Almost a week after I was originally supposed to come over on the ferry with the car, I journeyed to Whittier with Mary to pick up the Jeep from the ferry. With all the storms around Alaska, the ferry has been cancelled over and over again. The problem is crossing the Prince William Sound, when there’s a lot of weather, the seas can reach scary heights.
Prince William Sound Ferry Ports
Our usual route is between CDV (Cordova) and WTR (Whittier), then we make the hour drive to Anchorage. The whole journey is beautiful. The ferry ride almost always includes great mountain scenes and iceberg spottings; sometimes it includes whales, porpoises, and lots of bird-life. The drive to Anchorage follows the Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet. Today is was clear and full of yellowing trees. Gorgeous!
It wasn’t as picturesque once we got to Whittier. I guess the saying is true, It’s Always Sh**tier in Whittier. To reach Whittier from Anchorage, you have to travel through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel. It’s a one lane tunnel that travels 2.6 miles through a mountain. Traffic takes turn using the tunnel, 30 minutes for people to travel to Whittier and the next 30 minutes for people to travel out of Whittier. Mary and I decided to head to Whittier a little earlier this morning to make sure that we arrived at the ferry on time. Instead of relying on getting there for the 10:30 tunnel opening, we shot for the 9:30 and almost missed it!
Good thing we didn’t because we found a great place to have second breakfast! I don’t know how I missed noticing the Wild Catch Cafe before (there’s not too many places in Whittier), the only other patron in the cafe told us that they’ve been open for a few years now after the place was renovated from being a house. The friendly patron offered to get us some drinks while the chef/owner was busy in the kitchen but threw up his hands when our requests were a latte and an americano. He retrieved the chef/owner from the kitchen and he took our drink orders and explained to us that for breakfast they only had breakfast sandwiches. Sounds good to me! The friendly patron put on a movie about Prince William Sound for our education and entertainment then helped narrate about the places shown in the film. Hearing I was from Cordova, the friendly patron went on to tell me about the book Snowstruck which is about avalanches and focuses on Cordova. It was a great place to stop, excellent food and great entertainment. The chef/owner invited us back to try one of his burgers, I believe I’ll take him up on that offer.
While Mary and I were on our Whittier excursion, Jonah is still in Cordova at work. Can’t wait for him to get to Anchorage on Friday!
Here’s some photos he sent me today of some bear sightings he had:
Life at Latitude 60.56 