Valdez

We drove down to Valdez into rain, fog and clouds. It was just cloudy at the campground but once we went over Thompson Pass, the clouds settled down on top of the mountains into the bay so we couldn't see anything. It was a disappointing day all the way around. Valdez is supposed to be really pretty surrounded by snow-capped mountains and blue ocean. We did see part of the Worthington Glacier, salmon crowded into the mouth of a stream but no bears to catch them, and a glimpse of sea otters but not the sea lions we heard barking in the bay. The town of Valdez is very small with few shops. We used the library wi-fi to catch up on email, etc. and then we drove back to the RV.

As I was sitting by the fire before supper, I got to thinking about home and summer and how it is so different here than in Missouri. Summer is supposed to be sunny, dry, humid, green burnt to brown, hot days and warm nights. But, here in Alaska, that is not what it feels like.

Summer is lush green springtime or very early summer feeling. Flowers such as petunia, iris, lilacs, lupine and fireweed abound. The forests are like a rain forest with lots of ground cover, ferns and grasses. There are mostly aspen, birch and cottonwood and at higher elevations you find spruce and other evergreens and willow.

The air has a autumn feel to me. We have warm days, not hot, and very cool nights. If the temperature rises to near 70 it is only for a short time. Most often a breeze comes up that cools the warm air.   It seems that there are more cloudy and rainy days than sunny.   

When I look at the snow-capped mountains surrounded by clouds, I feel it must be very cold outside, possibly even snowy but it never has been that cold. A roaring fire is nice but not necessary for warmth. Just the crackle, hiss and pop is comforting, gives me a cozy feeling in the outdoors. But, again, it feels like fall.

There is water everywhere -- gurgling streams, and rushing rivers, quiet ponds and lapping lakes, exciting rapids and the cool spray of mist thrown up by the rapids. All this leads to -- mosquitoes! We haven't experienced swarms of the nasty bugs except once in Denali but they are buzzing in your ear or flying in your face almost everywhere. Now, mosquitoes remind me of home!