We considered taking the ferry from Homer to Kodiak Island, but the schedules didn’t seem favorable for our upcoming engine work. With the rain finally gone it seemed like a better idea to head north again. We took essentially the same route as before, but it looked entirely different. This time we could actually see the mountain peaks, glaciers, and all the beautiful vistas along the way.
We stopped by the town of Kenai to admire the seasonal display of locals dip net fishing on the beach at the mouth of Kenai River. There is a convenient observation point at the top of the hill in Erik Hansen Scout Park. It’s popular spot this time of the year.
We continued on to our stop for the next few days, Girdwood. The town is at the base of Alyeska Ski Resort, and as is often the case, ski towns in the summer offer an excellent price to quality ratio. The following morning, very unlike us, we had a very specific plan in mind. We were on the road at 7:30 am, aiming to get to Seward and take a boat tour of the Kenai Fjords. We didn’t actually buy the tickets ahead of time, in case something delayed us on the road for the 9:30 am departure, but despite endless construction on the highway, we made it just in time.
We don’t often take part in group tours, but this one was absolutely worth it. Blocked for 7.5 hours, the crew made every single one of them count. The most notable landmarks of the route were the two tidewater glaciers – Holgate and Aialik. That’s the kind of glacier where the ice drops off into the water, with no strip of land in between. The boat can approach them fairly closely, and then you can observe them for a while, watching chunks of ice of varying sizes calve and fall into the water, often with a dramatic splash.
That said, many of the most memorable moments of the trip were the less predictable wildlife encounters, like the numerous birds, orca pods and mountain goats. The peak awesome was watching a pod of whales hunt a gigantic bait ball of fish using bubbles. As the whales coordinated their attack from below the water, the sea gulls were taking advantage of it from the air, striking the fish as they came close to the surface to avoid the whales. The boat paused so everyone could enjoy this display, and we kept watching as the whales mounted 5 separate attacks over the course of half an hour or so.
We got extremely lucky with the weather, as the entire time out at sea it was sunny and a pleasure to be on the deck watching both the wildlife and the inanimate geological formations of the fjords. As we inevitably got back to the harbour, it started to rain. Thankfully there were quite a few eating establishments close by, so we only got a little damp before finding both shelter and good food in a cute harbor side restaurant. When we finished eating, the rain had stopped, and we still had time to check out the town before heading back to Girdwood in the golden sunset light.
The rain kept going most of the next day, which kept us grounded, but not entirely disappointed. What’s a common feature of ski town accommodations? Hot tubs. When life gives you too much water, just heat it up and take a soak.
A detour in the regularly scheduled programming came when we realized that the gas stove in our rental unit had a leak. We carry a carbon monoxide detector with us, and when coming close to the active burners of the stove, it began to show extremely elevated values. That’s not normal, and since we’re talking about CO leak, rather than a natural gas leak, this is not something you could smell or detect any other way, until it’s too late and you actually got poisoning. We alerted the hosts and hopefully this would be addressed before something happens that makes the news.
The next day, sun was out both literally and figuratively, as we finally got notified that our engine parts arrived in Anchorage, so it was time to get to work.
