Back in Anchorage

Yesterday we got up early--beat the sun--so that we could be on the road by 7AM. We had to drive 2 1/2 hours to Whittier to catch our boat tour of the sound. We also had to take into consideration 30 min. road construction delays and waiting at the tunnel. The tunnel into Whittier is the second longest in the country, but is only one lane wide. Therefore, they have a scheduled times for driving into the town, out of the town, and also a time for the train. Apparently it is only in the last 5 years that this train tunnel has been open to cars at all. We ended up having plenty of extra time before our tunnel time--so I got some time in the Word in--I figured we would because my mom usually plans plenty of time for everything. Plus, we arrived in Whittier with an hour to spare, so we walked around the town and my mom got some postcard stamps and my dad replaced his sunglasses which broke yesterday. I thought that Seward was a little fishing town. Well, I had no idea what a little, dirty, backward fishing village looked like until I walked the streets of Whittier. This place was amazing. There is basically one huge building which everyone lives in and which houses the post office and other things. We saw the general store which has a little bit of everything. The rest of the town consists of a few dinky--and I mean dinky--shops along the wharf, plus about 5 to 7 tour boat companies. At 11AM we boarded our boat and found seats on the lower deck. The 6 hour tour included crab cakes for lunch and a narrated tour of about 5 or so of the inlets, bays and straights of Prince William Sound. A few of the highlights included seeing a hunk of glacier larger than our house calf off of Surprise Glacier; millions of salmon fighting to get up to their home stream outside of the hatchery; and several bear, bald eagles, and sea otters in their natural environment. After disembarking at Whittier, we made our way back through the tunnel and back along the Turnagain inlet up to Anchorage. On the way we saw several rainbows through the mist in the valleys we passed. By the way, it was pretty cold and misty in Whittier, but when we got out on the sound the fog lifted enough for us to see around pretty well. It was mostly cloudy the whole day, but the sun peaked through a few times. From what our tour guide said, we had above average weather and saw more calving of the glaciers than most. So, I would say that the Lord must be blessing us with not only safety traveling, but also good weather and extra special opportunities to see unique aspects of Alaska. We are thankful!