Alaskan Adventure - July 20, 2014 - Valdez to Whittier to Anchorage

We started our day very early because we were on standby for the Ferry to Whittier. It was cool and rainy and fog engulfed Valdez.  In fact so much fog that schedule fishing trips were cancelled.  We got in the ferry line and hoped for a space on the vessel.

We did get on and so our planned travels continued.  

We sailed the Aurora. It is a huge vessel.

It was smooth sailing and we had comfortable seats.

We were able to see more of the mountains as we sailed through the Prince William Sound waters.

 

    Grey skies equals hues of grey pictures.

    

    We passed more chunks of glacier ice.

   As we got closer to Whittier, the skies became less grey.

  

    The Port of Whittier is a small fishing village.  I'm not kidding.  There is not much in this little town.

    We had to get in line for the shared tunnel. The tunnel is shared by the Alaska Rail Road.  

Here we are.  As we waited our turn, we had to have a picture.

    It was a little windy and cold.

    The train went first, then we could go.

    I tried to get pictures as we came out of the tunnel, however, they did not turn out.  But, the other side was beautiful as well.  We made our way to Anchorage around Turnagain Arm.

    This picture was meant to pick up the mountains in the distance, but my little camera just could not capture the beauty that our eye can see.

I always love this stretch of road from Anchorage.  It is still beautiful but a lot has changed in the last 25 years.  There are more business and of course with that comes more people.

  As you can see, we made it to Anchorage but it just was not safe to get out to take another picture of us by the sign. Too much traffic!

I tried to get pictures my girls would be familiar with, like the Sleeping Lady mountain but all I got was a few background pictures and more traffic.

    Road over to Ft Richardson which is now a joint post with Elmendorf.

    Before we left the city, we had to go by the Alaska Wildberry Chocolate shop where there is a giant chocolate fountain.

 

Good night everyone.  Early tomorrow we head to Denali National Park.