Anchorage - Homer - Aleutians - Anchorage

Anchorage.. not pretty.....non-event....no pics worth taking...'nuff said...................moving on toward Homer and our Alaska Marine Highway experience.  We've been frequently asked "why would you travel on a ferry to the most westerly islands of Alaska?" and our response is: 

- They are the most westerly point in Alaska and the US.

- They are the only other islands, besides Pearl Harbour, where the Japanese invaded in World War 11.

- Travelling there by the Marine Highway costs thousands of $$ less than on a cruise ship.  Not luxurious of course, however with only 130 passengers maximum, it was wonderful.  We even had a U.S. Fish and Wildlife guide onboard.  He made presentations, showed documentaries in the theatre and called us out on the deck to view wildlife and special scenes....all of it included in the price.  Our cabin was small but clean and after the initial shock of seeing "Alaska Prison System" printed on the sheets and blankets (we initially thought we were sleeping on prisoners bedding), we realized that the linens are made by prisoners.

Below:  Scenes along the drive from Anchorage to Homer

Passing more glaciers than we could ever imagine existed.....

Arriving at Homer Spit

Touching tribute to those lost at sea

Creative camping.  The beach is mostly stones and this
clever camper built a wall on the water side of the tent

"Bobby the Piro"

Isn't the view from our campsite beautiful?  See the peach colours
on the distant mountains?

Another day, another perfect sunset

Our campsite view.  Earlier in the day, when the tide
was high, a humpback whale appeared about 50 feet
from shore...too quick to capture

I caught him...going this way.....

...and that way...

When you look into those eyes, it's hard to believe that the moose is one of the most
 feared animals in North America

Winery we visited...just because it was there.  Nice port!

Famous saloon on Homer Spit

Look up, wayyyy up to the top of the lighthouse...

Very spooky mannequin at the top of the Salty Dawg lighthouse...watching for those lost at sea

Money, money, money!  Only booze served here..which probably
explains the money

Inside the Salty Dawg, those of us on fixed income, pine as we
gaze at the ceilings and walls......

Rachel!!!  Heads up!  Free advertising amongst the moolah...

Cap'n Highliner!  Soooo proud of his catch...or is
that a pretend catch?  Not telling!

Awwright awready!  THIS is the BEST seafood meal in town...
and she's (Pattie) gorgeous to boot!

Boarding the Alaska Marine Highway ship, we sail away from Homer toward Kodiak, our first port of call.

It is believed that the first Alaskans migrated from Asia to North America between 15,000 and 30,000 years ago, during an ice age that lowered the sea level and created a 900 mile land bridge linking Siberia and Alaska.  The nomadic groups who crossed the bridge were following animal herds that provided them with food and clothing.  The Tlingits and Haidas also came across the land bridge from Asia and settled throughout the Southeast and British Columbia, while the Athabascans, a nomadic tribe, settles in the interior.  The smallest group of Alaska Natives to arrive was the Aleuts of the Aleutian Islands and are believed to have migrated 3000 years ago and were well established by the time the Europeans arrived.  Life was not so easy for the Aleuts due to much colder winters and cooler summers.  They had to develop a highly effective sea-hunting culture to sustain life in the harsh regions of Alaska.  Though motorized boats replaced kayaks and modern harpoons replaced the jade-tipped spears, the whaling tradition still lives on in places such as Barrow.  The indigenous people, despite their harsh environment, were numerous until non-Natives, particularly fur traders and whalers, brought guns, alcohol and disease that destroyed the Alaska Natives' delicate relationship with nature and wiped out whole communities.  At one time an estimated 20,000 Aleuts lived throughout the Aleutian Islands.  In only 50 years the Russians reduced the Aleut population to less than 2000.

In June 1942, only six months after their attack on Pearl Harbour, the Japanese opened their Aleutian Islands campaign by bombing Dutch Harbour for two days and then taking Attu and Kiska Islands.  Other than Guam, it was the only foreign invasion of US soil during WWII and is often dubbed "the Forgotten War" because most Americans are unaware of what took place in Alaska.  The battle to retake Attu Island was a bloody one. After 19 days and landing more than 15,000 troops, the US forces recaptured the plot of barren land, but only after suffering 3929 casualties, including 549 deaths.  Of the more than 2300 Japanese on Attu, fewer than 30 surrendered, with many taking their own lives.  American troops removed the Aleut people from their villages, to Alaska mainland camps where they endured conditions that were inferior to those of internment and prisoner of war camps.  As the ships left the villages behind, the Aleuts watched with broken hearts as the soldiers torched the villages so that nothing would be left for the Japanese to use, should they succeed in winning the war.  A book I read, written by a woman who was a little girl at the time, said that being taken to dark and wet forest camps was depressing and caused illness.  The Aleuts were not used to trees and they found the trees and conditions on the mainland foreboding.  Many of them died of disease.  The Japanese took all the residents of one village to a prisoner camp in Japan and at the end of the war, fewer than half were alive to return to the Aleutians.  None of the returning Aleuts had a home or a village to return to.  The US government gave them nothing, telling them they were on their own to rebuild their lives.

