Mary's Glacier Landing

We are now finding the weeks blending into one another and realize it has been nearly a month since we did a posting so, hopefully without boring you, I will attempt to catch you up.

On July 8th I was fortunate enough to experience a glacier landing which Ron had enjoyed earlier..... it was simply marvelous. The only detraction was the presence of smoke in the air (it is estimated that there are presently fires covering 600,000 acres, the closest one was about 30 miles away) and depending on the direction of the wind it was either clear or very smoky for about a week. During that time I did feel sorry for the visitors, for not only were they unable to see any of the wildlife in the Park on their organized bus tours but they were also deprived of seeing any of the magnificent scenery, not to mention those folk who had asthma/allergy problems.

Our days off are usually spent taking a long walk on one of the trails nearby. Last week we went to an area called Savage River after catching a bus to the trail head some 12 miles into the Park...... It made a nice change to walk along the riverbed, even though the weather was threatening and somewhat ominous. We had our first really close up look at the Ptarmigan (state bird) which until this point had been quite elusive. We also witnessed the Mew Gulls attacking and successfully chasing off a coyote that was preying on their youngsters that had not yet developed their wings. We then ventured off into the tundra where few had been before us; it was just like walking on a soft springy carpet of moss. After a while I began to feel somewhat uneasy as this was territory where moose and bear preferred to hang out and eventually our wanderings brought us to a very steep bank which we managed to haul ourselves up ONLY by clinging to the short stubby bushes. I can say I was greatly relieved when we eventually made it up to the road because we had reached a point where to turn around and retrace our steps was not an option. A "campers bus" passed by shortly which picked us up and within minutes we saw a moose and her youngster plus several large caribou with enormous antlers which are now turning reddish and fuzzy.

Yesterday we did a 9-mile walk beside three lakes, so peaceful (only sound was the buzzing of bees) and the scenery just lovely, but strangely enough very little sign of wildlife, only the odd squirrel. Our feet and legs were protesting toward the end, so we waited for the van that runs every hour and treated ourselves to a half way decent pizza and a beer at a place some 17 miles away from our resort.

We are planning a mini trip (hiring a car) Aug 11/12/13 and driving to Seward, which is about an 8 hr drive south passing back through Anchorage first. We are booked into a lodge for a couple of nights and plan on taking a 9 hour day cruise through the Kenai Fjords National Park to the massive tidewater glaciers hoping to see whales, puffins, and sea lion colonies. By then the season will be nearly over and the temp much cooler but hopefully not snowing, which I believe we will experience before we leave in mid Sept. In the meantime we have Patrick's visit July 31-Aug 3rd to look forward to.

I would say we are in a routine now, my work days vary, some starting at 7 am and others not until 3 pm but at least I am now getting 8 hour shifts with a total of 40 hour/week. The time goes by quickly, my first experience really in retail, which has been a bit of an eye opener. My co-workers are for the most part our age. We are known as " The Silver Fox" group! which I suppose sounds better than " The Geriatric" group. Whenever we are not in uniform we are always mistaken as guests, which brings me to mention that last week Ron and I were chosen as a select few to do a 3 hour photo shoot, posing as guests in various locations to be used as “stock photos” for their brochures, web sites, etc promoting this resort. So once again Ron gets to add this to his "acting resume".