Getting friendly with the local wildlife.

Today was our fifth wedding anniversary! We got up and made ourselves a nice breakfast of eggs and fried plantains while we waited for the car rental company to get in touch. Our gorgeous deck overlooking the southern tip of the islands affords us views of both the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.

The amazing view from our deck!

Breakfast on the deck.

The owner's friendly but skittish cat.

Our awesome deck!

Our favorite place to sit on the deck.

Ken called us about two hours after we got up and said that our rental company still didn't have a car for us, but they knew someone else who could give us a rental car by 11am, so we took them up on it to be guaranteed a car for the day! Ken and Diane brought us some fresh grapefruit and bananas from local farmers, and then they gave us a ride to the rental car company. We thought we were all set for the car, but then the rental company informed us that we needed to buy a local permit to drive, and took us to the police station to do so, but they told us the permit station was somewhere else and was closed on Sundays. Eesh, we have never had so much hassle getting a rental car! We decided to drive the day "illegally" and get the permit tomorrow. :)

We decided to to take Diane and Ken's recommendation for a romantic lunch. We drove about an hour to the Ladera resort between Gros Piton and Petit Piton, the two landmark mountains on St. Lucia. We had lunch on their terrace restaurant Dasheen, which had goregous views of the ocean between the two mountains, as well as lovely flowers in front of the terrace that were attracting humminbirds! Squirt guns were provided on each table in case other local birds got too close. We had an okay, expensive buffet meal, but the view was worth the visit!

Happy Anniversary to us at Dasheen!

Dasheen's beautiful deck.

A view of Petit Piton from the deck.

A hummingbird on the flowers beside the deck.

After lunch we decided to go snorkel at Anse Chastenet, a resort and beach that is said to have the best off shore snorkeling on St. Lucia, near the town of Soufriere. We stopped in Soufriere for gas, then went through town and tried to find Anse Chastenet. Google Maps was not very helpful - all the roads marked ended before reach Anse Chastenet, so of course we got completely lost. On one of our detours, a drunk local stumbled up to our car and slurred that he was the local tourguide for this area. We showed him a map and asked how to get to Anse Chastenet, and he stabbed at the map and said "You are HERE!!" He was pointing at a map of Castries - an hour away...

Soufriere, in the shadow of the Pitons.

A view of the Pitons from our "detour."

After backtracking to Soufriere again, we found the right road to Anse Chastenet - an absolutely HORRIBLE road that had once been paved but was so ridden with potholes upon potholes that it may as well have been a dirt road. Most parts of the road didn't have room for two cars to go past each other, so we had to back up to let another car squeeze by a couple times. We finally arrived at Anse Chastenet, a volcanic sand beach whose sand was a combination of gold and black sand. We were informed by resort attendants that we were not allowed to sit on any of the dozens of empty beach chairs since we were not staying at the resort, so we headed to the end of the beach and clamied a spot on a little rock ledge.

Anse Chasenet beach.

Gotta have a yoga on the beach picture. :)

The snorkeling was a bit murky, but there was a bit of coral and a few fish to see. I was excited (and dismayed at the same time) to see three lionfish! I had never seen one before in all the diving and snorkeling I have done. I guess the lionfish cleanup (since they destroy so much Caribbean marine life and have no natural predators here) hasn't made it to St. Lucia yet.

Bright yellow sponges in Anse Chasenet. Trying out Gavin's anniversary present - a GoPro camera! :)

Gavin snorkels under the dock.

Gavin snorkeling.

After quickly changing our clothes in Anse Chastenet's "for guests only" bathrooms, we sat at their oceanside bar. While Gavin dropped our wet clothes off at the car, I ordered us a drink made from a "local aphrodesiac" that was actually really tasty (though the effects were not noticeable. :) ) Then we drove the hour or so back to Vieux Fort and had dinner at one of the only restaurants on Sandy Beach: Island Breeze. In typical Caribbean fashion, both my first and second choices on the menu were not available (no fish or shrimp today), but the basic chicken sandwich I ordered was fine. While sitting and enjoying the ocean breezes, a local kitty jumped up onto the chair beside me, crawled into my lap for a bit, then onto the ledge beside our table. He seemed to be interested in the cherry decorating my drink, which made for some cute, albeit dark pictures. (the red light beside our table was the only light!) Then we headed back to the villa to turn in after our busy, happy anniversary day!

I am getting friendly with the local "wildlife." :) Kitty friend batting at my cherry garnish.

 

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I learn something every time I travel...

In this case, the thing I learned on my first evening in St. Lucia is that I like "pisswater" beer. :)

We arrived in St. Lucia late in the afternoon. We wandered out of the small airport to pick up our reserved rental car, and we were informed that there were no cars available because the car we were supposed to get was never returned. The guy in front of us had the same situation and was flipping out about it. Evidently he has never been to the Caribbean before - stuff like this just happens and you just have to roll with it rather than let it mess up your trip. :) The car rental company called our villa owners for us, and the owner Ken kindly came to pick us up.

