Valdez, AK

We arrived in Valdez, AK on Tuesday (8/3/10). We are spending 5 nights here. Our campground site gives us a view of the waterway into the port of Valdez. They have a fish hatchery outside of town. Three years ago they released some pink salmon, and they are now returning from the ocean to spawn. You can catch them if you want, but they are at the end of their life cycle, so they are really only good for smoking or canning, so I didn’t bother catching any. The bear don’t seem to care that the fish are near the end of their life, so they tend to hang around the hatchery to eat.
In 1964 Valdez had a bad earthquake that wiped out the dock and part of the town, and killed about 34 people. It was determined that the rest of the town was unsafe after the earthquake, so they moved the town about 4 miles down the road. We visited the site of the original town, but there isn’t much there other than some foundations.
Yesterday the Valdez museum put on a demonstration on how to make jam out of salmon berries (similar to blackberries). About 10 of us collected the berries (while watching for bears), at then went back to the museum to make the jam. Nan and I ended up with 3 jars.

Tonight Nan found a guy (with a tip jar) that had a hawk and an owl. Nan was able to have the hawk sit on her arm. Prior to that I was getting something out of the truck and heard a seagull squawking. I looked up and it was chasing an eagle that had one of the seagulls friends in it's claws. I asked the tip-jar guy why an eagle would choose a seagull over all the fish that are around here now. He said the seagull must have been sick or injured. We'll go with that theory.