Alaska 31. Road Warriors August 9

We had to be on the road by 6:30-ISH. I say “ish” because, 1) ish, and 2) they said we needed to check in for our 8:30 tour an hour early. Which seemed extreme. Surely they wouldn’t turn us away if we were 10 or 15 minutes later than that? I mean… not that I ever plan to be late, but I’m also not going to build in an extra 30 minutes to be on the safe side. Besides, the coffee shops wouldn’t be open yet so we wouldn’t lose time there like we did the other day…

We got on the road right at 6:30 — so proud of ourselves — but were quickly stymied by road construction that we had not planned for. It was kind of stressful, to be honest, because we also had no cell signal. So I couldn’t call the tour people to let them know. The construction delayed us almost 30 minutes and we arrived closer to 8 am. Plus, we needed to find a spot to park that was big enough for the camper. I was able to get a call out to them about 10 minutes out of town, so I knew we were ok, but it was still stressful. 

We were the last ones to board at 8:10 and they left right after we got on. Ugh. You never want to be THOSE people… (and now we are.)

Tours — of any kind — are not my thing. But this came highly recommended by a few different people. It was an 8+ hour tour, though. And hat’s a really long time. There were 60 people aboard and — even if we didn’t see wildlife — I knew there would be plenty of people watching. I wasn’t disappointed.

However, we DID see wildlife. Lots of it, I think — though I really have nothing to compare it to. Mostly I wanted to see Puffins. There were lots of puffins. They are smaller than I expected and for some reason I wasn’t expecting them to be like ducks. In my mind they were more penguin-like. What do I know?! The best part about the puffins is the way they FRANTICALLY swim/fly along the top of the water. I want to consult with them: “Listen Mr. Puffin: pick one. Swim or fly. You can’t have both.” But I can’t get a meeting with the head of the puffins so I expect this will continue, long after my tour. 

We saw RIDICULOUS sea otters. Just floating along on their backs. Not a care in the world. 

We saw giant whales. Sea lions. Dolphins. Coastal mountain goats. Seals. Birds. And Northwestern glacier – with giant slabs of ice falling into the ocean. It was great.

I learned that most of the people on a Fjord/Wildlife trip are REALLY excited about seeing whales. The whales don’t even have to be doing anything special or be that close. Tour people want the boat to sit in one place INDEFINITELY in the hope of seeing the back of a whale just ONE MORE TIME. Dave and I are more like “Cool. We saw a whale. Check. Let’s move on.” I guess it’s good we are on the same page and can entertain ourselves by making funny faces at each other as we eavesdrop. To be fair, Dave and I could have stared at the glacier calving slabs of ice all day long. And I’m pretty sure Mr. and Mrs. Whale Watcher were making funny faces at each other about US!

Again, it was great. It was just a little long. As we turned to go back they announced they were serving glacier drinks made with ice from the glacier. I wasn’t interested in the signature drink of the day (the margarita), so they made me a Puffin on the Rock-which I thought was a very clever name. It was very good. And while I sipped it (and simultaneously held Daves head up while he slept so it wouldn’t bang against the side of the boat) I fleshed out the stories I had made up for many of the interesting characters on our boat. (Eight hours is a lot of time to observe people.) It was a lovely ride back.

When Dave woke up, he braved giant seas (truly) to get down there before they closed the bar. After the drinks, the crew brought up warm brownies. This tour was getting better and better!

Alas it was over. We filed through the gift shop on our way out and I begged for a puffin hat souvenir, but Dave said no.

We hiked the half-mile to the outer parking lot to retrieve the car and camper and drove around looking for a spot to spend the night. There weren’t many places to choose from, so we set up shop at the city municipal campground. We made a critical error in selecting the site, though, as it abutted a little bike terrain park that was popular with the kids, so it made potty runs verrrra difficult…

Right on cue it started to rain as I started dinner. We unfurled the canopy and I made another meal of pasta. This one with — surprise — Italian sausage, tomato, onion, pepper and red wine. (I was out of cabbage.). I also dumped in the remaining cottage cheese. 

It was getting really cold, so we crawled in just before 9 and fell asleep to sounds of semi’s rolling by on highway and train engines idling just beyond.