We made a brief stop in Vieux Fort for the ATM and groceries, then headed out of town toward the villa. On the way Ken honked and waved at everybody he knew, which was about half of the people we passed. :) He also pointed out several little tiny restaurants outside people's houses and noted, "This one has the freshest bread, she's open Monday, Tuesday and Saturday" and "This lady her sells ice cold beer, and she's drunk as soon as she wakes up..." :) We stopped at a little bar/grocery store and he bought us a cold beer as a welcome drink. I have never in my life liked beer, but there was nothing else to drink and I didn't want to be rude, so I took the island brand beer Piton and took a sip.

I couldn't have been more surprised that I actually LIKED it!! For the first time in my life I found a beer I actually LIKE! Gavin informed me that if I like this Piton beer, I'd probably like Bud Light, which I have always heard referred to as "pisswater beer." :) Oh dear, it appears that I have terrible taste in beer...

Next to the bar. I don't think I would really consider getting a tattoo here at "Big Dreams..." :)

While we sat on the steps of the bar drinking our beer, a friend of Ken's walked up and wailed that his wife had left him and "he loves her so much!" He was wearing what Gavin and I have jokingly started calling the "Caribbean uniform:" jeans and a wife-beater shirt. After having a quick beer with us, he continued to whatever activities he had going on for the evening, and Ken told us that the wife probably left for a good reason. :)

We arrived at the lovely villa and Ken showed us around. It was twilight, but we could still see the amazing view from our deck of both the Atlantic Ocean and the Carribean Sea. We settled in and went to bed early, while the local frogs and insects lulled us to sleep.

Enjoying my Piton, St. Lucia's brand of cheap beer. (this is from a different day, but I didn't have any pictures from the first day of the trip!)

 

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Whale acrobatics!!!

Our last day in Alaska was to be spent on the Kenai Fjords Tour, which was a six hour boat tour going through Resurrection Bay and on up to the Aialik tidewater glacier. We happened to meet our the other bed and breakfast guests at breakfast, and that had taken the same tour yesterday. It was very lucky that I met them, and they informed me that the boat was really rolling over the waves. I went immediately to get my motion sickness patch. :)

Before taking getting on the boat, we checked all our baggage into the train station for our 6pm departure, then we walked over to the harbor to get on the Orca Voyager, our boat for the day. I was also glad for my extra layers, as that boat was COLD, even in the inside seating! Our captain's voice seemed very familiar, and we figured out that he reminded us of Jim Gaffigan the comedian. :) We saw a ton of wildlife on the trip, including harbor seals, stellar sea lions, various birds, a brief glimpse of Dall porpoises, and the two highlights: a pod of orca whales and a very social humpback whale that breached several times right in front of our boat! We also got to finally see a glacier calving - the Aialik glacier at the farthest point on our trip was pretty active. Because the water was so deep, the boat got pretty close to the glacier, and we could hear it cracking as the ice shifted and calved.

One of the orcas in the pod we saw.

Stellar sea lions - notice the grouchy one roaring at the boat! :)

A flock of birds feeds on a school of fish in the water.

Trees clinging to rock formations in the fjords.

Icebergs from the Aialik Glacier.

The Aialik Glacier.

Some of the boat workers fished a chunk of ice out of the water and let all we tourists take photos holding it. :)

Beautiful blue!

It's a breach! A humpback whale!!!

And again! Our captain called him a "punk whale." for showing off. :)

Whale tail.

Humpback in front of the Bear Glacier.

When we arrived back at the dock, we were just in time to catch our train back to Anchorage. The ride was uneventful, except we got to see a couple of moose and a bald eagle's nest with one bald eagle appearing to pose nicely for us. :) Once we arrived back in Anchorage, we picked up our rental car and drove to the airport to catch our 1:30am flight... This is going to be a long and exhausting trip back with more that twelve hours in transit and two stops, but what an amazing time we have had in Alaska!

Our train back to Anchorage passes in front of a glacier.

 

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An underwater petting zoo.

This morning we caught our train to Seward. This four-hour train ride was WAY better than the trains to Denali and Fairbanks. We rode between sheer cliff faces, parallel to both the shoreline and a river, over river gorges with sheer drops from the sides of our train and surrounded by snow-capped mountain peaks. There were even several glaciers visible spilling down the valleys, and the melt from the glaciers carved its way down the mountains in streams and waterfalls. We also saw a bald eagle hanging out in the trees very close to the train.

Sunrise reflections on the Alaska Railroad.

Buildup of glacial silt, visible when the tide is out. It becomes very dangerous as the tide comes back in, turning into something like quicksand!

The beautiful views kept me awake on this ride, despite the early hour!

Getting closer to the mountains...

Reflections on the glassy water.

The Trail Glacier, named because it has the black trail of silt in the middle where two glaciers crashed together to make one glacier.

Back of our train.

Another glacier - the closest one to the railroad at only a half mile away!

