Emma Gets Crabby
This morning was our last in Homer (for this trip). We awoke to the spectacular views that could never get old. Several of us were up in the wee hours and saw the amazing sight of Homer in the (somewhat) night. It doesn’t really get that dark here in the summer, and the view was just a different type of amazing.
After we packed up, we started our drive to Whittier. We had about 3 hours to go until the first component of that trip. The road to Whittier goes through a tunnel…through a one-way tunnel…through a train-shared one-way tunnel. There’s a whole procedure for traveling through the tunnel. Vehicles traveling away from Whittier can enter the tunnel on the top of the hour, and those traveling to Whittier can enter at the bottom of the hour. Trains can go whenever they want, because…trains.
This procedure meant that while we could stop and take pictures when we wanted, if we didn’t keep an eye on the clock, we could arrive at the tunnel, and have to wait almost an hour. We did have some required stops for bald eagles in a field. We also found a moose in a field. Emma even watched some YouTube videos on making moose calls. She got pretty good, I think, and even chided Carrie on one of the calls - “That’s an aggressive call, don’t do that one!”.
We arrived at the lineup for the tunnel and only had to wait 15 minutes - perfect! When we were allowed in the tunnel, we drove down the railroad tracks, not following the car in front of us too closely. Carrie recorded some of the trip to show her students. Upon exiting the tunnel, we went right into the normal Whittier weather - rain.
We found our check-in location for our rooms, and unloaded into the largest building (by far) in Whittier. We were even on the next-to-highest floor in that building, so we have a great view of Whittier (not that there is all that much to the town).
On the way up, Carrie found a restaurant in town that looked good, that also had King Crab! So, that was our choice. We went down for a nice Linner. We all got crab, except for Pat. Les also got a ribeye steak. The crab was amazing, and massive. Emma was pleased.
After eating, we drove around Whittier. Whittier has lots of military history, especially through the Cold War. There is an abandoned large building that used to be, essentially, a city in a building. There was a theater, bowling alley, church, mess hall, etc. Everything the soldiers needed was inside the building. However, it was only in use for 6 years - once the Army shut down the nearby base, it mothballed the facility. Now it is just an empty shell with graffiti.
We continued on to a gravel road that said “unmaintained road - enter at your own risk”. While all dirt roads lead to Alabama, this one had gravel, so it kept to Alaska. We found some beautiful picture spots, and captured them. Once we had finished, we went back to play some games. We played Slappy Slappy and Phase 10.
Once we were done, it was time for Emma to do homework, Carrie to work on pictures and me to throw some words against the wall and see what sticks. The rain had ended, so we could actually see more of the surroundings, and was suitably amazing. We have a glacier cruise tomorrow that doesn’t start too early, so we can sleep in. Not that it will be dark - Alaska in the summer.
