Our Alaskan boat ride

**Update - I was able to get the pics downloaded. View our Whittier pics here.

Today we drove to Whittier, AK. This is a tiny little coastal town. It was only accessible by rail and boat until 2000. Now cars can go but you take the same tunnel the train does and drive on the train tracks! The tunnel was really cool. It is 2.7 miles long and very natural. The inside was mountain rock, not smooth concrete like most tunnels you go through. There is a picture of the tunnel here at wikipedia.

There is some interesting history about Whittier. It started as a military post before World War II because the US was afraid the Japanese would attack the US via Alaska. The military built the tunnel, a boat dock, and some housing. The military had grand plans for Whittier, but soon after this infrastructure was complete, they abandoned the town. There is not much there now except the old military buildings. 90% of the town's small population live in the old officer's housing which is one big building with condos. The ground floor is a grocery store and the 3rd floor has a medical clinic. In the winter, Whittier does not get any direct sunlight because it is wedged between mountains. The sun does not get high enough to get over the mountains. According to the forest ranger, Whittier gets about 30 feet of snow each year, and it doesn't melt until spring. This makes the winters very brutal there. The military built underground tunnels to move between buildings in these harsh conditions. Today, the 35 children even go to school via these tunnels so they do not have to go outside. The population of Whittier is around 200. There is a little more info here at wikipedia.

Obviously there isn't much to do in Whittier. There were a few shops but most were closed or run down. This is not a tourist spot except for the boat tours that go into Prince William Sound.

We took a boat into Blackstone Bay to look at wildlife and glaciers. We saw a bald eagle in a tree then flying around. We saw a raft of sea otters (more than two otters is called a raft). We also saw some some harbor seals laying on chunks of ice that had calved from the glacier. We saw several glaciers but two large ones were where we spent the most time. We did see some calving (ice falling off into the water).

We're back in Anchorage tonight. We will drive to Talkeetna tomorrow for an airplane ride around Denali (Mt. McKinley) and then we'll drive to Healy. From there, we will go to Denali National Park Thursday and Friday to hike. Then it's time for the wedding in Trapper Creek Friday night and Saturday. Sunday we leave Anchorage for SC.

I'm not sure if we will have internet capabilities anymore after tonight. The next few nights we'll be staying in pretty remote cabins. It's already late here so I did not get time to post our pictures from today. I will post them as soon as I can.

The weather has turned rainy here, so wish us luck as we fly and hike for a couple days!