Thursday August 14th, 1997.
As you recall, the last part of the previous chapter mentioned a debate that we had the subject of which was whether or not to spend a thousand dollars for a days trip to see Glacier bay. Luckily Ellie's wishes won out and we decided to spring for the trip.
We drove into town and went back in to see Jennifer at Skagway travel to find out what the options were. The standard package included a 5:00 am flight to Gustavus, the cruise, and a flight back. Jennifer put the pieces together differently. She found a 5:00pm flight, a night at the Gustavus inn, the cruise, and the flight back, for less money. The best part of this is that the Gustavus Inn is an old family run Inn that typically sells out months in advance. Also, all our meals at the inn were included as part of the deal.
We went back to the campground, moved the trailer to a dry (no hookups) spot for the night, did our laundry and packed some clean clothes for the night. Even though it was only a short walk to the airstrip, the airline told us that a van would come by to pick us up between 4:30 & 4:35 PM. After they gave us such exact times, we got concerned when they were 15 minutes late. We did get to the airport and we realized that we could not have missed the flight, as we were the only passengers, other than about 10 bags of mail. The pilot had removed the back seat from the single engine Piper to make room for the mail. While neither of us remembers the pilot's name, we do remember that he had retired from flying for American Airlines. It made Peter feel better to know that he was not flying for Skagway Airways just to build up his hours.
Since the weather was clear, the pilot asked us if we wanted to fly over Davidson Icefield even though is might be a little rough. We both agreed that it would be great and that if it got too rough we would say something. About 10 minutes into the flight, it quickly became clear that this flight alone might be worth the cost of the trip. We flew over several glaciers at an altitude of about 500' dipping the wings whenever it was appropriate to get a better view. Not bad for scheduled commercial service.
When we landed in Gustavus, we were met by the Inn's van driver who introduced herself to us. She already knew our names. This style became indicative of of how we would be treated for our short stay at the Gustavus Inn. We dropped our bags in the room and went down to the dinning room where we attacked a pile of crackers with the best salmon spread that either of us had ever tried. We sat down at one of the three tables, and met a family from Houston. He was a Vet and she was an architect. Dinner was Poached King Salmon, with homemade bread and homegrown vegetables. We had grasshopper pie for desert, and then called for a wheelbarrow to get us back to our room. After a good nights sleep, we went back down to the dinning room for breakfast. The owner came to our table and asked us how we would like our eggs, pancakes and toast prepared.
Just before breakfast, to take advantage of the time difference, Peter made a quick call to say hello to his parents. Peter's dad got on and told Peter the news that the group that Ellie just signed with, had just been bought out by a larger group. As soon as we know if this means anything to us, we'll let you know. Peter shared this news with Ellie who was a little shocked, but quickly refocused on the upcoming events of the day, rather than what was happening on Wall Street.
At breakfast we met two families. One was from New Canaan CT and the other was a physician from a group in Ashland Oregon, that Ellie had spoken to during the job search. We got his phone number and will stop in during the end of the trip as we had planned a stop in Ashland for Ellie to see some plays with the Oregon Shakespeare festival.
At 6:25 am we loaded into their van with 9 other guests, for the 10-minute ride to the Pier to start the Glacier Bay Cruise. It was obvious to all of us that other than a little bit of low-lying fog that would burn off, this was going to be a wonderful day. Before the end of the day, we would be told that it was one of the three best days of the year.
Once on the boat, we quickly met another pediatrician and her family who had just moved from Minneapolis to San Francisco. She and her husband were traveling with their two kids. What was most interesting about them was the fact that they were currently living in a co-housing arrangement with two other families in the bay area.
Over the course of the day there were a total of three kayak or backpacker drops at various locations. Each time we would either drop off or pick up some folks who had spend a day or more out somewhere in the backcountry of the park. Peter is convinced that this could be one of the most beautiful places in the world for sea kayaking.
What Ellie knew and Peter failed to realize was that this was also going to be a wildlife viewing trip with some very unusual opportunities. The first sighting of day was a number of humpback whales. This was followed by an island with several hundred seals perched on the rocky shores. A more natural version of pier 39 (?) in San Francisco. This was followed by an island of birds, where we saw our first puffins, a local attraction.
What really excited the group and our guide was a pod (group) of Orca Killer Whales. We were told that this was one of only a few sightings of these each year. We followed them for about 30 minutes including their trip back to the island with the seals for a late breakfast. As we try to write something that can convey the emotions of this event, we are truly at a loss for words. Please use your imagination. We had boarded the boat at 7:00 am, by 10:00 am we felt as if we had already had a full day's excitement. Peter thus figured that it was a good time to eat the bag lunch, which had been prepared by the staff at the inn. He also had the cardboard chicken, which was served on the boat a few hours later.
The next attraction, which was the one we had come to see was the glaciers themselves. The event is one of waiting and watching for a large chunk of the glacier to calve (fall) into the bay. Just a we were heading away from the second, a hunk that was easily the size of a semi trailer came crashing in. At this point we believe that Peter caught it on film.
We then saw another group of humpback whales who were dancing and flipping around in the water. Either this or they were having whale seizures according to Peter. We also saw; Puffins, Eagles, Sea Lions, Sea Otters, Dolphins etc.
We started talking to one of the couples we had picked up at one of the kayak drops. They were both docs. She was a pediatrician. They were leaving Salt Lake and moving closer to family in northern California. They were in Alaska as they were waiting for a new license application to go through. You may recall having heard this tune before.
Once back a the Gustavus Inn, we decided to buy some sweatshirts, we found one for Ellie but they were out of anything even close to Peter's size. At 5:40 the van from the Inn drove us back to the airport and dropped us off at the "terminal" shed. We sat around on the 4' x 12' deck and started to jot down our notes. The flight back in was similar as were the only passengers on the plane and again we flew over the glacier. The only difference was that this time Ellie got the front seat of the plane.
As we got off the plane, we were met by the "Airline's van who drove us the four blocks from the plane to our rig which was parked at the campground. The total door to door distance was less than our typical walk to the gate at DIA after we get off the subway. From here we returned to our current "reality". Luckily we had enough leftovers in the fridge that we were able to avoid having to spend much time cooking dinner. We then took our nuked food out to the table at the next campsite where we spent dinner with some folks from Anchorage who were able to give us some good information on the best places to stop on the Kenai peninsula.
As this incredible day ended, we had two questions in our minds. The first is will anything in the next four weeks be able to equal this day? The second is; if this is how we chose to celebrate our first anniversary, What are we going to do on our 50th?