A Whittier Fourth

I had Independence Day off this year.  Hooray!  Rebecca and I decided to visit Whittier, a small town on Prince William Sound.  It's pretty close to Anchorage, only about an hour away, but I'd never been there before.

Welcome to Mordor

The fun thing about Whittier is that you have to go through a tunnel which is only open at certain times so you have to watch the schedule or you might have to stay longer than you wanted.  We had decided to have a picnic, but when I woke up the day was gray and rainy.  We went anyway but decided to have our "picnic" in the car parked in front of a waterfall.

My view from the car

After lunch we wandered around a bit.  The water was exceptionally beautiful, an interesting gray color.  We drove around the town, taking maybe ten minutes, and bought some fudge before heading back to the tunnel.

My mom bought me that raincoat

Maybe old mining junk?

On the other side of the tunnel there's a visitor center for glaciers, and we popped in.

I made a friend

Pieces of glacier floating around

Ooh

Glacier!

On the way back to Anchorage, we pulled off at a little lake.  In nicer weather, it would be a great picnic spot as well.  The gorgeous water was only marred by a few seagulls floating on its lightly rippled surface.  Dang seagulls. 

That night I joined my small group for games and a cookout.  Looking back on it, I had a very traditional fourth.  Picnic, games, bbq.  The only things missing was the volleyball/baseball and swimming.  Oh, and the fireworks.  They had a firework ban.  I guess you can't win them all.