Howdy! \u00a0Guy came to visit at the end of August and we had a great visit in spite of rain every day. \u00a0We moved to Valdez, Alaska, after Samantha and her friends left. \u00a0We made the drive in 2 days, it was about 7 hours all together. \u00a0We stayed at Bayside RV park, right in town and next to the boat harbor. \u00a0Valdez is a beautiful area, surrounded by mountains, glaciers and lots of waterfalls, and is on Prince William Sound. \u00a0I’m sure it is even more beautiful when it’s not raining…but I couldn’t tell you since it rained every single day we were there. \u00a0Steve and I finally bought rain boots, we couldn’t walk Gerry or go outside without getting our feet soaked. \u00a0The RV park was busy with a lot of Alaskans there to fish the Silver Salmon and fill their freezers. \u00a0Many of the campers had full size deep freezers sitting in their camp, they would fish all day every day, filling their freezer for the year. \u00a0Some were also fishing for shrimp and I’m sure other creatures as well….we were one of the few RVs that didn’t have Alaska tags. \u00a0The tourists are all leaving quickly \u00a0before weather becomes an issue.<\/p>\n
We didn’t let the weather dampen our fun (pun intended \ud83d\ude42 ) \u00a0We did several hikes, and Steve and Guy went on a Salmon fishing charter. \u00a0We had booked a Halibut fishing trip, but it was cancelled twice due to high seas. \u00a0So they did the Salmon trip instead, which only goes out about 14 miles into the ocean, vs. the Halibut trip that went 50 – 70 miles into the ocean. \u00a0They each caught the daily limit of 6 fish, so we had plenty of Salmon for dinner and to ship home. \u00a0They saw sea lions, porpoise, seals, sea otters and eagles and also a spectacular rainbow came out while they were on the boat. \u00a0On one hike, a black bear came onto the trail, about 100 yards in front of us. \u00a0He looked at us and then went into the woods. \u00a0We were glad he wasn’t any closer!<\/p>\n
We also did a great helicoptor tour of the mountains and glaciers. \u00a0We saw seals from the air, laying on huge chunks of ice floating in the ocean. \u00a0We landed twice on the tour – once on a beach that had lots of ice on it from nearby glaciers, and then we landed on a giant glacier named Shoup Glacier. \u00a0It was absolutely amazing. \u00a0The pictures do not begin to capture the vast landscape we saw. \u00a0None of us had ever been in a helicopter before and it is amazing what you can see when riding in one. \u00a0We have seen a number of glaciers on our trip so far, but what we see from the road or from a hiking trail is nothing compared to what they look like when you go way up and back into the mountains and land on top of one. \u00a0An experience we will not forget.<\/p>\n
You’ll be happy to know we continued our bakery quest while in Valdez…. and I can report we found a great bakery right on the harbor front, in a converted 1950s camper. \u00a0Super cute and very good. \u00a0We went every day we were there. \u00a0Guy declared the breakfast croissant with ham and the blueberry scones “one of the best things I have ever eaten!” \u00a0The very nice young lady who was the owner even baked us 2 loves of bread – multigrain and a beautiful round loaf of rye. \u00a0We had asked about bread, she said she was done making it for the season, since she was closing in a few days. \u00a0Then she said she’d make some just for us – it was delicious!<\/p>\n
We cooked tons of seafood while Guy was here – crab legs, scallops, shrimp, salmon, halibut. \u00a0Now you know why we hike even in the rain….we have to work off all the bakery goods, delicious dinners and ice cream! \u00a0We didn’t find any great ice cream shops in Valdez, but the grocery had \u00a0plenty!<\/p>\n
Sharing a part of this adventure with Guy was great. \u00a0No one is prepared for how big and beautiful Alaska is, and I think Guy really enjoyed exploring a little bit of it. \u00a0He’s the last of our visitors for the summer – it was so nice having everyone – we are loving our RV lifestyle and are so thankful to be able to do this, but we do miss family and friends. \u00a0Visitors help bridge the gap a bit.<\/p>\n
Guy, we love you and are so proud of you and the happy, healthy life you are living in Minnesota. \u00a0Thank you for coming to visit and sharing this experience with us. \u00a0Life is good.<\/p>\n
Pictures at these links:<\/p>\n
Hiking: \u00a0https:\/\/1drv.ms\/a\/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkkIi-rWnzsvAFatq<\/a><\/p>\n Helicopter: \u00a0https:\/\/1drv.ms\/a\/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkheVp9beEjy7lnJd<\/a><\/p>\n Salmon Fishing: \u00a0https:\/\/1drv.ms\/a\/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pkiPmWB61Ys8oyjZw<\/a><\/p>\n Valdez: \u00a0https:\/\/1drv.ms\/a\/s!Ap-2lg-EnL0pklLl_bjzOJlcdG_Z<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Howdy! \u00a0Guy came to visit at the end of August and we had a great visit in spite of rain every day. \u00a0We moved to Valdez, Alaska, after Samantha and her friends left. \u00a0We made the drive in 2 days, it was about 7 hours all together. \u00a0We stayed at Bayside RV park, right in … Continue reading Guy’s Visit to Valdez, Alaska (and more rain!)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions\/255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeyreeb.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}