Alaska: Part Six "Little Switzerland"

My hometown has a nick-name: The Little Switzerland of Alaska.

Valdez (named after a Spaniard, but pronounced with a hard "e") is nestled in a fjord. Fjords are also found in Switzerland, Italy, Scandinavia, Canada, New Zealand, Croatia, Maine and Washington (basically, all the most breath taking places!) Fjords are long, narrow inlets with steep sides, created in a valley carved by glacial activity. It rains so much in Valdez, that everything is always very green and you can see snow on the mountaintops, year round.

Valdez is the most beautiful place in the world and I get misty eyed and heart palpitations, just being in love with that spot! Isn't it so adorable, hugging the mountain as if it would fall into the sea? Wait, it did that once, actually.

On Good Friday 1964, a 9.2 earthquake caused the land Valdez was built on to liquify, dropping into the sea. The displaced water formed a 30 ft. tsunami, killing 32 people on the dock, as they were waiting for the supply ship. Sixty remaining houses were moved to the present site of Valdez, a site which was not built on glacial silt.

OK, so if you look out where the sound meets the ocean, you can almost see where the Oil Tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in 1989, spilling 10.8 million gallons of crude oil. The oil coated the an area of the Alaskan shore the size of California, killing all the wildlife . . . just imagine sticky, black oil floating on top of the sea water with dead animals washing up for miles. Lovely.

OK, I've let the two infamous things about my sweet little town out of the bag. Let's move on.

I've always loved the Anne of Green Gables books and wished I could see Prince Edward Island in Canada . . . but today I realized that Anne's got nothin' on us, baby!

So here's my EXCITING NEWS!! I'm headed to Alaska 4 days after I get back from the Trek! I only have to pay $100 because we had enough frequent flyer miles. I'll stay with my best friend, Emily and her family. I'm thrilled to spend more time with her adorable daughters. This is the response I hope I get when they see me, so start coaching them now, Em!

"Yay! Aunt Sarah is here! Take us for a ride in Daddy's 'Stang! He parked it right behind us, just for you!"

(Maybe you can work this out with Brett, Em!!)

Emily and I will sell "Tundra Cotton Candy" at her local fair one day, with our two midgit assistants. Then, we're ditching her family and taking a "Girl's Trip" on the ferry, to Valdez, for about 2 days. I haven't been to my hometown since 1994 and I am so excited! I know Emily will miss her little cuties, but I'll try and keep her busy enough that she doesn't cry herself to sleep at night.
Yes, we'll be leaving, you too, little Miss Serious! Don't give me that look!

I leave Wed. July 16th, arriving in Anchorage at 7:31pm. I go home Tues. the 22nd at 1:45pm . . . the perfect amount of time to rejuvenate myself. I only wish we had enough miles for Damian to go, too. After this trip, I'm going to start saving my miles for 2012, my 20 year class reunion. I really want to take my whole family to that.