Saturday, May 26, 2007

Alaska Marine Highway, to Juneau

Whittier to Juneau - In the morning I tried to spend some time around Anchorage but decided to wrap it up quickly and head to Whittier. I got just in time for the tunnel crossing. Anton Anderson tunnel connects Portage with Whittier. Whittier used to be solely Naval port, but after cold war ended they closed it down and turned it into new AMHS hub. It is closer to Anchorage than Seward, so they transferred most of the traffic from Seward to Whittier. Whittier is called strangest little town in Alaska. All people that work live in one building. That's it. There are no private homes. There are few shops and restaurants, most smaller that Manhattan size studio apartments. There is also one motel, Anchor Inn. It hosts a weirdest little museum I have seen so far. It is one room filled with memorabilia from colonial voyages, WWII, Cold War era and other significant weird Alaskan history stuff. Later that night I boarded MV Kennicott ferry. I got my cabin and went to sleep. Next day we arrived in Yakutat, about midway point to Juneau. I left the ferry to walk around Yakutat, and found that there is one pub and one general store. I stopped at each for different reasons, of course. Ten minutes later I was back on the ferry. Shortly afterwards we moved on to Juneau. I got to see some Orcas, spot some kind of whale in the far far distance and other than that it rained. I spent good deal of the ferry ride reading book and drinking beer. AMHS runs special on Alaska Brewery beers, $2.50 for bottle or tap (12 glass).

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