from myspace valdez weekend trip

Wednesday, September 19, 2007
weekend in valdez....2003Current mood: amused
i was chatting with my friend kelly several years back and telling her my plan to catch the ferry in whittier and take it to valdez and then drive back to anchorage. she asked if she could come along...sounded like a great idea to me. kelly is one of my favorite walking partners up here. she and her husband just finished up their nurse anesthesia courses and moved back....it is great to have my friend back.
anyway. i remember being very sleepy for the ride out to whittier. it's 45 minutes from here and through a 2 mile tunnel. the tunnel in one lane only, it's shared with trains. i was a bit flipped out entering it the first time fearing i'd see that single train light coming back at me. i remember i pulled back out and let someone else go first. the guy just laughed at me. they have it all regulated so traffic coming in goes at certain times and traffic coming out and then also time slots for trains.
on the ferry i tried to sleep, but woke in time to check out all these sea lions that were hauled out on some rocks the ferry passed. they looked like maggots from a distance. nice analogy, i know. we passed columbia glacier as well, but there is always so much ice falling off it,the water for several miles is choked with ice.
i remember that we took a long walk in valdez with the dogs...huey and mandy, kelly's dog, it was so pretty out there. the weather was perfect. it followed the coast and eventually brought us out to the spit of land. some dog that must have lived near the trail head decided to join us on our walk that day. kelly and i were laughing the other day about that dog...we can't remember what the dog was doing, but we were regretting having had it come along. it was a nice dog, but a bother for some reason. some strange dog and now you felt responsible for it.
the spring was still fighting back winter and so it was pretty cold as we drove out of valdez. there were some amazing waterfalls and a glacier to stop and play at. it was a pretty short trip, but kelly and i had fun on the road trip. poor huey used to have panic attacks when the car went over 65 mph. kelly and i were covered in drool and she was crackin up at huey's panic disorder. he was panting and drooling for most of the road trip. later, we experimented with other cars at the same speed and huey always started into a panic over 65mph. i think the gods sent me huey to learn me to slow down. i was forever getting pulled over by cops when i lived in california. luckily, i mostly got out of tickets. though i've been to traffic school 4 times...i've gotten out of over 40 tickets in my life. pretty good odds!! now i drive like an old lady though, especially in winter. i'm trying to remember which of my neices and nephews were in the car when i took them over 90...just for fun. someone told on me though. must have been erics kids cause i think he was the one who was unhappy with me. oops!! no harm...no foul though. you can eat all the lettuce you want the thing i've learned is when it's your turn to leave this earth, you are gone. age, goodness,none of it matters.