Thunderbird Falls
Thunderbird Falls
This was at low tide. Check out the fishermen on the bank and imagine this at high tide with 5 times as many people, all fishing!
The Arctic Tern (with it's fish lunch)
Tree Swallow posing for it's picture!
Canadian Goose Family. How cute are those chicks?On our way to Anchorage we stopped and hiked in to see the Thunderbird Fall. It was pretty and worth the hike in but because of the rain the trail was soggy and mushy. We should have thought and put on our hiking boots but NOOOOOOOO we just wore our tennis shoes. Does that sound as funny when you read it as it sounded when I typed it, "tennis shoes", hahahaha it sounds funny!!! I guess because we just call them shoes or 'tenny's, so to actually write it out.... Sorry I got side tracked!! Where was I?? Oh yes, the falls, it was 2 main tiers and what we could see of it, about 40 ft. tall. For the amount of water rushing through the gap it was surprising that the river below it was not moving very fast. We spent about an hour in and around the falls before we were back on the road. Anchorage was a much needed "City" fix and with almost 300K people it was by far the largest city we have been in since leaving Washington. AND the first one that had a Costco! Of course we HAD to go to Costco and Target for "stuff". But that was a small part of the 3 days we were there. We stayed at a State Park, 12 miles North of Anchorage called Eagle River. I am so glad we chose to stay there rather than in Anchorage because it was our little respite after being in the hustle bustle of the city. We have come to love the "wilderness" of Alaska and while here we would rather be in that "wilderness". But we did enjoy being in Anchorage, we spent time watching the fishermen on the banks of Ship Creek, standing maybe 10 ft apart casting, reeling, casting, reeling then casting again, over and over trying to "hook" a king salmon. The term "hooking" a salmon is used loosely because at this point the fish are not biting, they are intent on getting to their spawning grounds. So the fishermen are doing their best to "snag" a salmon in the lip so they can keep it. If they "foul hook" (snag it) it on any other part of the body they are supposed to throw them back. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. After all this is food for their family, not just a sport! By dragging the hook, or flipping the line through the water time and time again they increase their chance of "hooking one". We were down there by Ship Creek twice, once at low tide and once at high tide, and only saw one fish on the bank. From the accounts we had heard the fishing was terrible this year. I hope it picks up so Chip can catch a salmon before we leave Alaska. After watching the fishermen for what seemed like forever we headed to Potter Marsh. Potter Marsh is a refuge where a boardwalk has been built for us human animals to view the feathered ones in their natural habitat, if you are lucky you might just see a bear or moose. We were not lucky! My Mom had sent me an article about Potter Marsh and the Arctic Terns (a small ocean bird that spends its entire winter out on the ocean). They were here at the marsh and we wanted to see them. We did get to see the Arctic Tern in action. It was so cool to watch the tern swoop down to pluck a little fish out of the water and then for whatever reason it seemed to hang around waiting for the tree swallow to give chase. Once the tree swallow was in pursuit the two birds reminded me of 2 military fighter jets in a dog fight. With the Arctic Tern maneuvering like a pro and the Tree Swallow matching it's movements perfectly they would fly like this for several minutes before the Tree Swallow would leave the game and head back to its nesting area. I know you have all seen Canadian Geese but did you ever wonder what the babies looked like. Until we came here I had never seen one so I was excited to see these little fluffy balls of down feathers. I wonder how old they are when they get their "Canadian Goose" markings?
We spent one day walking around downtown Anchorage window shopping and looking for a Bar called Humpy's. A friend of ours told us about it and we wanted to be sure to stop in and have an Alaskan Amber. We finally found it and it was perfect timing. It was late enough in the day that we were able to have a couple beers and some appetizers, AND call it dinner!! No cooking this night, you gotta love it! Our waitress, a 30 something from Florida, had just moved to Anchorage and was looking forward to her first winter. Even though she said, on a visit to Alaska this past winter she took her 2 yr old daughter to the snow and she was afraid of it! She said she took a small snowball and threw it towards her daughter and all she did was cry.... YOU THINK? If I was 2 yrs old I probably would cry too if my Mom threw a snowball at me... The one thing she said she is looking forward to more than anything else is learning to snowboard. That makes me think.......... in the entire time we have been in Alaska I have not seen ONE commercial ski area. Maybe they just go out the door and poof, snow run! She was a very cool young lady and we sure wish her the best on her Alaskan Adventure. When we go back through Anchorage on our way to Valdez (Val-deez) we are going to stop by Humpy's again and hope to have Jessica as our bar waitress again.
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