June 16th, 2024 - Whittier

We woke to another beautiful "bluebird" morning and after a late start and chatting with the neighbors, I took a walk to the bay.

The road into our campground:

The head of the bay:

There were many "No Camping" signs here but folks did.  Still not sure how I feel about that since the campground we were at was very reasonable.

The beach:

Another cruise ship in port:

In Whittier, folks from the cruise ship usually are on their way to somewhere else - boat cruises, train excursions - or - they are coming to the ship from other interior excursions or going to the interior excursions for a few weeks.

In Valdez, the excursions are from the ship and they come back to the ship.  There are also many town tours too.

Interesting!

Projects near the head of the bay - looks like more docks:

Flowers everywhere - Alaska is in bloom!:

Just beautiful:

The view from the front of our motorhome:

Andy waiting for me - that is the view behind our motorhome:

 After lunch, we decided to check out the downtown - which is only about 3 blocks.  They do charge for parking but there are some two hour free spaces and we were able to get one of them.

We walked around and became fascinated with the boat area. 

So I walked around while Andy hung out.  Lots of nice little shops.  One of the shops that I walked into was like Déjà vu.  I remember being there and I remember the story of the shop owner walking a reindeer to the shop every day.

I walked out of the shop, saw the pen and came back.  I asked if she the original owner of the shop and she said yes.  So I told her that we were here in 2007 and we saw the reindeer.  OH MY!  She just smiled and thanked me for coming back and we had a nice chat.

She has one reindeer left but does not bring him down anymore. She told me that folks do not know how to control their dogs and it frightens the deer.  So so sad.

So we chatted for a while and I moved on, thanking her for some great memories.

I went back thru my pictures and just had to post the one from 2007.

The pen - it is still there but grown over:

The reindeer from 2007:

I continued my walkabout:

Ferry in port:

They had a great ice cream shop there so after getting our treats and eating them by the docks, I left Andy to go to the museum. (We were getting close to our two hour limit.)

I know that most museums depend on the folks in town but there is so much history in Whittier.  The museum was small and well laid out but I was a little disappointed.  There were many things to read but no artifacts and no videos.  (There are many videos on you tube and I wish they would have included those.)

So I just included a few of those writings that I found interesting.

Early Expeditions:

World War II:

The 1964 Earthquake:

Hard to read BUT the quake generated a 104 foot tsunami that wiped out much of the town and structures.  I cannot even imagine.  That is like the height of a 10 story building.  OH MY!

Whittier has an incredible story in our history.  Hopefully someday, this museum can tell it in more depth!

As I was leaving to pick up Andy, I was stopped by the train:

There are a number of different types of trains that come thru Whittier.  Some are touristy, some are sending supplies out of Alaska, some are bringing supplies into Alaska.

We came back home to a mostly empty campground and had a nice Happy Hour with our neighbor, Dianne.

I am so glad we spent the last two days here.  Whittier is really not a destination place unless you are fishing but it still is a beautiful place to explore.

Tomorrow we are heading to the Kenai Peninsula so stay tuned and enjoy today.