Alyeska. Girdwood, Alaska♥

(Not my photo)

My love for this place has grown immensely over this winter. I want to move to Girdwood or if I’m rich have a vacation home there.

Hopefully, going to learn how to snowboard soon and then I will be able to snowboard and ski. Hopefully…

#alaska

Day Five and Six in Alaska

I’ve decided to combine day five with day six because day five was a very lazy, all day movie day. Somewhat.

Day five - Monday

Day five was an extremely lazy day. I was basically a couch potato. Later that day, Joel took me to meet his roommates back at his apartment. The roads were icy and the walk way up to his apartment was very icy. Walking up the tiny little incline that would normally take probably thirty seconds took about two minutes. Finally, we made it to the top. Joel’s roommates were pretty cool. They had a cat named Edge who decided to attack my jeans LOL. We watched a film called Dr. Horrible. For a low budget film it was actually good but really short and ended in the way I didn’t expect. I guess evil rules? After meeting his roommates and talking with them a little bit we went back to the car to go for dinner at his parent’s house. Walking down an icy incline is much faster because you basically slide down but at the same time it was scarier because if you can’t stop sliding down and you hit a bump, your face has a longer falling distance than going up. Back at the house we had some delicious homemade chicken noodle soup that hit the spot. After dinner we all sat down to watch Stranger Than Fiction. I took some Benadryll right before dinner because I’m allergic to cats and my allergies started up. Well it was probably not a good idea since there were times throughout the movie that my eyes glazed over and even shut on me. But I made it through and kept up well with the movie. Then Hawaii Five-O was on and the Mr. and Mrs. were in the show because Hawaii Five-O was filming while they were there on vacation. But I didn’t get to see much of the show because the Benadryll had me sleeping on and off during it. Needless to say, that night I probably slept the best! I was out the second my head hit the pillow.

Day Six - Tuesday

Day six was probably one of the best days of my vacation and life! I got to see a lot of Alaskan scenery and see interesting stuff. Tuesday morning Joel came and we had breakfast back at the house. Then he took me to Seward. On the way to Seward we stopped by a few places.

First we stopped by Girdwood and we drove up to where Alyeska is; Alyeska is the ski resort. People own cabins or rent cabin condos because it’s cheaper if you have a seasonal pass and your own skis. The mountains were gorgeous and you could see the sun shining off the top of the mountains. Wow that was a breath-taking view to see shimmering snow caps! After driving through Girdwood we went on and the next stop was Portage Glacier. The visitor’s center was closed for winter so we had the entire parking lot to ourselves. We couldn’t see Portage Glacier because it was foggy on the lake (well you can’t really see it anyway from what I hear because Portage Glacier has become too small to see from a distance with your naked eye). But I beheld a sight more grand than what I had expected to see! I was blown away to see, literally, an ocean of slabs of glassy ice. The entire lake in Portage was frozen over in huge slabs of ice and there were slabs of ice washed up on shore that looked like foam from waves, just frozen in clear slabs. It was so beautiful! But it was so cold too! The wind was blowing so hard and even though the high for the day was probably 39, I think it was 32 by the lake and the wind made it even worse. My nose and lips and fingers were frozen and I couldn’t move them. I did make the best of it and Joel and I stood on some of the slabs of ice. It was fun. On our way out of Portage we swung into an entrance close to the lake where there was a running river. It was a fish sighting place and you could sight the different salmon in the river. We could see no fish but we did have fun makeshift ice skating because the parking lot to that little pier was covered in ice. It was so much fun attempting to ice skate, me in my boots and Joel in his converse.

From Portage we went down to Seward, which was over 90 miles away. For the longest stretch on the [new] Seward Highway up until you turned to go through the mountains toward Seward, there was the Mud Flats in between the mountains and the highway. It’s very shallow and muddy and the water in the winter turns all to ice and you can see chunks of ice piles up like a shore. Now the funny thing is, at first I thought it was huge rocks and boulders that made up the shoreline, like the beaches in Ireland in the city of Kilkee. But Joel told me it was literally all ice, no boulders or rocks. The reason it looked like rock was because the water was muddy so the ice looked brownish gray. We stopped by Beluga Point on the way and in the summer the tide goes out and you can go out and walk on the rocks. It was so beautiful though in winter (although that’s the only time I’ve seen it LOL).

After we turned and were driving through the mountains, we passed Turnagain Pass. It’s a popular place to go snowmobiling because of the vast field of nothing but hilly snow. I got to walk out a little into that wintery field. It was amazing to be standing at the base of the mountains. As we continued on to Seward, we went deeper into the mountains. I was blown away the whole ride there at the beauty and majesty of Alaska that I was blessed to experience.

We finally go to Seward and I loved it! It’s a quaint seaport/fisherman type of town. It reminds me of the Maine of Alaska, even though I’ve never been to Maine. There were harbors wherever I looked. There’s something special about the sea. It makes you feel magical inside. Before we grabbed a bite to eat at Subway, Joel took me to see the little waterfall by this little bridge. It was such a cute waterfall! After I took a video and some pictures of it, we went to eat then hit up the Alaska Sea Life Center. You got to see and learn about the Alaskan sea life. It seems like everything is mutantly bigger in Alaska. It must be the water! I got to see a jumbo (and I mean JUMBO) shrimp scratching his backside. It was the most hilarious thing I think I have seen! LOL They also had this huge Stellar Sea Lion there and my was he huge! He gets up to two thousand pounds! It was amazing to watch him swimming like a torpedo. At the Sea Life Center they also had this really cool thing where you could touch sea life in those shallow tanks. They had a complete coral reef thing with anemones and sea cucumbers and sea urchins on one side and sea stars on the other side. Sea cucumbers look very thorny but they are actually so soft and squishy! I was surprised. The anemone was pretty neat because since it’s about 90% water, it seems very plump under water, but the second you lift it up above the water, it looks like it deflates and withers and it looks like a deflated balloon they use to make balloon animals. But the second you put it under water, it inflates and plumpens up with water again. The sea urchins were pretty neat as well. Their spikes actually feel like wooden toothpicks (but with blunter tips) and the cool thing the guy who worked there showed us was how to have a sea urchin hug you! You put a finger in between the sea urchin’s spikes and when you do, the spikes move and gently squeeze your finger. It was incredible! The star fish were all different and even felt different too!

After going there, it was time to head back home. On the way back, up until Turnagain Pass, it was snowing! Beautiful snow that started off slow and soft but within minutes turned pretty bad. You couldn’t see that well in front of you and the road was covered with snow so that you couldn’t see where the median was or the dotted lane dividers were. We had to slow down. Luckily, the Blazer had studded tires on then to help with traction on ice and snow. It was pretty though, if you weren’t the driver. Joel told me that when it snows hard enough and you’re driving, it looks like you’re going through a time warp. He was right. I was so mesmerized to the point that I had to force myself to snap out of it. It was dark out so it looked black and the snow was so white as it was reflected off the head lights and it just looked like stars in a time warp shooting past you. It was amazing.

After we got back from Seward, Joel’s sister Liz invited us over to watch a movie with her and her husband, Brandon. We drove up to The Hillside and it was awesome. I am so jealous of the people who live on the mountain because they get an amazing view of Anchorage, and it looked so beautiful at night because below you saw a whole city lit up. When we got to the house, we couldn’t decide on what we wanted to watch so we ended up watching Demetri Martin “Person”. Man, we were all cracking up! He is a hilarious comedian. After that, it was time to go home. It was an eventful day and one of the best days I’ve had so far.

Keep reading for a few pictures of my trip down Seward Highway.

—LilyMoose