Caines Head

Remnant of gun emplacement overlooking bay.

Fort entrance

Creepy!
Permafrost

Small Bunker

Inside the fort

Inside gun nest

The is the site of an old WWII fort and big guns that overlooked the entrance to Resurection Bay, where Seward is located. Resurection Bay was an important port in WWII, because it was deep and was connected to Anchorage and Fairbanks by train. The only way to get here, is by boat, there are no roads. It is now a state park. Further proof that Alaska has not been child proofed, you can climb up the hill and wander around inside the bunkers and fort. The fort is really creepy, because it is dark (the guide had brought a flash light) but there are still large open pits and things to fall into and kill yourself. I was shocked that it wasn't sealed shut.

Kayak Sky

If you blow up the above pic, you can see an otter floating along just above my bow.

On Thursday, I went Kayaking from the southe end of Seward to Caines Head, which is a State Park that has an old WWII bunker / fort / gun enplacement. The day started out cool and very cloudy. We had to wait 1 1/2 hours to leave, because we were waiting on two women who were running late. People in general here, don't seem to be in a hurry - It's REAL annoying. Anyway, just as were getting ready to put in, the sun starts peaking through, and it continued to clear up. The ride out, the water was smooth as glass, really amazing. On the way back, the wind had picked up, and there were a lot of waves. Nothing too high, but after several hours of paddeling and hiking, I was tired. At this point, there were was just me and the guide, and we decided (or he decided) to make a bee line back, and not stay within a couple hundred yards of the coast, like we had on the way out. I tried not to think about it, but a few times when I got a bit sideways from the waves, I realised that it was a REALLY long way to shore, and that if I dumped now (in very cold water, e.g. hypothermia) that it was going to be a good long time that I would have any chance of getting out of the water, and that I was so exhausted that there was no way I'd be able to swim that far. So that was kinda cool, in a scary way. This is why there are no pics of the return journey. I was too busy paddling for my life!

435 pics in two days

I took the train from Anchorage to Seward this week, and it was beautiful. I've never been a "real" train before (been on lots of commuter trains). The ability to get up and walk around, and site see, or hit the bar or have dinner is awesome! I now wish I could do all traveling by train. I ended up spending a lot of time hanging out on the back, which is open. I was shocked that people were even allowed back there. My mind is going... "this is a lawsuit waiting to happen, I can't believe they haven't childproofed it", and the other half of me was going "shut up you fool! They might hear you".

In two days, I maxed out my digital camera's memory at 435 pics. At the end of the trip, I was deleting redundant pics, so I could take more! I was getting frustrated with the autofocus. It was not capturing the colors both near and far, and just wouldn't get the color of the glaciers right. Oh well, I've still got a lot of good ones. Hopefully with a good editing program, I might be able to fix some of the others.

Public Art

Biking the Tony Knowles Trail

Alaska is so far north, that you can actually see the tilt of the earth!

Downtown Anchorage from the west.

Momma Moose (I really need to work on my wildlife photography skills)

Mooselettes

Arctic Valley

Just minutes outside of town on a army base / ski esort / national forest. Old and out of shape, I tried to climb to the top, but scary military signs scared me off just shy of my goal. Or at least that's the excuse I'm using.

There's actually a lot interesting military history up here, starting with the fact that part of Alaska was actually occupied (for a year) by the Japenese during WWII.

Turnagain Arm

A few scenery shots as I drove around sight seeing on Sunday. Please notice the complete lack of whales :(