usa: alaska 3 - whittier

our next stop on our great alaskan adventure was the convention. i didnt take too many pictures there since it was our only convention and we were trying to listen to the program, but it was really interesting to be in a convention where we knew no one and yet fit straight in because the program was exactly the same as we would have had back home. (except the local needs was all about keeping our balance in hunting and fishing)

our next excursion was to whittier, an interesting town with a grand total population of ... 177, most of whom live in the one large condo in the town. oh, and it has an annual tourist population of 700,000 in the summer. to get there we had to go through this tunnel. this pic was actually a mistake - i was fiddling with the camera but it turned out pretty cool i thought...either that or we could use it as an ad for not doing drugs.

oh, must mention - the tunnel only fits one car / train at a time. therefore, trains go, then cars one way, then the other way, then train comes back. at 4km, its the 2nd longest train / highway tunnel in north america.

by this point we had switched over to our other alaskan family, kevin, debbie and emily. what an awesome family. apart from enjoying their company, hospitality and kindness, i learned a lot from them about how i want to live my life (and hope you move to kenya one day!). here we all are (except for em - funny i dont have a pic of you! sorry about that em) wearing our embarrassing nappy outfits in readiness for kayaking. (my editor / proofreader wife says 'they are not embarrassing, they are practical!' well i say nappies are practical too, but you dont see me bragging about wearing them)

i hate to harp on this point, but alaska is sooo beautiful. we paddle under the bow of a giant cruise ship which in turn is dwarfed by the glacier-speckled mountains behind it. then across the sound and up along one side of the inlet.

here you see us gawping at yet another view...

here are kevin and debbie who blew us away with their paddling skills and stamina.

sadly, i was a bit of a coward and left my camera behind, not knowing how wet we would get. so i dont have to many shots of the kayaking part. but take it from me, it was a beautiful and fun way to visit the sound. we stopped for lunch along the way, and to our surprise saw lots of huge salmon swimming right past us as they come back to spawn. sandi who is a luo (tribe in kenya that likes fish) was very excited and also sad to see all that fish go to waste.

so the rest of the pictures are just of the drive back home. i say 'just' but of course as with all things alaska if even one of these views were anywhere else there would be hundreds of shops, starbucks, roller coasters, t-shirt stalls, etc. in alaska its normal. so we had the view to ourselves.

and with the 3 hours long sunset, there were some spectacular views of the mountains.

about 15 minutes from home the sun had almost set.

but its last few moments were its most spectacular. wow.