We woke up this morning to low clouds and fog. It was cloudy all day and rained off and on. We drove Dayville Road to see how the camping was on it and stopped at the Salmon Gulch Fish Hatchery. There must have been 10,000 seagulls eating salmon. The smell was horrendous. We decided the camping there wasn't for us and stayed at the Valdez Glacier City Campground. We drove to the Old Valdez townsite. Valdez was heavily damaged in the 1964 earthquake and the town was rebuilt in a different location with more stable ground. The old town was burned to the ground. We drove down one of the roads next to a stream with spawning salmon and we saw a momma black bear and three cubs.
We drove to Valdez Glacier and there was ice floating in the lake. Kayakers were getting ready to paddle out to the glacier. They looked very colorful amid the low clouds, fog and icebergs. We drove into town and stopped at the USFS fish spawning view area where there was another bear. The Forest Service has a camera mounted under the water for everyone to be able to see the fish. We stopped at the information center and asked where the best place for fish and chips was and was told Alaska Halibut House. We went there and shared a large order for lunch. Then we drove to the harbor and looked around. Afterward we went to the Valdez Museum and the Remembering Old Valdez Exhibit. Both were very good and the latter had a 35 minute movie on the 1964 earthquake and the history of Valdez. We saw the Peter Toth Indian carving. He has carvings like these in all 50 states. Then we went to the Maxine and Jesse Whitney Museum that has artifacts from Alaska which include minerals, carvings, baskets, dolls, stuffed animals, and mammoth bones. They were collected by the Whitneys for their shop in Fairbanks and then were donated for a museum.
We decided to drive back out Dayville Road to see if there were any bears out this afternoon eating salmon. Sure enough we found a lone black bear stuffing itself with the abundant salmon. He was fun to watch -- he caught the fish with no trouble.
At 8 pm I was telling Jim if it wasn't raining I would go to town to get some vanilla ice cream to go with the raspberries we picked. Just a few minutes later we heard an ice cream truck's jingle. A bright pink Miss Peggy's truck came into the campground up and down every road. I stood by our drive and waited for her, just like we did as children. I bought her last carton of vanilla ice cream. She also has espresso, hot soup and some other food. She told us that Sarah Palin and Greta Van Susteren (of Fox News) would be in Valdez tomorrow. Maybe we will see them.
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