4 Wheels 4 Girls

July 9th, on the boat tour, we were just cruising along and I was watching out closely for puffins. Suddenly, Amber, our ranger, said in to the intercom, “We’ve got some puffins on the left.” So I rushed over to the other side of the deck and– wow, there were tons of puffins! We slowed to a stop and watched thousands of puffins fly through the air. Some that were in the water were even so close that they had to fly away from the boat to not get hit! I was in puffin heaven! And now, since I’d seen a puffin…

A FEW HOURS LATER: OFF THE BOAT

We were finally off! I mean, I liked the boat tour, and seeing the puffins and whales and stuff, but I was getting a little tired of being trapped with all those sick people. So we hopped off the boat, putting a tip in the basket, and walked down the ramp to shore. We walked along the boardwalk and passed by a lady pushing a tub full of fish. We stopped and looked at the five-feet-long fish for a few minutes and then continued on our way. When we were off the boardwalk, we saw a gift shop. Ellie and I asked if we could go in and check it out. Jean answered with a yes, so we hurried through the door and inside.

Whenever I walk into gift shops, I always stop to look at the jewelry and key chains. But right now, the only thing I was looking for was a canned puffin. I looked around and around some more, but no canned puffins. Then I saw another room and– still no canned puffins. But in the corner, I saw something better than a canned puffin… non-canned puffins! There was a big basket overflowing with stuffed puffins! Not stuffed like dead and stuffed, but like fuzzy, soft, stuffed animal puffins! I knelt down to pick out the best one, and now, I have my puffin– Puffy!

July 9th, we were on the boat trip that we had started a few hours ago. Lots of people were sick, so I went on the top deck where there weren’t many.

I was just sitting there peacefully when suddenly, the ranger, Amber, said there was a humpback whale! I rushed over to the port side of the boat and saw the fins of one– two! whales! I watched the fins go under and the tails flip out with sprays of water flicking around. Dad said that when you can see their tails come out of the water, that means that they are diving deep. I watched and waited for them to come back up and suddenly something shot out of the water and did a 180 through the air. It was AMAZING! Amber said that when the whales pop out of the water and spin like that, it is called breaching. We saw the tail go up again and I wondered if it was going to breach again. So I kept my eyes peeled until– whoa! It breached again! I can’t even describe how it made me feel. The only thing was that it was completely magical. And it felt even more magical when Amber said that it was extremely rare for the boat tour to see a breaching whale. But I can’t describe what I saw, so Ellie drew a picture of it.

It was so wonderful that I didn’t want to l leave, even when the whales were long gone. But eventually, we headed on.

At the half point of the boat tour, we arrived at the Holgate Glacier. It was cooler than any glacier I’d seen before, which, surprisingly, was a lot. We were really close, and as we approached, there were millions of mini icebergs. As we cut along through the icy water, I could hear the chunks bobble and crunch and smash against the boat. Finally, when I thought that if we kept going we’d hit the glacier, we stopped. Suddenly, a huge chunk of ice broke loose from the glacier. Greta said that it sounded like a mix of thunder and 2,000 elephants stampeding down a hollow sheet of metal.

We had a great time on the boat tour.

July 8th, we drove from our campground to the Kenai Fjords National Park visitor center. Hummph, my brain didn’t seem to be doing its simplest job: thinking. So for some strange reason, I thought we were going to the grocery store. I know, I’m so retarded, aren’t I? I don’t know when or why I thought that, but whatever. So of course, I confused everybody when I said, “Wait, I thought we were going to the grocery store!” , when we pulled into the visitor center parking lot.

When we got out of the RV and stepped into the visitor center, Dad was already there, looking at the 3D map in the middle of the room. I walked over there and stood next to Dad as he examined the mini mountains, glaciers, and icefield. Even though I’m never really enthusiastic about those kind of things, I had to admit that the Harding Icefield was pretty big. And later that day, Dad told me that the Harding Icefield was the second biggest icefield in North America.

I was getting a little bored with standing there, staring at the 3D map, so I decided to look around at the other things in the gift shop. I slowly walked over to a stand of cans, looking around at other things on the way. When I was over to the cans, I picked up the first one I saw; the one that was opened. First I looked at the label: Canned Puffins. Canned Puffins? So I pulled at what was inside and finally tugged out–a puffin! A stuffed puffin! And it was adorable! At the bottom of the can read: CAUTION!: This puffin is known for sitting and waiting in your bed for you to come and snuggle you to sleep! I was in love with this little puffin! Not only because of the caution sign, but also because, well, it was just so cute! And because I’ve always loved puffins. They are all colorful and happy, and all flappy-winged and me-like. I just love them!

