North to Alaska -Day 6

 We slept in till 7 this morning which was a first for the week. Jan's mom then cooked us breakfast and we then drove up to a look out that is the head of a popular hiking trail. From here you look out over the Knik Arm of the Cook Inlet. In the distance (230 miles away) we could see the faint outline of Mt. McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America. It was unbelievable that we could see it when it was so far away. We then went to WalMart to get Maddie some last minute supplies and then back to the apartment and got Maddie all packed for her three hour drive, this time alone, back to the Copper River Lodge. After giving her a father's blessing we filled up her car with gas ($4.29 a gallon) hugged, cried, hugged again, cried again and then she was off.















After Maddie got on the road we went into Anchorage to the mission home and I met several people that the Nelson's work with. Then they decided to take me to see the Portage Glacier. It was a beautiful drive but when we got to the visitor center it was not opened for the visitor season yet. We looked at the mountain and noticed that the ridge line of the mountains had a large snow over- hang. The sun created a glow in the snow. It would be quite the sight to see the ridge line break with all that snow.

 We looked at the lake that the glacier is next to but it was still iced over so no boat tours going yet.

 Across the valley were waterfalls.













We went a little further to the only road in and out of Whittier. It is a two and a half mile tunnel through the mountain. The railroad track is also in the drive lane. The tunnel is one way so you have to wait your turn to go through it. Traffic gong to the town travels on the hour for a twenty minute time period. Traffic leaving town leaves through the tunnel on the half hour for twenty minutes.

Once we got through the snow was piled up on the side of the road and it still was deep. The town is a small  fishing area located on an arm of the Prince William Sound. 

 There are waterfalls that go into the bay from the other side of the mountains.

 After stopping to look around for a few minutes we headed back.

 The way back is the same way we came and that was around the Turnaround Arm of Cook Inlet. When we went by it in the morning the water was a long ways away from the road because it was low tide. On our way back the water filled the entire bay and created waves as it was flowing into the arm and filling it all up. It was amazing to see the speed of the water creating the waves as it filled up the bay. We just sat at a lookout and watched. We also saw some eagles on the cliffs.



We then went back to Anchorage to a place called the rock man.

 It is a man made feature to resemble the rock features in the Arctic called inuksuit. The natives made these rock figures to serve as guide posts and mark significant areas. The mission president takes missionaries who are leaving to this rock man on there last day s a reminder to be solid in what they do after they go home. It was nice of Gary to take me here to see this on my last day. I heard from Maddie that she had arrived safely but that she was the only one there since the others were still being picked up from the airport. She was walking the bosses dog but she felt lonely. She found out her roommate was from Ephraim which made her happy and made me happy also. We went back to the apartment and had dinner. We then took a nap and then the sister missionaries came by and visited. I knew one of the sister missionaries uncles as he went to high school with me. It was nice to talk to her.

 It was then time to head to the airport. On the way I said I just need to see one more moose and then a few seconds later there was one on the shoulder of the road. I got dropped off at the airport and was grateful for the kindness of Jan's parents. It was around 11 in the evening when I made it to my gate and the picture on the left shows what it looks like at 11 at night in May. It is just after sunset.

The next picture is 12:30 Friday morning just before I board the plane. There is still a glow on the horizon. The amount of daylight is really something that is so unusual. I flew to Seattle and it was dark there when we got there at 5 in the morning.







The next flight left Seattle at about 7:30 in the morning. As we flew out we past Mt Ranier which rose above the clouds. I reached home in the early afternoon after spending 6 amazing days.