees (Me - A caribou burger; Jason - Chile glazed salmon) until they were half gone, so I won't bother to post them but believe me they looked as good as they tasted!!

After dinner it was time to head to the airport... we dropped off our rental car, checked-in and then sat and waited for the time that we were scheduled to leave (11pm Alaska time)... a time that I was very sad about!! Our flight was a little rough for a while but Jason spent 2+ hrs watching the Aurora from the plane.. we both tried to sleep but didn't get much. After our lay-over in Chicago we were boarding the plane to DC and the man told me that my bag (that had now flown across the country with THREE other airlines) was too big to fit in the overhead bins... I gave attitude... he took my bag and checked it so needless to say, we won't fly American Airlines again if I have anything to say about it!! Other than that little episode the flights were great and we arrived home safely, we picked up the pup from my parents' house and headed home!!

Thank you to everyone who prayed for us as we took off on this adventure, your prayers were definitely felt!! We suggest that everyone take a trip to Alaska at least once... I'll plan your itinerary for you if you want!! ;)   Before we left I would have said that this was a "once in a lifetime" experience but we're already making notes of what we want to do next time and I'm trying to coax Jason into agreeing to go back next year!!  I am still in complete awe of everything we experienced (even the not so fun weather) but everything we experienced is a part of our God's creation and I look forward to the next time that I am able to stand at the base of one of those massive and majestic snow covered mountains with my husband and feel so very small compared to His creation!!

Our time is winding down!! :(

Just as we suspected, we didn't have internet service in Fairbanks so here's a re-cap of the past three days...

Wow! The past three days have been every part of an adventure... some of which was too much for me to handle!!

Tuesday we checked out of our home-away-from-home in Anchorage and set off for the 6hr drive to Fairbanks.  The drive was beautiful... blue skies and mountains all around us!!  We, unfortunately didn't get to see Mt. McKinley's peak on the drive as there was a little patch of clouds that looked like God had stuck a tuft of white cotton candy on a huge mountain stick.  Here are some beautiful pictures of our drive...

 (Above) McKinley and her cotton candy top

 Rolling roadways and snow covered mountains

 The higher elevations were still VERY white (but the roads were great)

Here we were at almost 2,400ft elevation and it was a rather chilly 31* but it was absolutely humbling to stand in this "tundra" between mountain ranges

This trip was uneventful (except for the lack of guard rail in some rather steep drop areas).  We made it to Fairbanks in good time and decided to go ahead and drive the extra 15min to get to North Pole. It was a rather interesting place, but it was nothing like the picture that I had in my mind from the book that I read that was based in the city.

 Candy-cane light poles

 Even McDonald's joins in on the Christmas decor

The Santa Claus house was a pretty neat little place.

We went back to the hotel and ate at their restaurant (nothing exciting) and then crashed!! The next morning we took our time getting up and out then we went to visit the University of Alaska Fairbanks' museum which had some really beautiful pieces of art made by Native Alaskans and I really learned a lot about some of the 'founders' of this beautiful state. From there we hit a few shops, but there really wasn't much to see as Fairbanks was nothing like Anchorage. Then we drove out to the main attraction... the hot springs!! And let me say... WOW... it was 140* of sheer bliss!! And to make it even better, we had a moose spotting on the way to AND from the resort!!

 Moose sighting on the way to the resort

Us in the hot spring

Moose sighting when we were leaving

From there we drove out to find the pipeline and then had an AMAZING dinner at the Silver Gulch Restaurant.

 It is zig-zagged like this so that it will sway when animals, storms or even earthquakes cause it to move, otherwise it would just break.

 Stretching (while standing on ice) to touch the pipeline

 I had Fish 'N Chips (Rockfish) and Jason had a sampler of Rockfish, Halibut, Cod and Prawns

Blackberry creme brulee (YUM!!)

Back to the hotel we went to rest up because we were going to be back on the road the following morning, this time it would be an 8.5hr drive down to the coastal town of Seward.  The skies in Fairbanks were just as clear and beautiful as they had been all week but as we started getting to the mountains we could see clouds wrapped around their peaks.  Roughly 2hrs into the trip I saw some snow flurries which quickly turned into snow showers, which was exciting, until we got about 30min farther down the road.  At that point it began sticking to the roads (keep in mind, we are now WAY up in the mountains but still looking at at least another 1,000ft rise in elevation), within the next 20miles the roads were completely covered and I was almost in tears. I sent out a text message to our family to pray and pray hard because I was SCARED (however, Jason seemed completely unaffected by all the snow)... there is no doubt that prayer is a powerful thing because it wasn't another 20 miles after I sent that text that the snow slacked off and the temperatures started to rise NEAR freezing so it started melting on the roads.  By the time we reached clear roads I realized that I had been clenching my jaw and my muscles to the point that my jaw and body hurt (and Jason continued to laugh at me)!!  Praise Jesus, we made it through all of that, and I still managed to take some pictures as proof...

Thick clouds at the peaks

 Starting our ascent into the mountains and the blue sky has disappeared

 Starting to really come down and already sticking to the trees

 Starting to stick to the roads

 Turning white...

Solid white (and a Caribou crossing warning)

We made it through and made it to Seward safely!! We have scoped out the town a little bit, but plan on doing more exploring tomorrow morning before we go on our whale watching tour.  We took a drive out to see the Exit Glacier but unfortunately the road was closed since the tourist season really doesn't begin until late May and many places never clear their roads until they have to.  We were however, able to get pictures from a distance...

 Nature's bulldozer and the path that it is cutting...

