To get to Whittier you have to drive through a tunnel that is 2.5 miles long. The tunnel is one lane and is shared with the train. Once through the tunnel you are in Whittier, an old army base. There isn't much in the town but it is still pretty neat.
We were so excited to board the Aurora!! We parked are truck below and went upstairs. We loved exploring every inch of the boat. One of Lexie's newest discoveries is her shadow. We had so much fun running on the the deck chasing each other shadows and jumping on them. When night came Lexie would ask me "where my shadow, mom?" She didn't quite understand that at night time her shadow goes away.
Not long after departure we seen our first whale, a humpback. It seemed to be excited to us. It leaped out of the water several times. It was amazing!! You could hear its giant body slam against the water.
The whole trip we seen dolphins. Some would even come along the boat and ride in the wake.
While aboard the ferry we also seen sea otters, killer whales, sea lions, eagles and other kinds of birds.
We arrived at our destination, Cordova, after dark. Andrew makes friends everywhere he goes. Some new friends he had made in Cordova invited us to come visit. We really enjoyed visiting with them and having them tell us all the neat places to check out. Cordova is a very small town isolated from the rest of Alaska by the rugged mountains and the sea. It is a very small fishing town with only 35 miles of road. The setting of the town is absolutely beautiful!
We took a drive to look for wildlife in part of the Chugach National Forest. We were so excited to spot a moose. Once we spotted the one we realized they were everywhere! We seen about 50 of them in one field all together. I have always been told that moose were solitary animals, but I am beginning to rethink that. Rite now all of moose have already dropped their paddles (that's what moose antlers are called), but we still love seeing all the moose.
The road ended at a river where thousands of gulls were gathered. The rivers have recently thawed out so the fish are starting to return. We spotted quite a few golden and bald eagles flying around picking off any unsuspecting gulls. We also seen a family of river otters. We were hoping to see a bear, but we didn't have any luck this trip. Cordova and the surrounding area has a huge black bear and brown bear population. This time of year the bears are just now starting to come out of their dens. We took a little hike to a lookout tower. The kids loved exploring. Lance found a stick that he used for walking so daddy had to cut Lexie one too. Happy went crazy chasing the gulls an their shadows.
We had such a great time in Cordova. The people there are super friendly. They enjoy a simple kind of life.
A first for all of us was eating bear meat. I have had lots of wild game but never bear. It was made into a spicy breakfast sausage which was actually really good.
We can't wait to visit Cordova again when the salmon are running.
We had sunny cool weather while In Cordova and will be greeted with a foot or more of fresh powder back in Eagle River. Maybe next weekend we will finally get to fit in our ski trip.
Rite now we are on the ferry boat headed back to Whittier. The sea is kind of rough so the boat is swaying gently back and forth. It is snowing outside so the visibility is low, but i am hoping to spot a whale or two. Lance and daddy are asleep and Lexie is watching cartoons on my laptop.
I love being flexible so that when Andrew does get time off we can go explore Alaska. It would stink to be tied down to a job and miss him when he is off or miss my babies all day long. Just one more reason I love my Pampered Chef business; the flexibility it gives me!! O and speaking of Pampered Chef, I met my goal of promoting to director before my one year anniversary!!!
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