Independence

July 4-5 – Travel day 11-13
(see yesterday's post--having to batch them with the spotty wi-fi)

The Japanese guests think Judd is the co-pilot (for obvious reasons)

Haines from the sky

Central moraine on Muir Glacier

Yesterday, we celebrated 4^th of July the big-time Haines, AK way.  We walked to town 30 min early to find a standing place in the shade for the Main Street parade. People-watching is very fun. We conjectured that the old, woman with white hair dyed with bright red streaks who was in a wheel chair but attended well by folks handing her their thrown-off-the-floats-candy, must be Helen the Nonegenarian.  We had seen flyers in the Pioneer Bar to come celebrate Tuesday night with Helen as she moves on to a new senior center. The actual parade could have been China Maine or Jacksonville Oregon. Bands, fire engines, old cars, dogs, horses, kids on bikes dressed like horses….. Lots of pioneer and gold-seeking themes. Thoughtfully, the horses (and horse-poop scrapers came last.)

Blue ice is visible because of the unusual heat this summer melting the 10 ft snowpack

Water visible where the glacier has receded miles and miles in last 50 years

After the parade, we went to Tlingit Park where they had a full day of family fun scheduled.  Mud volleyball looked, free watermelon, a hot dog/brat roast for lunch and a salmon bake for dinner at the ANS/ANB  (Alaskan Native Sisters/Alaskan Native Brothers) Hall.

We watched hosts from the Hammer Museum (yes, over 100 hammers on display) have kids compete in a nail pounding contest while adults drove piles. We missed the pie eating contest and fire hose contest but had a fun walk-about town.  Fireworks were cancelled due to the recent wild fires but we were going to have a hard time staying up until 11:30 (when it gets dark) to see them.

campground hostess, Joyce, "because fireworks were cancelled"

Today we had a flight over the glaciers scheduled for 12:30 and were worried it would get cancelled due to the smoke. We were surprised to get a text asking if we could be ready at 9:30.  Ready we were.  Amy picked us up and took us to the Haines airport where her husband Paul has a hangar for his “d’Havilland Beaver with a Pratt and Whitney Engine” says Judd. It was 1955 6 seater plane.  We were off to Skagway to pick up 3 passengers from the Japanese Sun Princess cruise liner. Paul forgot his phone so we got a bonus trip back down to Haines to pick it up. In Skagway, Paul asked Judd and I got to go usher the non-English speaking guests out of the lobby, past the rest rooms, onto the tarmac while he refueled the plane.  The guests insisted they needed to be back by 11:00 for a train ride.  Paul insisted he’d have them back at 11:30 and they’d be fine. The guests looked to Judd and I to help, thinking we somehow worked for Paul. Paul said, “oh fine” and off we went for a curtailed tour. We did not get out to the west (tidal) portion of Glacier Bay, but we sailed over Rainbow Glacier, Davidson Glacier, McBride Glacier and Muir Glacier like we were in an Indiana Jones movie. The breadth of ice fields and the enormity of the mountain ranges defy description (at least by me.)  We kept taking pictures of the different colors and formations of the ice shelves. And at one point we could see the bay narrow where the Muir glacier previously lived (50 years ago.)  It’s quite sobering how much it has receded. Someone (not us!) had asked Paul on one trip, why the ice looked so dirty.  He said if you'd been grating mountains for hundreds of years, you'd be dirty too.

Rainbow Glacier-- if the light hits the waterfalls just right, you can see rainbows

Paul got the Japanese back by 11:00 and said he would refund us $100 as we did not get the full air time.  We remained for the afternoon in Skagway. Paul described it as “a quaint drinking village with a cruise ship problem.”  But then he described Haines as “a quaint drinking village with a hippy problem.”  We prefer Haines. We did lunch in Skagtown [sic]. Judd visited Alaskan Brewery for a flight and we visited a bit of the Ranger’s Interpretive Center about the Klondike gold rush, but we did not approve of the 4 behemoth cruise ships and the hoards descending on the small town.  It felt like St. Thomas, VI or what Bar Harbor must look like at the height of summer. We grabbed the fast ferry back to Haines.

A small flight at the Klondike Brewery, Skagway

We found the Post Office in time for Judd to pick up two books that P.Corps friend Hank had sent General Delivery.  The Distillery is a nice place for a flight of spirits and dinner was recommended at Fireweed. Fireweed is also the spiked purple flower we see everywhere. We were told when the blooms were half way up the spike, summer is half over.  When the blooms get to the top, summer is over, and then the leaves turn red, thus “fire” weed.  The restaurant served the best bites of the summer so far: a bacon wrapped date with Balsamic reduction. THEN, we had their really good pizza and walked back to our camper with the second half for Elevensies tomorrow.

We’re headed out of Haines  (today July 6—trying to get to the library's free wi-fi to post this before we depart cell service again)–headed north west, back through BC.  This is the first night we don’t have a planned stop or a reservation for the night.  We’ll see how far toward Valdez we get. The plan is to take a ferry from Valdez to Seward on the Kenai Peninsula.  (Except, that’s where the wildfires have been.  Hopefully, the Sterling Highway to Homer is back open.)