On the way, we stopped at Beluga Point to look for whales.
While we didn't see any belugas, we did see some other awesome creatures. Can you spot them in the rocks?
Let me zoom that for you:
DALL SHEEP! Aren't they cute? They just happened to be next on my Alaskan wildlife "to see" list. Next up, wolverines. Andy's thrilled about that one. I think that'll take me about 20 years of searching.
After meandering along the inlet and seeing tons of sheep, we got to Girdwood and headed up the most ridiculous dirt road full of potholes to get to the mine.
Definitely better than the tourist place that's right on the highway, the little mining town was totally adorable. According to our guide who looked and acted just like Kenneth from 30 Rock (this guy), some of the buildings had been there since the 1890s. That's basically prehistoric in Alaska terms!
For $20, you get a pan, other necessary equipment, a brief lesson, and some dirt with guaranteed gold. Bargain!
After our excellent tutorial, we got to work looking for gold. I think Miranda did the best. She was extremely focused.
Nick was having more fun with it. As any avid watcher of "Gold Rush" knows, education is not a prerequisite for miners.
Once we picked our three tiny gold flecks out of each of our pans, "Kenneth" sent us loose to the creek to pan our hearts out.
A little chilly, but a great place to kill time and strike it rich! The scenery couldn't be beat.
We quickly put our skills to test:
All Ripley wanted to do was pull sticks out of the creek (or try anyway):
When he originally directed us to the creek, "Kenneth" told us we might want to stay away from "death hill." Once we looked up from our chosen location, we realized what he meant. There were rocks and trees tumbling down the hill toward us. Not surprisingly, we exhibited great judgment and we stayed directly in the path of destruction.
We panned in the super cold water for about an hour. As Miranda said, it was an excellent lesson in futility. So much dirt, so little gold.
Ultimately Andy was the only successful one. Here he is with his big find:
Andy decided to abandon the river and go panning directly in my wallet. Jerk.
After gold mining, we headed to Whittier to have lunch. It's only about 20 minutes in actual time from Girdwood, not counting the fact that you have to wait in line to go through a tunnel to get there. We did not know this about going to Whittier, so we sat in line.
Ripley was not amused.
In case you can't tell, it was raining outside. What happened to our amazing weather??!
Eventually, after waiting about 30 minutes in line (you have to wait because the tunnel is only one way!), we got into the tunnel. Nick threatened to hold his breath, but I'm glad he didn't because it probably would have killed him. It was about 10 minutes to get through.
On the other end, we ended up in Whittier. It's a cute town when it's not raining, which I hear is never.
Don't worry, people were still out fishing.
The highlight was lunch - I think it was the best fish and chips I've ever had. I will definitely be back just for the food!
After all our running around, we headed home and when we got there, we found a big surprise in the yard. You have to wait until tomorrow to see what it was!
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