Sunday, July 31, 2016

Valdez, AK - The Lonesome Fish, the Heffalump and KCHU

We enjoyed walking around the town of Valdez, with its harbor, its interesting cityscape and its amazing influx of people and vehicles. We saw this vehicle, the ‘Heffalump’ in front of the library and crossed the street to see the flags even better. Gary and I put states of the United States that we have visited in our RV tours. Obviously this person puts flags of the countries he or she has visited.

We walked around to see the other side and its list of countries, were discussing them when the window opened, a head popped out and someone said ‘Hi.’ Oops, caught. Nah, fun conversation with the owners. They had actually bought the vehicle in Italy last summer and the flags on it were from the previous owner. They have a blog called the Heffalump and we checked it out. I wish they had invited us in. I wanted to see the interior but, shucks, they didn’t.
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We heard that there were 2 iconic statues in Valdez that we had to see: the ‘Lonesome Fish’ and the ’Whispering Giant.’ Gotta see those. The Lonesome Fish used to be a sign for a fishing outfitting store but the store left and the fish didn’t. They are making a lot of street scape changes this summer and adding some sidewalk designs  - but leaving the iconic Lonesome Fish. It will look great when its finished and give a more trendy, inviting walking vibe to the town. But it’s a mess right now what with the highway construction too.
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The other statue is one by Peter Toth. He’s done stautes throughout the US.
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I finally got my picture of a porcupine. This one stood quite a while and posed for us. He must have known that this was the empty hole in my wildlife sightings.
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But, these characters roam the streets at will. I’ve never seen so many bunnies about. 5 or 6 at a whack in one place and all different colors.
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Then there’s the local radio staion - with a sense of humor.
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If you thought that all of Alaska was proud of its native daughter running for Vice President, you’d be mistaken. Here’s a t-shirt for sale - featured prominantly in the front window of a local gift store.
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We did have one day when the first layer of mountains was visible through the fog and rain. Hey, is that a glint of sunshine on the tallest mountain?
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The water was so still in the small boat harbor that I got this cool reflection.
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While we’re at the harbor, we had to check out the current listings on the Leaderboard for the Halibut and Salmon Derbies.
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Well, yes, there are some mountains around Valdez.
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Another foggy reflection picture.
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Valdez is so easy to walk around and we did that just about every day. So many things to see - we knew we were not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

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