Biking, tsunami warning, and wildlife/glacier cruise

[glacier_kitty]

Yesterday morning Jo had to do something for work, so mom and I took Ryan to see Valdez Glacier Lake and the fish hatchery at Allison Point. The tide was SUPER low! The hatchery breeds salmon and lets them go, and in a year or two they return to spawn..there were lots of fish, but there's a weir preventing them from going any farther (a guy at the hatchery said the fish weren't ready yet, and when they are they open a gate and let the fish in to these tunnel things to spawn. They seemed ready to me, it was hard watching them work so hard to jump over the weir and get nowhere lol). There was a sea lion in the distance catching fish, but not much else was happening, so we went back to the B&B, had lunch, and then went bike riding! We rented the bikes from the same company we rented the kayaks from. The bikes were electric, and you could either peddle or use the throttle. The throttle was fun (especially since I'm out of shape LOL)..the bikes could go 20 MPH, but the highest I got on mine was 16 I think. We biked to Old Town, where Valdez was before getting destroyed by a tsunami after the 1964 earthquake. I'd never been there before, but here wasn't much to see, except for a couple poles in the water and the foundation of the post office. Then we biked on some trails (which had bear scat D:), and stopped at a place a geocache was, but it must have fallen down the pole it was in, because only tape was left on the cover of the pole..darn! We went out to Allison Point again, this time at high tide, and there were a whole group of sea lions getting a very easy dinner haha! It was cool watching them, and watching the seagulls swarm around them when they were trying to eat lol. Then we biked back to the rental place..I think we did at least 11 or so miles! I needed wipers on my glasses lol, since it rained the whole time, but it was still cool..we all need bikes like that haha. Walking seemed very slow after that. :P Then we had dinner, finally found two geocaches (they were done with construction for the day, so we grabbed the opportunity) and played Betrayal at House on the Hill..after the traitors were revealed (mom and I), Ryan and Jo went to Safeway (the traitor(s) always have to be in a different room so everyone else can strategize in secret). I saw the lamps shaking a bit, and then an alarm blared on our phones, and when I looked I saw this:

Mom and I were just like "WTF?!?" We checked online and saw that an 8.2 earthquake had struck near the Aleutians, and a tsunami warning was issued for the coastal areas, even as far as Hawaii! This earthquake was largest earthquake in the United States since the one in 1964!! We were totally freaking out..the B&B owner said the "safe spot" was the high school, so when Ryan and Jo got back we grabbed important stuff and headed there (the tsunami wasn't expected in Valdez for an hour or two, but we didn't want to wait till it was too late!). We hung out there for a couple hours, till we saw them downgrade all the warnings. The earthquake was shallow and occurred underneath a shelf in the ocean, so it didn't displace very much water. The biggest waves were only a foot above normal..wow, talk about luck!! I'm not sure I needed that experience, but it was still interesting lol. I'm glad it happened in the middle of nowhere, with minimal damage!

Today we went on a wildlife/glacier cruise. It was pretty nice out, with some blue sky! Jo was looking at the map they gave us, of the route and various named places, and then was like "hey! That 'unnamed' glacier we flew over after Shoup, that was Anderson Glacier!" You can see Anderson Glacier from Valdez if the weather's good enough (there were clouds covering it this morning). Indeed, when I looked at the map, it's right near Shoup (only higher up), in between Shoup and Columbia! We HAD to have passed over it. That made me SO happy haha, it has a name!! Someone should tell that pilot. :P You can see very little of Shoup now from the boat, sad! All that awesomeness just hiding so close by! We saw lots of wildlife..sea otters, sea lions, bald eagles, puffins, a pod of orcas, a humpback whale, jellyfish, and other various birds. There were a lot of kids on the boat, and they were SO funny..when one saw the orcas, she was like "I see its nose!!" haha. When one saw a dirty iceberg, she said "it looks like chocolate, I wanna eat it!" Oh good, I'm not the only one that thinks some glacier look like chocolate and ice cream mixed together. :P We saw Columbia Glacier, but we didn't get very close because they said there was too much ice..it didn't look THAT bad to me (the other guy would try, but then he has a smaller boat), but then I saw that instead we were going over to this cove with a bunch of other glaciers, which used to be connected to Columbia. I'd never gone over there before, but I imagine it was covered with ice before! The mountainsides were absolutely barren and covered with moraines..so crazy to see such new land!! We got half a mile from the face of Columbia's remnants, and we also saw some kayakers SUPER close to the face of one! That very glacier then calved awesomely (I will never not jump up and down and squee when that happens haha), and we saw the kayakers paddle away like crazy! There was one kid who was just SCREAMING in terror..their tour guide (I imagine they were a tour group) should NOT have let them get that close!! I hope they were ok! It was cool being surrounded by glaciers haha, and I always get weirdly sad after leaving them. I always feel like we don't spend enough time with the glaciers, though I imagine it's longer than I think. Then we just went back to Valdez..you could see Anderson Glacier this time, and I was like "yup, that's the one we flew over!" *points to familiar-looking ridge of ice* When we docked, I saw the Saga, a Deadliest Catch boat..cool! Now we're just relaxing..tomorrow's our last full day here, awww :(



The hatchery, and the weir on the right

Sea lions fishing! Earlier in the day, the posts on the right were totally uncovered by the low tide! (Also a lot of fish swimming there..wow)

Got one! Mmm, tasty :P

There was a sign that said not to go any farther, but they did anyway *rolls eyes*



Ready for the cruise! (You were supposed to wear a mask if you were inside, but by the end of the trip, no one bothered to anymore..too busy chasing after kids :P)

A beautiful day!!

Mom's having fun!

Me too! (OMG my hair is crazy haha)

A lovely waterfall

I love Prince William Sound's coastline! <3


Anderson Falls (yep, from the glacier) is epic!!

Cooool

A couple bald eagles ("why are these hairless things staring at us??")

*SWOONS*

Another eagle

A pod of orcas! They actually have an identification book with the orcas' markings and stuff, so they know who all the pods are, and they said this pod was local..cool!





Sea lions resting and making weird noises LOL

Nap time :P

Sea otters on ice! It's unusual to see them out of the water. I don't think I'd seen one walk before now! I'm glad they weren't hunted to extinction, phew!

A very dirty lonely tributary of Columbia Glacier..its retreat technically created more glaciers!



Hello again, Columbia Glacier!

Too bad we couldn't get much closer, but at least we got to fly over it!

Heading to the tributaries





This one calved for us!



Oozing down the mountain :P

Cool moraines!!!



Yep, I'm a dork :P



The crazy kayakers..that poor kid! :( (It would be cool to kayak there, but not as close as they were before this picture..yikes!!)

Cooool iceberg



So prettyyyy

Lovely!


28. Musician you would like to see live if you had the chance? Of Monsters and Men, for one

29. Have you ever met an online friend in real life? Yeah..Dana, Aimee, etc. It's so cool to see them in real life :D