Valdez

First off, these are phone pictures.  Pretty sorry quality, but that’s what I have for now.

From Seward, we made our way back up to Anchorage for a couple of days.  Time to do laundry, grocery shop, etc.  One of the things on my bucket list for Alaska was a flight in a DeHaviland Beaver float plane.  Anchorage has the largest float plane terminal in the world, and I did my best to make it happen.  I booked two different flights, and had both cancelled due to whatever.  I think it had to do with my trying to book as a single, and I got bumped for a larger group.  Whatever reason, it didn’t happen.  Just might have to come back.

 

We stopped for a night on our way to Valdez.  Ran into this guy in the campground.  I don’t remember what type of hawk it was, or the age of the bird, but he said it was already hunting for him.

                             

The weather in Valdez was a carbon copy of Seward.  We missed all the beautiful scenery on the drive there due to clouds and fog.  An un-named roadside waterfall.

                          

Another surprise was this chainsaw carving competition we stumbled up on.

                           

 

What’s his line snagged on?

               

Detail of fisherman’s face.  Amazing.

                          

Octopus.

                  

Jellyfish.

                   

And, of course, a Mermaid.

                   

Lots of other stuff, too.

We visited a fish hatchery where thousands of salmon were returning to spawn.  The only problem being they were hatched and released from the hatchery, and there was no river to return to.  Kind of sad.  All the turbulence you see in this photo was caused by Salmon floundering about trying to get upstream.  They were getting caught and shipped to a cannery nearby, I was told.

                    

That was our trip to Valdez.  Rained all the time we were there…..jc