During the steamy hot days of March when we were visiting the Lees in Nigeria, I dreamed up the scheme of going to Alaska this year. So I worked out the details. Our friends from Germany, the Andreasons, had moved there last year and I told her to expect a visit from us.
Little did I know when I made our reservations to go in July is that it's the most expensive time to travel to Alaska because it's salmon season. It was a real blessing that we had a place to stay! For some reason I don't have many pictures of the sights we saw in Anchorage the first day we were there. One thing we saw LOTS of as we drove through the state were signs like the one below.
And actually, we saw moose along the side of the road almost every one of the six days we were in Alaska!!
One of the things we learned quite a bit about was the big earthquake that hit the coast of Alaska in 1964. I was only five and living in Canada at the time, but Kent said he remembered hearing about it since he lived on the west coast of Washington and is three years older than I am. It was very interesting to learn about. We saw a film about it at the visitor's center in Anchorage and went to "Earthquake Park" outside of Anchorage.
Another place we went to a few times since it was very close to the Andreason's house, was the Anchorage Temple. We first saw it on a clear day and took the picture below.
We next saw it on a rainy day.
And finally on an overcast day when we were able to pose in front of it.
It was mostly cloudy, rainy and overcast for most of the six days we were in Alaska. That was especially true when we went to Whittier, which is on the coast near Prince William Sound.
We could see glaciers in the distance as we drove to the dock.
The glacier ice was a lovely light blue color.
When we got to the dock I saw that my boat was in port, so I had to stop and take a picture!
This is the ship we took on our "26 Glaciers" cruise. We were served a nice fish and chips lunch on the cruise.
One of our first views was of an island of sea lions. It was foggy and rainy and hard to get a good picture.
As we went through the water we would randomly see sea otters floating along side us.
Most of the glaciers we saw were in the distance, but this was one that the ship's captain took us up close to see.
We could see and hear the glaciers "calving" as big chunks of the ice fell into the water.
It was VERY cold and wet outside on the boat. I was wearing a sweatshirt under my coat and wished I'd brought gloves.
As we were heading back to Whittier it cleared up a bit. The landscape around us was beautiful.
It's hard to see, I took this picture because there were hundreds of birds all flying around this particular spot and it was amazing to see.
We learned a bit about the Alaska railroad, but didn't ever ride in it. We had a rental car we drove to get around while we were in Alaska.
This waterfall was alongside the road on the way back to Anchorage, and we thought it was a good place to take a picture.
I think it reminded Kent of his teenage years in western Washington.
While we were there Josh Andreason, who had been one of my piano students about ten years ago, gave his farewell talk before we left on his mission to Bulgaria. We were very impressed with him; he's going to be an awesome missionary. He had even continued with piano lessons and played a couple of songs for me. That always warms my heart!
We were very appreciative of the Andreason's hospitality. On Sunday evening April made a wonderful meal of freshly caught Alaska salmon.
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