On Saturday...Pt. 1

On Saturday, Gordo and I decided that we could take a day to explore what we could of Alaska. So we rented a car, got ourselves some boots and headed south. We took Seward Highway, named after Lincoln's Secretary of State, William H. Seward. Or maybe it's named after the town south of Anchorage named Seward (which was named after the Secretary). Why so much Seward? A little something called the Alaska Purchase. At the time, it was called Walrus-sia (the Russians sold us Alaska - get it?!) or Seward's Icebox or Seward's Folly and even a 'sucked orange'. However, at two cents an acre (about $7.2M), it turns out to have been a great buy.

Our furthest point south was Portage, a town that was inundated by eight feet of seawater when everything shifted in the great 1964 earthquake. Now, the area is known for a lake with at least four glaciers. Because of much warmer temperatures lately, the glaciers are barely visible from the lake. Also, being winter, the snow covers up the ice-cold blue of a glacier. In the photo below, there's a glacier behind us and to the right of our heads.