Starr Treks: Alaska trip Sunday 6/21/15 Valdez AK

STARR TREKS Sunday 6/21/15 Valdez

We got laundry done last night, sheets and towels this morning. We had checked at the RV office for a list of churches— the earliest one started at 10:30, others were at 11, so we decided on the early one. We had not yet visited the Maxine and Jesse Whitney museum located at the Prince William Sound Community College— it opened at 9, so we figured we had time to do that before church. Everything is like 5 minutes away here — we were the only ones in the museum at 9 am. The museum was wonderful. This couple had moved to Alaska in 1947, and eventually bought a native art museum/store from a lady friend, Alma Eades in Fairbanks in 1969. The couple had gotten interested in collecting native art and artifacts for Alma’s store, so were happy to get the business. They would go where construction was going on, and pick up ancient mastodon tusks sticking out of the earth. The natives started producing more art for tourists, and they would buy things up. The Whitneys continued to buy and collect more items from all over Alaska — even little Eskimo villages. In 1990 Jesse died, and Maxine decided to move her collection to Valdez. The museum has a lot of native art, artifacts, arrow heads & other prehistoric native items, snowshoes, sleds, native dolls that were created for early tourists, cribbage boards made from Walrus ivory, masks made of fossilized whalebone, many beautiful small ivory figures carved also for early tourists, a huge collection of taxidermy of native animals — they had one area with a sample of fur from each type of animal to touch— so that you would not touch the animals on display! One display differentiated art and artifact — art is free from function and is art for art’s sake. Objects that are useful like beaded moccasins, are considered applied arts or artifacts. Maxine said “western culture used these categories to hold its art above the art of others, but many Alaska Native objects have purpose and many objects people might call artifacts are beautifully made”. The museum was just a pleasure to visit, and they even gave away a booklet with the Whitney’s story for free.

It was not quite 10 AM, so we decided to look for the church we planned to attend — we could not find it— in such a small town. So we went back to the RV park to get directions. We got there about 10:20 — it was a little storefront church of Christ— there were only about 4-5 cars parked out in front. I read the sign on the door, and it said that the service was at 9:30!! We weren’t sure if we would get “credit” for church just by trying to go. So we stopped back at the Visitor Center and asked where we could go to church. Bayside Community church was just a block away— also a storefront church in a little strip mall. There were more cars here tho. So we went in, and were greeted warmly by several people. One lady came over — she worked at the Visitor Center, so we met her the day we arrived. Her name is Leslie. I enjoyed the service. They had a decent piano, had a decent pianist, and sang songs we knew— Grace Greater than Our Sin, Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah, I need thee every hour. The minister, Tim White, looked to be early to mid 40’s, and gave a nice sermon on the “Privilege of Fatherhood”. There were about 50 people attending — tended to be a younger congregation than our church at home— several families with school age kids, teens, and not so many old people like us! Their pastor’s last Sunday is next week — they don’t have anyone lined up yet. It was a nice service.

After lunch, we went exploring some places that Leslie, the Visitor center lady had told us about. We first drove up to Valdez Glacier Lake— it was only about 5 miles away, partly gravel road. When we arrived, there were several other cars there— kayakers — who would be able to get a lot closer to the Valdez Glacier visible from the shore. There were little ice floes in the lake, tho the water did not feel all that cold. We had hoped there would be areas to hike there, but we just went a little ways around the lake, and the path ended.

We then drove over to Old Valdez, the city that got decimated by the earthquake and tsunami in 1964. The road had a lot of potholes, so we walked part of it. They had posts with pictures of what buildings used to be there, some foundations, an old rusty ship, and remnants of the old harbor. They had a memorial to the people who died on that day — many were children who had run to the dock when a ship had come in. It was sort of somber plus it was a pretty gray day again. We drove on further to the Solomon Gulch fish hatchery for the “self guided tour”— didn’t take too long, since we are too early for fish. We did see one big seal in the water. We drove on to the end of the road at Allison Point— this is where the Alyeska pipeline terminal is — it is no trespassing — said the FBI would get you if you did! We had missed the old Pioneer Cemetery of old Valdez, so we located the dirt road to that— lots more potholes. There was one other car actually there. I took a picture of one gravestone and Larry was walking ahead of me — I looked up, and about 20 feet away was a mother grizzly bear with 3 cubs— I squeaked out —“Larry — bear!” and headed back to the gate. He didn’t hear me and I said “BEAR” a little louder and then he saw what I was talking about. We were both shaking too much to take a photo. The couple in the other car just watched!!! So I did not get to see the whole Pioneer Cemetery as I had hoped!

Tomorrow we head for Anchorage and plan to spend a week there.