Final Leg, Arrival, and First Few Days

It’s been some time since the last post, due to not having internet at our new home yet, so this will be a bit long winded.

The final leg of our ferry trip was quite the adventure. From Juneau to Yakutat was fairly uneventful, mostly an over night trip. Leaving Juneau the fog around the hills was really a pretty sight. We saw a couple glaciers leaving also, took some photos, but they are from quite a distance. The real issues/problems started after leaving Yakutat heading to Whittier across the Gulf of Alaska. The seas started to roll, and I mean roll, 12 to 18 FT seas were really making the ferry rock, bob and roll. We did fine the first evening, was just a bit hard to walk around the ship. The next day and night were the tough ones. Jan and Maddie both got sea sick with Maddie blowing some chunks, both spending the day and night in bed. I did OK. I kept my eyes on the horizon so not to see/feel the rolling so much and also I kept eating so that my belly was full. While walking around the ferry during the day the weather was rainy, but I kept going out on deck for some fresh air. (Although, I did feel kind of crappy the day after we got to the house.) One time out on deck,I saw a water spout, the photo is below but its not that great due to the rolling of the ship.

Arriving in Whittierwas quite something also. It was about 7:00 AM and the wind was still blowing a gale, the ship even had to take a 2nd attempt at docking. The wind, rain and fog were coming down so hard you couldn’t see squat. They called it gale force fog. The rain and fog were both moving sideways, not just on an angle, but sideways and sometimes even up. There was a waterfall we passed just out of Whittier that, due to the wind, in spot it was going up, not down, was quite the sight. After we got a few miles out of Whittierthe skies started to clear. The trees were/are in full color as you’ll see from some of the photos.

We called our new landlord from Girdwood to say we have arrived. He told us to call him back once we got to Wasilla and he would either meet us at our home or anywhere else. After the wonderful drive to Anchorage then up to Wasilla, we called him back and he lead us to our new home. What a great feeling it was to finally be here. The house is better than what we thought from the photos, which is really great. There are some quarks, but what house doesn’t have em. We have a view of the Talkeetna Mountains out our north windows. Speaking of mountains, when we arrived all but the tallest peaks were green (no snow), but just in the few days we’ve been here just about all the mountains have snow above 2000 FT.

On our third day in the house, after the dogs had been out, I went outside, glanced to my right, took a second look and there they were…Moose laying in our yard. A mom and her 2 yearlings just laying there munching on the grass.Shortly after we let the dogs out in their pen to see what they would do. They really didnt do much at all but stare at the moose wondering what the hell they were. No matter what, it was great to have the moose stop byto say hello and welcome to Alaska.

The weather here has been kind of up and down, some rain, some sun, with the temps in the upper 40s to mid 50s. Mostly rain today though. We havent had time to go sight seeing due to trying to get settled in and learn the area for shopping and such. We do plan on gong up to Hatcher Pass this coming weekend, they are calling for good weather, mostly sunny with temps in the 50s, before the snow gets too deep up there.

On to the photos…

Leaving Juneau