More on visitations & whales

There is the steady dripping sound of rain, the occasional cold drop cascading off the brim of my hat down the neck of my coat, mist rising from the bay, the bore tide hurling in like the rushing current of a river. I barely notice the wet as I am focused on the whale footprints, slicks of water like a strange stillness in the midst of the tide's ripples, waiting for the animal to surface. Sleek bodies of gleaming white muscle and of sliver onyx grey and the purple of an unripened plum push the water aside. The smaller ones in their sleekness are playful, rolling and spouting and occasionally slapping the water with their flippers. The larger ones, the mothers of this nursery pod are more purposeful, more directional. I am enraptured by the sight of them and turn away only when it is too dark to see and although the drive before me is long, it is no longer a matter of much concern.

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Froghair & I had a delightful visit. She had two days of gorgeous sunshine during which she got to go out and visit the fjordlands to watch humpack whales, orcas, steller sea lions, harbor seals, sea otters, cormorants, puffins, gulls, and glaciers and hike a local mountain which has stunning views with the Disreputable Dog for company during which they saw 3 black bears including Little Bear, the little black bear which is a bit smaller then the Disreputable Bear and for this reason hangs around the fringes of town because he can't compete for the better habitat. On the weekend the true weather of the local flew it's colors, liquid sunshine as we call it, rainy and wet we succeeded in drenching ourselves several times during the day. We enjoyed leisurely breakfasts in warm stationary cabooses, relaxed in the atmosphere in a church turned coffee house & art gallery, wandered beaches, prepared fruit for drying and talked and talked all the while playing and cuddling with the Disreputable Fur Balls who were disposed to this sort of thing.

The Disreputable Cat has gotten quite good at driving as she has been to Los Anchorage & back at least 4 times in the last 2 weeks and the Disreputable Dog is content in a fresh bale of straw we picked up for him at the feed store and which he has clawed and nosed apart until the nest is to his liking. Now he looks for all the world like a bird in it's comfy nest and he can be hardly bothered to get up when you lift the topper door unless he is certain to be let out for a romp. Of course, the animal Froghair most wanted to see, the moose, was elusive, appearing almost immediately after we had let her off at the airport and were going for our evening walk at the Los Anchorage Dog Park. Next time Froghair! And on the way home, with the bore tide high in Turrnigan Arm, I once again saw the belugas. What a wonderful visit...

Beluga Whales & Old Friends

Yesterday, after work, I headed to Los Anchorage in high anticipation to pick up Froghair (one of the few people here who knows me in real life) who is going be visiting through the end of this week. I am so delighted to see her again! The first time I ever met her she had a Alaskan auto license plate on her wall and expressed her wish to "live in Alaska in a tree-house, have a jeep and a goat". Well, at the time I was interested in backpacking in the state but had never given much thought to living there. So I used this as leverage to get her up to visit me as in "You've wanted to go to Alaska as long as I've known you and I've been here seven years....when are you coming to visit?" And she came!

I was a bit late in picking her up though because as I was driving along the gorgeous Turrnigan Arm I kept spotting flashes of white in the ocean. I knew what they were of course - Beluga Whales! And I absolutely HAD to stop and watch for awhile. White adult belugas swimming against the tide with smaller grayish and purplish baby belugas playfully slapping the water and turning gleeful circles the sun gleaming off of their backs. I have never seen them in such numbers. The belugas in Cook Inlet are supposedly genetically distinct from other populations and they are in trouble for reasons not clearly understood. I felt so awed, so privileged to see them there in the wild, happy and free. And every other worry and anxiety of the week and the day evaporated. And luckily, Froghair is the kind of person who totally understood that I had no choice but to stop.