Tzana's visit: 2012

My mother-in-law, Tzena (pronounced Zay-nah), came to visit us for a week at the end of June till just after July 4th. And with her visit, our adventurous exploring of Alaska continued. 

The beginning of our venture took us to Whittier, AK. To get there, you have to drive through a 2 mile tunnel. The tunnel was built for a train, and so its very thin - only one direction of driving at a time (the direction changes every 1/2 hour), and we were driving over train tracks.

Whittier tunnel entrance, straight into a mountain

There's not a whole lot to do in Whittier, so we walked just outside of town to look at the river and waterfalls.

Heather and her Momma by the river

Yes it was June, and yes that's snow behind them!

Whittier is one of those quirky little towns you hear about. One of the "quirks" is this building. This is the dormitory, where everyone (yes, everyone) in Whittier lives.

Makes life easy for the postman

Alas, we only briefly passed through Whittier, because soon after touring the small town, we drove Jayne onto a ferry. Our plan: take the Alaska Marine Highway (a.k.a. big boat that holds cars and stuff) over to Valdez (another quirky town) and drive back to Anchorage.

The boat ride was absolutely beautiful. Completely surrounded by snow-speckled mountains, there wasn't a dull view in sight for the entire 6+ hour boat ride.

Front of the boat, with gorgeous-ness in sight

 This is one of two glaciers we passed on the trip. Sorry, but I've forgotten their names.

The second glacier we passed was s tide-water glacier (meaning it ends in the ocean) and it left lots of floating ice chunks in the water.

Sea Otters sun bathing on an ice chunk

The captain slowed the boat way down to navigate the clogged up ice-filled waters. But there's no avoiding it. We were constantly crunching into the ice chunks. He was just avoiding the really big ones. And there were plenty out there as big as a house. (You can see the tide-water glacier in the back ground in the picture below.) (Click to enlarge)

This is what I mean by "lots of ice chunks"

We passed this buoy, which had three stellar sea lions hanging out.

Cuties

Awesome mountains with waterfalls were everywhere

Finally, we docked in Valdeze, AK, home the second largest oil spill in history.

We found this cool little "park" called Dock Point Park. It was more like a really high knoll on the side of town, you had to hike up and then walk around in the woods following a trail.

You can never get too many hugs

We also found the base of a huge waterfall that you could see from anywhere in town. It made its way a few thousand feet down a mountain that bowled in the town.

Momma and daughter, enjoying the falls!

Our friend, and Heather's former pharmacy tech, Coleen, was doing an internship in Valdez at the oil terminal. When she had to go out on a boat with her boss for something work related, her boss was like, "Well, we're out here, why don't we put out the shrimp pots?" Later they pulled up a bunch of fresh caught shrimp, of which Coleen generously gave us a bag.

Don't mind that Coleen is flipping YOU the bird!

The next morning, we walked out to the car, ready to start our journey back toward Anchorage, and right across the street (only about 50 feet away) we saw this black bear. And he had strewn someone's trash all over the road.

I gotta admit, this one made me laugh

"Bazinga! Score! 

Then he made off with it like he stole something.....which I guess he did

 Here's the final moments of him making off with his treasure.

Before leaving town, we drove out to the oil terminal, where all of our Alaskan oil ends up and gets processed. It was kind of neat to see, but we couldn't go past this spot.

At one of the pull-offs we spotted this guy in a tree only 10 feet above our heads.

At the next pull off, we spotted this little inquisitive harbor seal looking back at us.

Looks like little puppy eyes

Moments later, a steller sea lion popped up and started yawning and growling.

Everyone told us that just outside of Valdez there are some beautiful waterfalls. But, we never found them. We only found these lame ones.

Jayne like water fall

Horse Tail Falls

A few hours into our journey and we unexpectedly passed Worthington Glacier. This is an in-land glacier that you can walk right up to, which I did.

Notice the pathway is completely covered in snow in early July

Worthington Glacier 

We came into Anchorage from the north, and that drive up through the valley is one of the most beautiful drives. It follows a carved out glacier valley that now is home to the Matanuska (pronounced matt-uh-noos-kuh) River. But along the way there are some breath taking sights. Here' sone of them. 

Behind us, in the picture below, you can barely make out the Matanuska Glacier (the little white strip that's even with my hair).

We were also celebrating Tzena's birthday during her visit. Below is the blanket we had woven with a picture on it from Tzena's last visit to Alaska. It's a piece of scenery from Kenai Lake, AK. The water was so crystal clear it made for a perfect reflection, and on the left hand side you can sort of make out the front portion of the train from which the picture was taken.

She liked her blankee

We then took her up the tram in Girdwood to take in the sights of the Turnagain Arm before eating at the restaurant on the mountain called Seven Glaciers, so named for the nearby ice formations. Can you guess how many there are?!

At about 3,000 ft elevation, looking down at sea level

And lastly, before she left, we took her up to Flat Top to walk with the puptons to take in the sights. This picture is very near the spot where my brother-out-law was the coldest he's ever been!

Momma T and her grand-dogs

Tzena, as always we loved having you visit, and you can't come back too soon!