I was terribly disappointed when I asked Jean if I could get it and she answered no. But then she made a deal: if we see a puffin, I get the canned puffin! So I’ll be looking out for puffins!

From the visitor center, we took a short hike to the Exit Glacier, which flows down from the Harding Icefield. We saw a pika on the way to the edge of the glacier. A pika is a little brown mouse-like thing with a stripe on its back that looks like it is spray-painted red. Its tail is really small. When we came up over the hill, the temperature dropped about ten degrees. I realized that when you are right next to a glacier, you are right against a whole lot of ice, and you are also right against cold. For some reason, I didn’t realize that glaciers are ice and ice is cold. So as we walked up to the very edge of the glacier, I was shivering like a raisin. And Dad kept us down there for about half an hour, asking questions to the ranger. Since I thought we’d never leave, I stared at the packed blue ice. The ice wasn’t actually blue, it was just the light. I didn’t really understand why blue was the only color of light reflected, so I’m going to let someone else explain that. [Editor’s note: glacial ice is a lot like metamorphic rock, ice compressed over hundreds of years by the pressure of thousands of tons of snow and ice above it. The ice is so dense it absorbs the light which enters it, all except blue.]

I was relieved when we finally left. I don’t think Greta knew it was the shorter way when she said it, but she convinced Dad to let us go back that way to the visitor center. When we got back Dad took us to the 3D map again and pointed out Exit Glacier. It seemed so big when we hiked up to it, but it is one of the smallest glaciers of Harding Ice Field.

July 7th, we went into Seward, Alaska to get some groceries. So we looked up grocery stores and came up with one: Safeway.

We drove to Safeway and pulled in to the parking lot. I was debating whether or not to go inside and help pick out food. Finally, I decided to go in. I hopped out of the RV and was hit with a sudden smell; the smell of a fish cannery. You might think I’m either crazy or disgusting, but I liked the strong smell. And unlike a lot of people I know, I love fish, and I don’t care if people make fun of me about it.

So I took in the fishy smells as I walked up to the front doors of Safeway.

July 6th, we pulled over at a rest stop. We asked why we pulled over, (as we always do) and Jean told us.

A long time ago, Jean was at this exact place. She was with her friends, and when she climbed up on this big rock, she saw Mount McKinley. It was an amazing view! So she got out her camera and took some pictures. And one turned out nice enough to frame.

Now, that picture is famous to our family! Since the mountain is over 20,000 feet tall, it is almost rarely seen through the billowing clouds. Yet that day, Jean took the famous picture of Mount McKinley! And now it is hanging–
in our dining room!
Hahaha! That’s the story! So we went to that exact place and now I got some really good pictures. Maybe we’ll even have to replace the old one! 🙂

We saw…

Five caribou and a baby caribou,
three moose,

eleven grizzly bears,
two golden eagles,
a flock of ducks,
about five ptarmigans (the state bird for Alaska),
two snowshoe hares,
a red fox,

eleven dall sheep,
and a lynx!

We had a fun time at Denali National Park!

July 2nd, we were heading to Fairbanks when we saw the second cutest baby moose in the world! It looked orange. It was orange! After about five minutes of squealing at the wonderful views we got, we watched as the mama moose lead the baby moose into the woods and away.

July 1st, we were at the Sourdough Campground. We discovered that the campground did karaoke! So Greta and I got up our courage and sang in front of everybody! I was so scared, but when I realized that they were actually fun, Greta and I sang three more.

I don’t know if it was for a reward for Greta and I singing, or if it was just for dessert, but our parents let us have two marshmallows! But after that, we had to go to bed.

June 29th, we crossed back into the U.S. There wasn’t much to it except that we were coming in to Alaska for the first times of our lives.

When we pulled up, the man from the building came into the RV and checked our passports. He matched our pictures to us. If I was that guy, I’d be having fun. Poor Greta was doing algebra. I was excited to be entering Alaska.

June 28th, after the ferry, we went to stay at a campground right across the river. There were a few down sides to it. First, there were only outhouses, not bathrooms. Second, there weren’t any hookups at all. Third, there were tons of mosquitoes.

But there was a playground, even if it was small and there were millions of mosquitoes. And the outhouses had strawberry-scented air fresheners. My sisters and I had fun on the playground until I played so hard that the calluses on my hands started bleeding. Then we went inside, and went to bed. I slept great to wake up early in the morning and set off for the journey to Alaska.