Saturday, July 23, 2011 Valdez, Alaska

After the long and busy day yesterday, it was good to have a free day and do and see things we wanted to see.  It is a cool day but we did take a tour of the city, which wasn't that much as it is so small, but the gal gave us the history of how this town is the second one.  The first Valdez was destroyed because of an earthquake.  The ground is very soft and even from what we heard, the present location would suffer as greatly if they had another quake.  They had moved some of the better buildings to their new locations and the rest of them they had to burn so there is nothing but a couple slabs of cement to show that a building existed in the old town.  Part of our tour was a trip to the fish hatchery.  Don't have any pictures as there wasn't a lot to see.  They hatch 320,000 eggs a season.  As they grow, they keep putting them in bigger and bigger tanks as well as separating them more.  Then they are put out to grow and head out to the ocean where they live 5 - 7 years before they head back to where they were hatched, lay their eggs and die.  It is a very sad life that the Salmon's live. 



















We found this beautiful little waterfall just outside town.  Had to take a picture!!!










 After running around all day, our group put on an Italian potluck dinner and what a variety of food we had.  Bruce grilled Italian Sausage which was a huge hit.  Another fun get together.




Again, we went out looking for the bears near where the salmon are coming in to spawn.  The little guy came out again; however, due to the high tide, he didn't catch a fish and went back into the woods to wait and try it again. 












One of the fisherman threw him a fish when he came out so he wouldn't go running after all the people that were standing and watching him.  Like we've never seen a bear before - right!!!

We are off for Tok so need to get some rest as it will be a long drive - 254 miles.  Driving an RV, it takes longer and the roads aren't suppose to be that good.