Following the Japanese attack on the islands in 1942, Congress panicked and rushed to protect the rest of Alaska.  Large army and air force bases were set up at Anchorage, Fairbanks, Sitka and Whittier, and thousands of military personnel were stationed in Alaska.  But it was the famous Alcan (Alaska/Canada), also known as the Alaska Highway, that was the single most important project of the military expansion.

On March 9, 1942, army engineers were ordered to construct a road that would proceed in a northwesterly direction from the railhead at Dawson Creek, BC and connect with the existing Richardson Highway at Delta Junction, Alaska.  They punched a pioneer road through the wilderness in 8 months and 12 days.  Work started on the highway before the Canadian government gave approval for it and there was no turning back because it was deemed a military necessity after the bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1941.  The formal agreement between the 2 countries stipulated that the U.S. pay for construction and turn over the Canadian portion of the highway to the Canadian government after the war ended.  In turn, Canada furnished the right-of-way; waived import duties, sales tax, income tax and immigration regulations; and provided construction materials along the route.  By June, more than 10,000 American troops had poured into the Canadian North and worked 16 hour days, enduring mosquitoes and black flies in summer and below zero temperatures in winter, sometimes with food shortages.  In June, 1942, the Japanese invated Attu and Kiska Islands, adding a new sense of urgency to completion of the Alcan.  Crews working from east and west connected at Contact Creek on September 15, 1942.  The highway opened to the public in 1948.

Heading out of Homer to Kodiak Island.  Ports
of call included:  Kodiak, Chignik, Sand Point, King Cove, Cold Bay, False Pass, Akutan and Dutch Harbour (Aleut name - Oonalaska) which is just the beginning of the Aleutian Chain

Arriving at Kodiak

Yep.....island of the Kodiak BEAR!!!  Take-away air bags and  claw proof
suits, good to go!  Thankfully, we didn't see any however residents and
other travellers tell us that they are really, really huge.  A young Aleut man
who lives in Kodiak and was travelling with us to Dutch Harbour for
a short visit, said that he loves "Dutch" because there are no bears and that when
you live in the presence of bear, you have to be constantly watchful.  The
bears even break through doors and into homes and can even turn door handles.

Planes pull up and park behind their homes...and right on the runway in Kodiak!

Russian Orthodox Church

The BEST fair trade coffee and the BEST organic food...provided
by the Russian Orthodox Academy.  We were served by young
women in long dresses with beautiful scarves wrapped around
their long hair 

Upstairs, it's an extra dining room (takes overflow from downstairs), a used clothing store and a peaceful
place to be.

Russian influences everywhere.

Clever people!!  Lots of wind and geo-thermal power on the islands

Presentation and tour of the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge
at False Creek

Wild flowers and fern everywhere

Curious ground squirrels

Active volcano

Flora of the area.  No trees on the islands...just grass, succulents and beautiful wild flowers

Buoy on the beach.  We thought it might be a WWII mine

Japanese fishing net floats.  Islanders find hundreds of them
on the beaches

No trees however you know there are all kinds of fish when you see eagles

Perfect jet stream over active volcano

Whale watching in perfect weather

Watchman while entering narrows to Cold Port

Cold Port

Fish net art on the dock

Hundreds of these beauties in the water by the wharf

This one rolled over and showed me it's tummy

An hour out of Cold Port, we see two wrecks.  A freighter
ended up on the rocks in the '60's.  All aboard were rescued by
helicopter.  In the '80's a fishing vessel lost it's rudder
and smashed into the stern of the freighter.  Injuries but no deaths.

Arriving at Dutch Harbour, the first island in the Aleutians

Ballyhoo Mountain

A group of us hired a local guide to take us around Dutch Harbour.  Bobbi came to the town from Oregon when a teenager.  Her mother had died and her father was a fisherman.  She fished with him and worked for the fish processing plant and eventually married an Aleut man.  Bobbi was low-key and filled with information on the islands, the people and the war.  When she pointed out a fishing vessel
that is featured in the tv show "Deadliest Catch", she was asked if Lenny was retiring from the show.  She laughed and said she didn't think so....he's her brother in law and would like to retire but the producers keep hounding him to carry on.

Bobbi is the unofficial eagle statistician and each year counts
the nests and the babies and reports deaths and disappearances.
Eagles pair for life and the owners of this nest, attempted to build here for
several years, however the branches fell through the holes and they were unsuccessful.
Several years ago, two young Aleut men
climbed up with materials and built a base for the parents to build on and they have returned every
year since.

