Josh in AK!

Over the 4th of July weekend, Josh came to visit. It was his first time in Alaska and I was pretty excited to see him and to be able to show him around. We had a fantastic weekend and I wish that he could come back!

The Car: We rented ourselves a car for the weekend. But not just any car - a GOLD Ford Focus. It was essentially the best thing ever. It was a stick so Josh had a blast driving it and most importantly, we were mobile! Anchorage is a completely different city when you have a car and personally, I believe that Mobile-Anchorage is the best Anchorage. By the end of the trip we were both a little attached to our Focus - dents, dog hair, and squeaky back doors - we were sad to have to give her up.

The Location: We spent most of our time in Homer where I found us a great little B&B. We had our own room with a view of the water. There was a wood-fired hot tub, which we went in both nights; I'm pretty sure that only in Alaska will you sit in non-electric hot tub, have a view of Cook Inlet, and watch bald eagles. The town of Homer was pretty neat too - we made it into the famous Salty Dawg and had fresh fish every night.

The Hike: We wanted to spend 1 day out hiking. We didn't have a plan we just knew that we wanted to go "over there" which meant across Cook Inlet, and to do that we needed a water taxi. We packed up our gear and went down on the Homer Spit to find a water taxi - we had a bunch to choose from and our final selection criteria was the best looking sign (advertising at work!) and we ended up at Mako's. Mako himself took us across the inlet and dropped us off on a beach with the instructions that we were to find the trail head marked by an orange triangle, follow the signs to the glacier and then take the saddle trail to our pick up spot, which was not the same as the drop off spot. 45 minutes after we parked the car, Josh and I found ourselves alone on a beach on the other side of the Cook Inlet knowing that we had to catch the boat at "a staircase" at 4:30 pm, with our only way to tell the time being a digital camera with a low-battery camera.

We managed to get ourselves to the trail head and we successfully followed the signs and the rock-piles to the glacier trail. The lake was amazing. The glacier was huge and there were a bunch of calved pieces floating in the gorgeous blue water. We took our pictures (doing our best to conserve the battery) and noticed we had some extra time. We decided to walk along the shore edge and explore. We found a dried up mudflat with Momma and Baby Moose prints. In the process we must have gotten to close to the nest of a group of Arctic Terns because one of them started circling us, making horrible noises, and swooping down at Josh; we quickly left the Tern behind and did some more exploring. On our way back to the trail we took a slightly different path to stay out of the Tern's way. We screwed that up big time.

We must have gotten closer to the nest because instead of 1 Tern there were at least 3 all circling, screaming, and dive-bombing us! I thought it was pretty funny but I was still shielding my head as we tried to get away. At some point the Terns got very serious and they had Josh and I running away while trying to protect our heads. As we were running, Josh fell down and about 5 seconds later one of the Terns hit me on the head! We finally got out of their territory and they left us alone - thank goodness. But I think the Terns won that battle. I had a lump on my head, I was dizzy and Josh wished he had thrown more rocks to hit the darn things. Overall, we both had a hard time believing that we just had our asses handed to us by 3 four ounce birds.

The rest of our hike was pretty uneventful - in a good way. We met a ptarmigan and her babies, she was very nice. So nice, that we had to shoo them off the trail so we wouldn't trample the them. We saw some great views of the other side of the Cook Inlet, we found the staircase and we met our pick-up boat just fine.

Whittier: A former top-secret military base, Whittier is literally enclosed on all sides by Mountains and water. On land, the only way or out is through a single 3-mile long tunnel that is wide enough for one lane of traffic or a train. The tunnel runs on a schedule; you have the ability to travel to or from Whittier between 7am and 11pm, one direction of travel for about 20 minutes designated every hour. I'm happy that we went - it was certainly an experience, but holy cow - I have never felt so claustrophobic! 80% or more of the population lives in a single building; this building houses apartments, privately owned condos, and hotels. I was terrified to be there, worried I might get stuck there, and Josh was happy to get us out of there as soon as possible - as soon as the tunnel schedule allowed it!

Around Anchorage: Even with all that, Josh and I found time to have coffee and breakfast in Barnes and Noble twice, play tourist in Anchorage, go to Humpy's, take a nap, and visit the University Lake Beaver. My only regret about the weekend is that Josh didn't get to see a Moose. There is always next time!