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Alaska Railroad engine
This is the train we rode from Anchorage to WhittierWe've been so busy that I've gotten behind writing about our adventures, so I'm just going to go back and pick up what I haven't written about.
On June 27 (was that really not even a week ago????), we took the Alaska Railroad train from Anchorage to Whittier. This was about a 2 hr drive (the train only went 25 mph much of the time). We rode on the upper level, and had a table to sit at. We saw a moose and her 2 calves when leaving Anchorage, and then saw some dall sheep on the mountainside along Turnagain Arm.
There was a large cruise ship docked in Whittier that seemed to dwarf everything else there - especially the boat we went on! We went on a 5 hr cruise of the Prince William Sound. Our boat was the Emerald Sea with Major Marine Tours. There was a ranger from the Chugach National Forest on board talking about things throughout the tour. Leah also earned her Junior Ranger badge for Chugach National Forest while on the boat.
We started out with a delicious salmon and prime rib buffet lunch, I really didn't expect the food to be as good as
Boarding our car
Debbie and Leah (Mark in background) it was.
After lunch, we went up to the observation deck. The mountains, glaciers, and waterfalls were beautiful! We even got to see a glacier "calving," which is where the ice breaks off into the water. It was really neat to hear the sounds the glaciers made- rumbling and popping noises!
We saw harbor seals both swimming and laying on floating ice chunks. We saw sea otters from a distance, but none very close. There were a couple of bald eagle nests at a distance, but close enough to see their white heads and know what they were. Leah spotted some big orange jellyfish in the water which were called Lion's Mane jellyfish. We also saw rookeries of birds called kittiwakes, there were thousands of them! On the way out of Whittier and again coming back in, we saw a stellar sea lion, which the captain said was their "resident" sea lion who likes to hang out on the docks.
On the way home, we saw as many as 9 bald eagles at one time sitting along the water where the tide was out. When the tide started coming in, it came in REALLY fast!
It rained for a little
Mark and Leah looking at dall sheep
While riding along the Turnagain Arm while on the way home, but turned out nice because we got to see a double rainbow afterwards! Leah taught us all that the colors of the second rainbow are reversed!
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Mom
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Whittier trip
Oh! the memories!!!!! I'll bet Whittier doesn't look much like the last time we were there.