Alaska - Day 3

Monday, August 18, 2008:

I woke up at 7:45 today and after getting ready, we headed downstairs for another excellent breakfast. After we finished eating, we went down to Ship Creek to find salmon swimming upstream to spawn. Supposedly, thousands of salmon are currently on the move, and the bridges over Ship Creek are a great place to watch them. I think we saw 3. I had visions of the bears catching 100s of fish from National Geographic films, etc., and it was nothing like that (we were still in Anchorage, so I didn't expect actual bears, but you know what I mean). I really thought we would see hundreds of fish - I guess I'm naive or something.

We did see tons of fishermen, some of whom had salmon, but we didn't see many in the water at all. Perhaps they are already past that point in their journey, or perhaps they are completely overfished - there were tons of folks there. I felt sad for the salmon actually, as I'm sure they are exhausted (swimming upstream) and then when the fisherman would see them, they would cast over and over right at them, making them bite at the bait. It didn't really seem fair - not much sport to that. Along our drive, we stopped at another stream, again filled with fisherman, and the sign said that out of the 7000+ salmon who make the swim to spawn, most wind up on dinnerplates somewhere. Sad...maybe I shouldn't eat salmon so much! I guess their lives are better than those in the fish hatcheries though. I don't know what I think about this for now - salmon is a very healthy choice, and I like it, so hard to give up completely.

After our failed attempt at salmon viewing, we set off for the town of Girdwood and the Hotel Alyeska. Dad stayed at the hotel once for a conference, and he wanted to go check it out again. It's totally posh, and I think it would make for a great (but expensive!) honeymoon locale. The place is a booming ski resort in the winter, so they have a tram that takes people up to the top of the mountain. We rode that up, and walked around the top of the mountain, checking out the amazing views. We also watched some folks paragliding, which means they strapped a parachute to themselves (and strapped themselves to a guide) and then ran off the side of the mountain. It looked pretty amazing, and Dad even offered to pay for me if I wanted to go, but I just wasn't that interested. Jumping off the side of a mountain has never piqued my interest! I'm not even interested in skiing, so paragliding seemed insane. :)

After about an hour on top of the mountain, we rode the tram back down and decided to go back into Anchorage. We had to return the car by 5, and we were quite hungry. We had lunch at a place called the Snow Goose, another Lonely Planet mentioned place. We got to sit out on the upstairs patio which overlooks the ocean (and all the industrial crap located below - it is a port after all). Despite the excellent location, the experience wasn't all that great. The food was so-so, and the service was terrible. Bad service seems to be the norm here, which is too bad. Oh well. Dad did order one or their locally brewed beers, and it was good (I'm not sure he agrees though).

After lunch, we returned the car and walked over to the Great Alaska Experience theater to see a movie about the 1964 earthquake - Dad saw it when he was here over 20 years ago. If you don't know (and I didn't), the 1964 earthquake was the biggest earthquake in the northern hemisphere - ever. It measured at 8.6 on the Richter scale, which is just enormous. The power released was greater than that of 2,000 of the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima (I think the number was 2000). Its epicenter was near Valdez, and that town was demolished. Lots of other places were as well, and Anchorage suffered extreme damage. Some neighborhoods simply just dropped into the ocean. Some land dropped more than 10 feet, and other land rose that high as well. 115 Alaskans died, and it took years to recover from the damage. Simply mind boggling.

Anyway, the first video at the theatre was a 40 minute film on AK itself. It was shown in this tiny little omnitheater, and I swear, the film was made in the 1980s. It was old, fuzzy, sort of crackly, and the sound wasn't great either. Odd. The little theater room was tiny too! I enjoyed learning about AK though, and I got to see the Grizzlies catching the salmon (among other things). Unfortunately, the machine running the film was super loud, so that made it hard to hear at times.

The second video was short, only 10 minutes, and it was all about the earthquake itself. The chairs actually shook at times to depict what it felt like, but they made so much noise that I could barely hear the film. This film was probably made in the 70s, and its main narrator had some odd German accent (seemed almost fake). The room decor was also straight from the 70s - brown and ugly. Tiny little room. Pretty dang laughable really. It was like paying money to go to a fun house. A somewhat informational fun house, but still a fun house. I asked Dad if it was what he remembered, and he said not exactly. I appreciated learning about the earthquake and AK, but wow, it could have been so much better! No wonder my Lonely Planet didn't mention this as a can't miss activity. Too funny, honestly. I don't mean this offensively at all to my Dad - even he noted that the place could use some "updating."

After the video, we went back to the hotel, and we've been here chilling since then. Got to chat with Beth and Kristin some, and that was great. Dad and I are both really tired, and we have to be up by 5 am to catch our train to Denali National Park. I guess our luggage has to be outside our room by 6 am - sort of weird. I hope it arrives safely. I don't want a repeat of Jerusalem! Anyway, I think the train leaves at 8 or something, with our bus coming at 7:15. The train ride will take 8 hours, which I find insane, but Denali is well over 200 miles away, and I can't imagine that the train moves too quickly. I am looking forward to the journey, as it supposedly traverses some of the most beautiful scenery in America. I'm also looking forward to seeing Mt. McKinley, the highest mountain in North America. The pics I've seen are stunning. I hope we get a clear day to really see it. Hopefully we will spot more wild life there too, as we didn't see any today.

Speaking of clear days, the weather today was fantastic. Cool and sunny - really sunny. I know this is rare here, as people kept telling us to enjoy the sunshine. I'm happy we got a sunny day, as it made for beautiful pictures at Alyeska (which is a native word for Great Land by the way; I forgot to mention that earlier).

Another good day on vacation! Stay tuned for more - I hope we have internet in Denali too!