"Deadliest Catch" fishing vessel

This was the Elbow Room Bar - closed now.  It was notorious for
big fights every night of the week in the day.

We had a great tour of this Russian Orthodox church

As we left the church, we discovered this guardian eagle
perched on top

The creator of the American flag lived here at one time

Memorial to those killed in the Japanese attack in 1942

WWII underground hospital

Sitka spruce brought in by soldiers who missed trees

WWII barracks, still in good shape used by business
today.  The one on the right is the original, the left has just been
  upgraded with new siding

Ballyhoo Mountain

Fun to watch two small tugs push the ship in, then sideways
to the dock

Leaving Dutch Harbour

Fog was pouring down the mountain like a waterfall

Arriving at the "City" of Akutan

89 residents and yet there were over 100 in the
bar when the ferry arrived and no other villages
on the island...hmmmm

He was the cutest.  If you can enlarge the photo, you
will see that he has a stick and a flower hanging
out of his mouth.  He wandered around town like
this, the entire 2 hours we visited.

The captain called us all out to the bow.  No way
to capture the sight of around 100 whales.  The mist in
the distance is the spray from blowholes.  Even the crew went crazy
taking photo's and said it was a very special event.

They surrounded the ship and sounded like elephants
as they called to each other

Castle Rock

A surprise invitation for a few of us to visit the bridge.  Who's a
happy boy??

Third Mate conducts the tour

 Points out our location

Old form of communication, here for show and no longer
used.  The Tustemena is a 50 year old vessel

We were curious about the throttles being red and green and
the "left" and "right" posted over the throttles.  Mate told us
that in spite of the intense training given to bridge crew,
nothing is left to chance.  In tense situations, people have
been known to forget port and starboard and even left and right.

We all got to drive for a few minutes.  Lots of fun.

Sheryl - Bob's most recent girlfriend and our server in the dining room.
She kept him on his toes with her quick and witty retorts.

Joan and Dave, our dining companions, spend 4 months
a year in Homer and 8 months in Naples, Florida.  She's
a writer and he's an artist.  Fun couple!

Arriving back in Homer

Lizzie - dynamic woman who lives in her A-frame
camper trailer and travels the country.  She is a teacher
with the Chopra (yes, that Chopra) Institute in California

Back in Homer, we walk from the ferry to the van then head out to the highway and the town of Seward, another very pretty town.

Creative tree decorations on a front lawn.  We assumed
that it's decorated for Christmas, 12 months of the year.

This restaurant/bar advertises the best chowder in town and that
they have the largest collection of unusual liquor bottles in the U.S.
The bottles are interesting and the chowder was good.

Terrible photo but notable because it holds human
remains....a woman from Graceland who wished to be
remembered...to Elvis...or whoever...
A bambi bottle holds a local woman's remains.  Interesting...

Senior "Dude" waiting for a bus

Wonderful coffee shop

Murals on almost every building

Visited Exit Glacier on the edge of town and learned later that
a young woman from Seattle had been attacked by a grizzly, on the path
where we trod.  Hopefully these close calls are behind us now.

Receding rapidly, this is where the glacier used to be

Back to racing trains.  I've missed it!

We spent several hours visiting the Seaquarium wildlife refuge.  It gave us an opportunity to see some of the birds and animals up close that we had seen on the water.  The work that is being done here is fantastic.  Everything is being done to re-release injured birds and animals back to nature, once they are well.  Those that cannot return, have a comfortable, spacious and loving environment for the rest of their lives.

We had seen hundreds of Puffin while on the ferry and they are just
as adorable up close as they are on the water.  We learned that this amazing
and colourful beak drops off at the end of summer and is replaced
with a tiny beak.  Their feathers become dark and non-descript...perfect
camouflage.  

View of Resolution Bay from the refuge.  We were told that
this bay often fills with whales...right in downtown Seward

Two orphaned baby walrus need constant physical contact
at this point in their lives.  Very cute and very large!

Beluga's live in those waters on our way back to Anchorage.
We saw so many on our way down
to Homer and they are magnificent!

St. Elias-Wrangell Mountain range

Autumn has arrived in Alaska.  Very beautiful.
Time to leave.

Passed the Alaska State Fair as we blew through Palmer

The best thing about Anchorage (in our less than humble opinion)
is the view of the city from Tabletop Mountain.  Yes, there is another
Tabletop Mountain in Cape Town!!

How do you dry out your fisherman when
he returns to the campground?

We are back in Whitehorse for a couple of days, then on to Watson Lake and gorgeous Muncho Lake where we didn't have the time to camp on our way up.  Heading south to Prince George, Jasper, Lake Louise, Banff then Calgary to see Craig and Mary mid-September.

Happy Labour Day everyone!!