Family

A few weeks ago our daughter told us that she had decided to fly up to Alaska for the 4^th of July week. Her family actually all had the same days off (!) from business trips, music camp, cross country camp, and other summer plans and obligations. If this had come up earlier, I might have changed our reservations to somewhere other than Valdez, but it felt like it was too late to do so. Decent RV camps fill early for holidays. 

At first she looked into renting an RV, but then decided they would just rent a car and get rooms somewhere near where we were camped.

There were no rooms available in Valdez. But they did find accomodations at a nice lodge about 35 miles north. We met them there for dinner on Monday night.

This was the light level and view from the lodge at 11:00 PM as we left. I didn't quite catch the subtle pink cast of the sky. 

On Tuesday (July 4) we explored the area together.

Grandson Jeremy (16), Me, Craig, Daughter Deidre, Grandson Dylan (13) and Son-in-Law Andrew.  We all missed Gil, our son/brother/brother-in-law/ uncle who is teaching in Myanmar.

First we went to the Worthington Glacier, which was only a few miles from the lodge. 

Jeremy and Dylan climbing rocks

The day was beautiful.  Perfect temperature. Who could ask for more?

The path up to the glacier edge was only about a half mile or so, but it was quite rocky.

The younger members of the family just went on up, but I was a little slower. Since breaking my foot last year, I step carefully. My knees were also bothering me. 

But here we are together. As I have said before, "I am glad I can still do this, and will treasure every day I do."

Our next stop was at Horsetail Falls and Bridal Veil Falls, both are on the Lowe River along the Richardson Highway. Dylan wanted to climb up the side of this one, but we all nixed his enthusiasm. He claims to be part billy goat and is always looking for a new challenge.

Then we drove to the Valdez Glacier Lake that is not far from town.

The lake is cloudy with glacial till and has large island-like chunks of glacial ice. The black on top is the sand, gravel and dust that has accumulated on it.

We could not hike to the glacier itself since it has retreated up the mountains, but we did have our sandwiches on a table by the shore of lake. The boys went to climb on the ice, Craig went down to the edge of the lake, Deidre and Andrew explored in  another direction, and I rested. The Worthington had tuckered me out!

Since glacial waters seemed to be the theme of the day we took them to see the small but wonderful falls behind the Forestry Information Center at Valdez. This is Crooked Creek, which works its way from high up on Town Mountain which we could see from our campground. Boy Scouts have cleaned it up and planted native foliage along its edge at this point, restoring it as a healthy salmon spawning stream.

When we went inside and talked to the Forestry ladies we learned that some of the fish were starting to come in near the hatchery and that bears had been spotted. 

We decided to take a look. There were no bears, but some of the fishermen were catching salmon and there were many fish gathering near the entrance of the hatchery. The fish gates were not yet open, but we could see how it would all work.

This is actually a picture I took a few days earlier when the tide was just right so that the birds could seem to stand on the water and the mountain was reflected. That day there were quite a few eagles. I'm not sure how I caught the one that is flying in from the bottom left of the image. 

All in all it was a very nice day, and we ended by having a little cookout at the Alfa. I have many more pictures that I could have included, but I try to post only enough to tell the story and keep the memories alive.

The next day was even better, but I have to save that for the next post. We may not have internet for a few days, but will be back as soon as possible.

RV Life is Good. 

RV Life when the Family around you is Special.