Pictures just don't do it justice!!

We ate a really good dinner next door to the hotel...

I had shrimp & crab stuffed Halibut while Jason had a seafood saute

Then we took a dip in the hot tub where we met another family visiting from Virginia (it's scary how small this world really is)! We have re-organized our suitcases and packed in all of our purchased goodies and now we are relaxing and enjoying the mountain views from our room... savoring every last moment we have in this beautiful state!! We don't leave until tomorrow, but we are already ready to come back (but we'll stay in Anchorage and below next time)!!

The views from our hotel room in Seward!!

We don't want to leave but we look forward to seeing our family and friends and our fur-baby very soon!!  If I get the chance, I'll post tomorrow about the whale watching tour during we get on the plane tomorrow night!!

Mountains, Mountain Water and Mooses!!

We got up early this morning to catch the hotel's continental breakfast and then we put on our layers and headed out for a day of adventures!! First stop was a marsh just on the out skirts of the city called Potter's Marsh... it's known for it's birds, bears (when they are awake) and of course moose.  Unfortunately, we were too early... there were only a few birds and "Determined Diver" ducks... but it was absolutely amazing to stand on the boardwalk and listen to the birds and the ice cracking.  We were told yesterday by a local that April is called the "break apart" month because the snow and ice are breaking up and April is the official break-up between the Alaskan winter and true spring.

 The marsh and part of the boardwalk

 A "Determined Diver" Duck... these little guys would literally disappear as they dove under the water

Still haven't figured out what this little guys is yet but I really like them!!

After the marsh we drove farther south and found the perfect pull-off to stop and take pictures of the snow water melt that has formed waterfalls on the side of the road.  I can remember as a kid driving through Skyline and stopped with bottles to collect spring water to drink so I had three empty bottles in the car to fill up!!  The water as you can imagine is COLD but it tasted so good... so fresh!!

 The water rushing off of the mountain causing a small rainbow

 Me, collecting the first sample to taste

 It was soooooooooooo good!!

 Filling bottle number 3 and just got hit on the head with a chunk of ice that fell (I was bent over laughing after I took this picture, I just couldn't help it)

 Can you see the rainbow?

We then took our water and found a hiking trail which is rather easy to do since they are pretty much everywhere as you drive down the road. We happened to stop at Falls Creek which was BEAUTIFUL!! Creeks up here aren't like creeks at home, especially when all the snow in the mountains is melting.  The water was rushing so loudly that you couldn't tell that the road was just at the base of the mountain.

 The end of the creek by the road

 Me!!

 Jason, in the middle of the creek as I sat under the tree!!

 It sounded like thunder and I could have sat there all day and listened to it!!

The view from one point on the trail

After walking and hiking we were both pretty hungry so we headed to a local place called Moose's Tooth that is famous for their pizza.  It was soooooooooooo good!!  We each got a 10" pizza that was split between two different kinds of their pizza.  Jason had 1/2 Southwestern Taco and 1/2 Chipotle Chicken... Me, I had 1/2 Shrimp Fiesta and 1/2 Cajun Rockfish... they were the best pizza that I have EVER had!!

After lunch we dropped the car off at the hotel and decided to walk around downtown to do some shopping.  We were quite disappointed with some of the shops as they had a bunch of beautiful Alaska stuff that had "Made In China" stickers on the back.  We managed to find two shops that had beautiful "Made In Alaska" stuff and we picked up a few things.

After a few hours of walking around downtown we headed into a local restaurant that we had heard good things about (and it was even featured on Man vs. Food).  Humpy's is a bar and that is VERY apparent when you enter but we had been told that they had great Halibut & Chips so I was on a mission to try it... and I was not disappointed at all... it was great and not very greasy at all.

My Halibut & Chips and Jason's Halibut Tacos

Then it was time for more walking.  I'm a little ashamed to tell this story, but I better do it before Jason does!  We drove done to Earthquake Park, a park about the earthquake and tsunamis that destroyed a lot of Alaska's coast on Good Friday many many years ago.  The park is attached to another portion of the Coastal Trail that we were on the other day but this area is heavily wooded and still has quite a lot of snow on the ground.  We walked down to an area that gave a beautiful view of the city and then turned around to head back to the car... we got a little ways further when I spotted it... a moose... just 20-30 yards away.  She was beautiful, just eating away at some fresh vegetation that was peeking through the snow so I pulled my camera out of my pocket and turned it on and then she looked right at me, at that second all of the signs that we have seen about how moose have razor sharp hooves and have been known to attack and kill people who get in their space flashed in my mind... I turned the camera off and just kept walking (probably at a sped-up pace)!!  Jason gave me a hard time because all I had talked about was how we hadn't seen a moose yet but I quickly learned that I want to see moose at a distance or from my car because they are HUGE and SCAREY!!  But we made up for it later when we drove out by the marsh again and saw FIVE more moose (from a good enough distance to feel comfortable but get pictures and even get to hear them talking to each other)!!

Just two of the five... the rest were too deep in the bush to get a decent picture.

From there we went up to some trails at one of the Chugach State Park pull-offs and hiked them for a while.

 There was lots of moose poop, but no moose!!

 *Notice the new headband that I bought today from a Co-op... it was handmade by a lady in Unakleete Alaska (a village on the far Western coast of AK)

After this last walk we headed back to the hotel to call it a night.  Tonight is our last night in Anchorage, we leave early tomorrow (Tuesday) morning for Fairbanks!! We may not have internet (or cell service) up there so there might night be a blog for the next few days but I'll catch up when we get to Seward on Thursday!!