Kayaking in Whittier

As promised here is another post. This weekend adventure was a kayaking trip to Whittier, AK. For those of you not familiar with Whittier (which I am assuming is the vast majority of my readers), it is a very tiny coastal fishing town about an hour away from Anchorage. So we left on Friday night with the idea of camping both Friday and Saturday night. Well, the camping part didn't work out on account that I couldn't light a fire on account of it just being so dang wet, even though it wasn't raining the ground and wood were soaked.               

So the most interesting thing about Whittier is that in order to get there you have to drive through a 3-mile long one-way tunnel.

Not only is this one-way tunnel shared by in-bound and out-bound traffic (at half hour intervals), but it is also shared by the train system.

So after our sleeping experience (which involved freaking out every time the wind blew because we thought it was a bear) and my failed campfire experience we started our guided kayaking tour of the Passage Canal, which is essentially an arm off of Prince William Sound.

Here is a nice picture near the Kittiwake Rookery, where literally thousands of seabirds nest for the season (no we did not get pooped on by the birds, although it was a major concern for me).

The guide was nice enough to take some photos of me and Christina during the tour.

There was also a cruise ship that had come in during the night. A point worth noting is that the Passage Canal (which isn't really a man-made canal at all, but just an inlet) is exceptionally deep and very secluded. So during WWII the port of Whittier was actually a very strategic supply port for the Pacific Fleet,

And finally this building, I'm not entirely sure what the name of this building is but it serves as the primary housing for the vast majority of Whittier's approximate 160 residents. So yeah its an efficient system I guess, but it is kind of weird.

The Beginning of the Alaska Adventure

 First and foremost I want to apologize to everyone for being such a poor blogger. I know I've said it before and I'll say it again. I promise to keep up on my blogging posts. So without further ado may I present to you our first post from Alaska.

As many of you know Christina accepted a position with the Residency Program in Anchorage, AK at Providence Hospital. Prior to moving up here I interviewed and accepted a position with Engineered Equipment Company of Alaska (EECA). My primary function there is to provide sales support to the outside sales reps, essentially I find information pertinent to the variety of products we sell. But enough of the boring stuff, we have moved to a very beautiful part of the world and are beginning to experience many of the wonderful activities that this gorgeous state has to offer.

For those of you who do not know, Christina's sister lives in Anchorage as well. A couple weeks ago Scott (Deanna's husband) and I took their oldest son David out to catch a real Alaskan Salmon in Ship Creek, which is located literally right in Downtown Anchorage. Even though the day was disappointing for Scott and I David actually caught himself and Pink Salmon. Needless to say he was very exciting at his accomplishment.

Last weekend Christina and I met up with one of Christina's old friends from High School and went on a gorgeous hike just outside of Hope, AK, which is located on the Kenai Peninsula (located about 1.5 hours from Anchorage). Here is a photo from the beginning of the hike looking out at the inlet.

No hike would be complete without taking Knox our dog along with us. You can see here he is just beginning to get a little tired. Let's just say the hike for us was about 12 miles, but for Knox it was probably closer to 20-25 miles.

Here we are very near to the end of the hike. It almost looks like we are standing very near the water, however what this picture doesn't really show is the steep drop off right behind us.

Just another shot of the beautiful scenery.

On our drive home we decided to stop by the town of Hope, AK. This picture pretty much sums up what is in the town. After talking to one of the many fisherman about what was working in the local rivers we decided to grab a drink at the world renowned Seaview Bar.