Valdez

July 29, 2010

Valdez is a beautiful city with mountains around and a harbor.

The clouds were very low so the top of the mountain was invisible. We were told that July and August were rainy season. May and June would generally be sunny. The average winter snow fall was about 20 feet. The winter temperature was mild, rarely got down to a single digit.

We walked along the harbor and talked to some fishermen. They were cleaning the red sockeye salmon they caught in nearby Copper River with fishing net. The quota for this year was 40 salmons per month. Auntie Amy, Matt, and I also went to a small museum and walked around town.
In the afternoon, we drove to Valdez Glacier to see some floating ice chunks in the water. The pipeline terminal was off limit for visitors.

We stopped at a pond to watch salmons. The pond was filled with salmon, many were dead. They seemed to have lined up trying to swim upstream. Lots of seagulls were picking on the dead fish.

Everything was expensive here. Gas cost $3.79/gallon. The only grocery store was Eagle (newly acquired by Safeway).

I took Matt to swim at Valdez high school in the evening. The pool was very nice and it was free! Matt had a very good workout. He swam over 4,000 yard with some fast intervals.