Alaska Railroad - Anchorage to Seward

We joined our train in Anchorage this morning at 6.30am to travel to Seward.

The 'dome' style two storey carriage was great for viewing the scenery, as was the open area at the back of each carriage.

Breakfast was served in the downstairs dining car as we passed along Turnagain Arm - alongside the road that we travelled  yesterday to visit Portage.

Views across Turnagain Arm varied with the light.  A little more sunshine would have been good!

Nonetheless the light was quite beautiful in places and the views were spectacular.

The Chugach Mountains on the other side of the inlet were more visible than yesterday.

We watched for bald eagles through this area and were eventually rewarded with some sightings.

Here are two eagles in the distance in a tree - with a glacier on the mountain behind..

David managed to capture a closer photo..

As we moved away from the road and into mountain areas only accessible by train, the scenery became more dramatic and we started to see a little more light in the sky.

We had great views of huge glaciers as the train wound around the hillside.

The reflections of the mountains in the surface of Kenai Lake were very beautiful..

Arriving in Seward after a little over four hours, we walked along the edge of the water  to stretch our legs.

Many different boats were coming and going - this is a major port for cruise ships from Seattle and Vancouver as well as day trips into the Kenai National Park Fjords.

This plant is Fireweed - the state flower of Alaska which can be seen growing along the roads and railway and features in most pictures of Alaska in summer.  It added a little colour to this afternoon's rather grey landscape.

Portage Glacier

After a quiet (and wet) morning in Anchorage, we joined a group of people on a bus trip to visit the Portage Lake and Glacier.  We drove there along Turnagain Arm, one of the two 'arms' of Cook Inlet, part of the Pacific Ocean.

It was all rather more grey than we hoped and when we turned off the road to head to the lake, the cloud was unfortunately increasing.

Our boat to go to the glacier was ThePtarmigan..

 

Portage Lake is large and deep, surrounded by mountains.  It is hard to believe but sadly true, that 100 years ago the lake did not exist - the glacier filled the entire valley.  It has retreated amazingly quickly.

We were privileged to be taken very close to the face of the glacier.

Despite the lack of sunshine (in fact it was pouring with rain), it was surprising how blue the ice was deep inside the glacier - an effect caused by the way that the light falls on the ice and on the particles of glacial silt suspended in the ice which block and refract the light.

We felt very privileged to be able to view the glacier from such a close viewpoint.

A long day..and still daylight! (Thurs)

Our day began at 4am with a taxi to the airport for an early flight to Chicago, then on to Anchorage.

This is the view, taken this afternoon,  from the hotel towards the mountains.  As I write this it is 9pm local time, still light and 20 hours since we got up this morning!  We had s few interesting views from the plane..

Firstly this was mist clinging to a river valley early this morning..

Wonderful cloud formations..

The neatest fields as we approached Canada..

Then of course the snowy mountains and glaciers of the northern part of Canada and into Alaska..

We have had time to explore Anchorage a little and one of our first stops was at Ship Creek just below our hotel where salmon are swimming upstream to their spawning grounds.  They are not very easy to see in this photo but each dark streak in the shallows is a good sized fish.

No bears to impede them here, just a few fishermen - although they seemed to be throwing them back..

Our impression was that many of the salmon going upstream at this relatively late stage seemed to be tired and a bit unhealthy looking.

We walked for a while along a path around the coast with a view of FlatTop Mountain.

The wetland areas and mudflats are a haven for birds during migration but all was quiet today.

Time to call it a day I think - a final photo as the sun sets over the water ..

Yves St Laurent at the VMFA

Several weeks ago when we were staying in Richmond I went to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to see the current Yves Saint Laurent exhibition.

The exhibition begins and ends with portraits of the designer himself but mostly it is dedicated to the display of his amazing creations over more than fifty years.

A very talented artist, he would sketch his models and create designs for them - all represented on a large poster with fabric samples suitable for the collection.

I can't claim that I have ever worn anything designed by Yves Saint Laurent but in the 1970's I certainly wore outfits that were heavily influenced by the trends in these designs..

On the other hand, every catwalk collection must have its rare birds and I am not sure that anyone would ever have actually worn this..



Perhaps this is the more wearable version...

The exhibition included a fabulous collection of YSL couture jewellery - some very wearable pieces and some only suitable for the catwalk!

The shapes for forming hats made quite an artistic display in their own right.



The final parts of the exhibition, mostly featuring occasion wear, were organized in jewel colours and looked very impressive..