We arrived in Seward to lovely, warm, sunny weather. We hopped on the free shuttle to see the sights of Seward and also see if we could get a bit closer to our bed and breakfast, but the shuttle took us downtown, which was actually AWAY from our bed and breakfast. After making the full loop of the shuttle's route, we got back off at the train station where we had started, then dragged our bags more than a half mile uphill to the Bear Ridge Bed and Breakfast. I was sweating for the first time on our entire trip. :)

We settled in to our room at Bear Ridge B&B, which was a bedroom right off the owner's kitchen with a bathroom beside it; it felt a little like staying at our grandparents' house since the owners were right next to us. The owners were kind enough to leave homemade buttermilk doughnuts in our room - yummy! After settling in, we walked back down to the train station and caught the shuttle downtown for lunch. We stopped at a little place called Nellie's that boasted fresh fish and chips, and that sounded pretty good to me! Gavin and I shared fish and chips (where the "chips" were onion rings - yum!) and were REALLY surprised at our bill of over $25; I guess we should stop being sticker shocked by the prices in Alaska as we have already been here almost two weeks, but the high prices never cease to amaze...

After lunch we walked to the Sea Life Center, Seward's aquarium. It had lots of nice little displays of Alaska sea life, and had an underwater "petting zoo" where I touched various sea creatures like starfish, a sea cucumber, anemones, etc. (though I avoided touching the available shrimp and crabs - too much like bugs... :) ) They had a sea lion and her REALLY cute calf. They fed the adult sea lion and had it do various tricks. The baby (still nursing, so not being fed) followed its mom around and tried to attempt a few of the tricks itself, like jumping/crawling on the rocks. When we went downstairs to see into the bottom of the mammal tanks, one of the workers held a red ball in her hand and a cute seal followed it around for a bit. We also got to see the swimming birds diving into the water. I learned that the vibrant pink salmon I had seen a few days ago near the Mendenhall Glacier were only bright pink for spawning; other than spawning time they are silver!

After the Sea Life Center, we walked a path along the shoreline all the way back to the bed and breakfast. This route lined with dozens of tents, campers and RVs parked there to spend the night. We scoped out places along the dock to have dinner with a good view, and we also found a place on the dock where fishermen were cleaning their fresh catches. I got my first look at my new favorite white fish "in the flesh" - halibut are HUGE fish and almost square in shape. We took a little nap in the bed and breakfast, then headed out for dinner.

The Seward harbor, filled with hundreds of boats!

We once again walked the more than half mile back to the dock and went to eat at Ray's, which had a nice view over the docks. I once again had some tasty halibut while Gavin mawed down a big plate of ribs. We saw people taking pictures off the dock outside the restaurant window, so we headed down to see what they were looking at - a cute sea otter was frolicking and eating in the water less that ten feet from the dock! After getting a few unfortunately blurry photos, we went back to our B&B to turn in - tomorrow, our last day in Alaska, is another long day of travel!

 

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Alaska is big; so are its veggies.

The Alaska State Fair.

The Alaska State Fair ticket booth: close until noon...

Today we drove our rental car up to Palmer, AK, the home of the Alaska State Fair. We were looking forward to the people watching and the "cultural experience." :) We arrived at about 11:30am, and we noticed we were one of only about twenty cars in the parking lot. We wondered if we had mistaken a local county fair for the state fair, but when we went to the entrance we learned that the fair didn't actually open until noon! We were glad we hadn't tried to get up early to make it to the fair! :)

We wandered around a bit, just seeing the typical state fair stuff like 4-H exhibits, food stands and rides. Then we noticed a building labeled "King Tut Exhibit." We wandered in and were surprised to see things labeled as artifacts from King Tut's tomb not even behind glass! At the very end of the exhibit was King Tut's mummy itself! At this point I was sure these objects were all replicas, but NOWHERE in the exhibit was anything labeled "Replica of King Tut's tomb," etc. I asked the woman guarding the entrance, "How did you get the real King Tut stuff at the Alaska state fair??" She told me they were actually all cast replicas made from molds of the real stuff, and also said, "They'd have somebody way more imposing than little me guarding it if it was the real stuff!" :)

Hey, look! It's King Tut........ NOT!

There was a lot of fresh produce for sale at the state fair, almost like a farmer's market. They also had a section dedicated to giant vegetables. The livestock section not only included the typical pigs, sheep and goats, but there were also reindeer that little kids had raised as their 4-H project!

Giant veggies!

The local "livestock." Hi Prancer!

After a few hours and lots of unhealthy food later, we decided to leave, having seen everything at the fair, plus it was starting to rain on us yet again... We headed back to Anchorage and did some laundry while relaxing in our room for a bit. Then we headed into downtown to have dinner at the Glacier Brewpub. It was a large restaurant, but the wait was still an hour and a half. Since we wanted to have a really nice last dinner in Anchorage, we decided to wait. About ten minutes later, our buzzer rang that our table was ready! That was a pleasant surprise! We had pretty much the best meal of our trip so far - FABULOUS, tender calimari and I had some more halibut. Gavin is tired of seafood, so he ordered steak. Then we headed back to our hotel for an early night - we have to catch our train to Seward tomorrow at 6:45am!

 

I am about to put some serious hurtin' on that blue raspberry cotton candy. :)

 

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