Valdez - Part 2

July 19-22: After our kayaking adventure, we went back to the motorhome to meet up with Scott and tell him about our morning. We were fixing lunch and looking at photos... then, Tammy happened to see a very long rental Class C motorhome come by in a hurry and hit our truck with their bumper.

Luckily, there was only a scratch and Sean was able to buff most of I out. The guy in the motorhome finished parking in his spot right next to us, and got out to talk with Sean and apologize. The motorhome had previous damage in the about the same spot, but nothing new from this little accident. We were all lucky to not have significant damage and we learned a significant lesson to never trust to have our truck parked in front of the motorhome (no matter how much room there is, because that guy had an entire parking lot in front of us and still managed to hit us).

After finishing lunch, we went walking around Valdez to check it out. We, of course, found a resale shop with a $20 large bag sale! We loaded that sucker up and got a great haul! 

Most of the local shops have a "native section" where they have specialty materials that only the native population can use to sell. All these pieces are very unique and hand carved, but also come with a hefty price tag.

We were witness to multiple Fishermans bounty. Valdez has an area they can put all their fish on these hangers to take a picture and show off their catch.

Checking out the leader boards for any changes.

Our new resale shop find! Who Wants To Be a Millionaire game! We had fun with this one.

We decided to take an evening drive over to Dayville Rd. to look for bears and went on the John Hunter Memorial Trail. We turned to follow the pipeline and found a road that took us up for a view of the oil terminal and lovely bay. No bears...

The next morning, we had previously booked a cruise to go see Meares Glacier and look for more whales.

While in line to board, I found Robby's (my brother) doppelgänger!

Soon, it was time to board.

For some reason, we all got super tickled and could not stop laughing!!! I had literal tears streaming down my face from laughing so hard.

Toward the end of Port Valdez

Anderson Falls

Fisherman on their morning off.

Orca video!

Humpback whale!

Whale Breach!

Whale Breach #2!

Sea otters chillin'.

Starting to see ice chunks from Meares Glacier calving.

Seals resting on the bigger icebergs.

Amazing Meares Glacier! It is an advancing tidewater glacier and moves about 30 feet per year.

Slowly taking out some of the trees on the sides.

Ice cave!

Meares Glacier calving.

Seals!

Porpoise!

Sean captured this picture of a couple of the porpoise playing in the waves from the boat.

Video of the porpoise speeding through the water. They are so fast!

After our boat excursion, we got back to the motorhome in time to spy on the neighbor cleaning his rig with a special tool that we were trying to get the name of, lol. It was a cordless pressure washer that uses a tool battery.

Clouds were still hanging around.

Walking to dinner for the evening at Old Town Diner. If you happen to go to this restaurant, don't order chicken strips... definitely get the burger.

Waking up to a beautiful day!

After we stole this box from Napa, Tammy sent a lot of her acquired items to her house. We made bets on how much the box weighed, which Tammy was the closest guess at 15 lbs. Final weight was 17 lbs.

After errands were finished, we went to look for bears at Crooked Creek, but before we made it there we happened upon a salmonberry patch! Naturally, we had to live off the land and pick these berries!

No bears... so we went to see Crooked Creek Falls behind the US Forest Service Information Center.

The salmonberries all cleaned up and ready for the fridge.

In the afternoon, we planned a bike ride to Dayville Rd. Scott and Tammy rented e-bikes from Valdez Stay and Play (same place they rented the kayak from). 

If you ever are in the Valdez area, this lady, Magdalena, is the person you need to rent bikes or kayaks from. She runs Valdez Stay and Play and is an amazing person. Check out their link!

Scott and Tammy

Salmon backed up at the hatchery fish weir.

Sea lion catching fish by the hatchery.

Made it to the end of Dayville Rd. for those of us without security clearance. As you can see, Sean likes to live on the wild side, lol!

Unfortunately, no bears... again. We still had a great time!

Tammy made us hand pies with our salmonberries that we picked earlier in the day. They were soooo good! The picture was an after thought, lol.

We tried one last time to see any bear in the area, but no luck, again...

You could see evidence of bear catching salmon around the hatchery, but no bear.

Sea lion napping.

Bald Eagles on a stump.

The next day, we dropped Scott and Tammy off at the airport for their return home. We had a great visit with them and tried our best to show them as much of Alaska as we could for the last 2 weeks. We have countless wonderful memories from this trip with y'all!

Their plane as it passed over us at the motorhome. See if you can spot the plane in the picture with the motorhome.

This was a picture of a glacier they sent to us from the plane. They said the views were beautiful the whole way to Anchorage.

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