For the week of my birthday, I decided to go to work with my wonderful husband and take a trip out to the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. I’ve always been fascinated with the history of the islands and thought a free trip out would be the best way to see them. Plus, it enabled me to spend my birthday with Paul. It sure bet spending the day alone, or worse, working.
We left Homer on Tuesday the 18th of September. The first few days, the weather was beautiful. There was beautiful scenery and lots of wild life to see. We saw literally hundreds of otters. Later in the trip we saw a pod of whales. I was watching the whales through the binoculars and didn’t get any pictures, but it was pretty cool. There were lots of them.
The villages were also beautiful. Some were fishing villages and looked almost empty. Most if not all of the seasonal residents were gone and they looked like boarded up ghost towns.
Even though Chignik was pretty deserted, it was still a beautiful setting.
Along the way, I got to spend a bunch of time on the bridge. I didn’t get to steer this time, but I did get to sit in the captain’s chair. The bridge had the best view on the ship.
However, after a few days it did get a little repetitious. Luckly I had a few good books along with me.
Once we got out on the islands, there were no more trees. Even without the trees, it was still beautiful. However, I can’t imagine living in a place again with no trees.
There was also a lot of cool mountain/volcano scenery.
Castle Cape
Aghileen Pinnacles
When we arrived on Dutch Harbor, Paul had rented me a car as a birthday present so I could get out and see the island. Dutch Harbor/Unalaska and the surrounding islands have a huge military history.
The islands are the only part of the United States that have been occupied by enemy troops. Parts of the Aleutian Islands were occupied by the Japanese during WW II. Dutch Harbor is full of left over military relics. As you drive and hike over the island, you see them all over.
The Greek Orthodox Church also has a great presence on the islands that dates back to when Russia owned the area.
While the first few days were beautiful, the last half of the trip wasn’t quite as nice. The wind and the waves picked up on Friday night. I was OK with the 6-8 foot waves on Friday night, but Saturday night was a different story. I was OK when I went to dinner, but after dinner I think I did a bit too much reading with the waves, because my stomach got a little queazy. I got to taste dinner twice. I have to say it was a lot better the first time.
The next few days the waves got worse. At one point we got a few 30 foot waves. Anything not fastened down was rolling around. The funny thing is I didn’t get sick after the first time.
Even though I got sick, I would still go out again. It was great to see a part of Alaska that I hadn’t seen before.
