They were all yellow | Day 2

Today I woke up at around 9 am. I just had to ask Parth that. And he claims that he woke up at 7 am and madam woke up at 9. So I will take his word for it because I definitely do not recall looking at the watch this morning. Who does that anyway on a lazy vacation? I brushed my teeth and started packing up for the day.

Let me back up there a second. We were staying at an airbnb in Anchorage. We had arrived there the night before. The airbnb was a bit hard to locate in the night because the house number was not visible. The host had sent a curt message with the room number key and wifi password. The main door said — “Do not slam the door”. Remaining instructions were on the fridge — “Do not use dishes that are not allotted to you”, “Quiet hours are 10 pm- 7 am”, “Clean up after you are done using the kitchen”. Overall the placed seemed to be good and to be doing its job. We were able to get water for the night which seemed like was coming from a RO machine. We debated on what to do the next day and first looked at the weather forecast. We were a bit disappointed because the forecast showed cloud cover and rain for the entire day tomorrow. So we did not spend a whole lot of time planning. And crashed.

Back to the morning, Parth went looking for coffee and came back to tell me that there isn’t a coffee maker. Which is when I joined him in the kitchen to look for one. The kitchen had nice details and all the notes on how to operate the kitchen were on the fridge. I then opened the fridge — I am not sure why I did that frankly. Probably because there were notes about what not to do all over the house and somehow the fridge seemed like it was a common property. I was probably looking for any shareable items or if there is a “breakfast” in this air-bed-&-breakfast. There was this massive crate of eggs like those 60 ones. I debated with Parth whether or not we could use it, after all we were not in India where sharing food is second nature. And he was of the opinion, we most likely could, if we weren’t supposed to there would have been a note about it. I hesitated but decided to take a few of them and turn them into a delicious omelette. We also found instant coffee and hot water, creamer and sugar by the side. We were missing a crisp toast and butter but were also lazy to run to the store to call it a nice breakfast. We sat on the dining table and discussed plans for the day. We debated between doing the Glacier tours in Whittier or in Kenai Fjords. We settled on doing it from Whittier. So we had the day at hand. While I was eating my breakfast came the message from our host via airbnb — pay me 20$. So I was like what for? And he said the food. I was like — “are you watching me from somewhere I don’t know” and he said he is in the house and could “smell” the food. In my gut I still felt very uncomfortable like I am under some kind of cctv surveillance. The host and I got into an argument. He said his guests often rudely help themselves with the food and I was like of the 1000 notes that are ongoing here why not add a note — “do not use items in the fridge” to which he replied there wasn’t a note either stating — “use the items in the fridge”. In all this I forgot why did I get scared? I was unable to analyze this. And hours later when I was thinking about it I realized — ok if he was to be believed, maybe he did smell the eggs. But how on earth did he smell that that were his eggs and not something that we had bought ourselves? This uncomfortable experience ruined the first half of my day. I did pay him the 20$ and fled the property as something did not seem right in my gut.

Moments later we were in the car and the sun shined bright on us to our surprise. The drive to Bass Pros was beautiful. The mountains looked bright, mighty and pretty with their tops clad in pure white snow. We ate a burger in a food court and purchased a Type A to C cable for car charging. Then we started our drive to Whittier. On the way we stopped at Potter’s Marsh. This was a beautiful boardwalk with spectacular views of the mountains which had fall colors on the foothills. Next stop was Turn again arm trail. We parked and went up and realized we had forgotten our bear sprays. Every party that passed us had one in their hands. We chickened out a little. So we decided to go back. But not without taking lot of picture of the forest foliage which was crimson and yellow. Next stop was Mchugh river. Clearwater and a hike up — probably 2 miles with decent elevation. We took a ton of pictures on the top. It was gorgeous up the there. Expansive, breathtaking views.

I suppose we took a little too much time in getting those pics. When we were back we were trying to plan the rest of our day and realized we could not make it to Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center also called as AWCC. Nor did we have enough sunlight left to do the Trail of Blue ice. A hike recommended by a few of our friends. It was raining, but we decide to at least do the Byron glacier hike. We put on our rain pants and coats on top of our normal clothing and head straight into the rain. It was a flat hike with occasional puddles that greeted us. At the end of some two miles was an ice cave. Frozen snow that had taken the shape of a cave and there was a creek flowing from underneath it over a million tiny rocks. We found ourselves in the middle of nowhere. Surrounded by mountains, rocks beneath my feet, snow beneath my butt (I was literally chilling on the frozen snow) , clouds above us and rain that kept us company. And that is the feeling of perhaps sitting in the lap of nature. We took a few moments to soak it in. Oh and speaking of nature, we wanted to also go back quickly because we were losing light. Same hike only back this time. Sat in the car, undressed the rain gear part and headed to Whittier.

There is a one way tunnel named Anderson tunnel perhaps which opens 30 mins on the hour for one side and 30 for the next. In total we needed to wait for some ten minutes only before it was turn. The tunnel is really long. But finally we were able to see the light at the end. I actually captured this on time lapse too. Then we arrived at our Inn in Whittier. An Alaskan native named Marchie greeted us. She was a very fine lady and she showed us to our room. Room number 17 on the second floor which overlooks these majestic Alaska mountains. Between this moment to now as I am writing, several things happened like — I formally wrote to Airbnb describing what happened, I went back to the car looking for a water bottle that I could not find. I went to the grocery store on the first floor to buy bread and cheese, I forgot my credit card there so I had to run back to get it, I had forgotten to check the trunk for the water bottle so I made that trip again. I did not find the bottle but in rush I brushed my puffer jacked against something that was pointy enough to tear it. I was sad because it is an expensive piece of clothing and is new too. I ate a Subway sandwich for dinner. I went to see Marchie again to tell her the that heating was not working which has been since fixed. Then I let Parth know I tore the jacket and he was unfazed with his reply — “vandho nai” which means nothing to worry. Somewhere in between I also applied shoe glue to my Keen boots which seemed to have a tear. I finally hopped onto the bed to write about today. I forgot to mention why did I title this — “they were all yellow”. Because on our way back from the Byron glacier we took a picture and realized that that picture had so much yellow. Both our rain jackets were yellow and the trees that adorned that picture were yellower. When I looked at that picture is when I thought of that title. And then I typed it and first thing I asked Parth was — “hey, so what time did I wake up today”

And that’s a wrap people from Anchor Inn, Room 17 in Whittier Alaska.

Night,

Kaul