After our shows were knocked out (Anchorage went well, but the Palmer kids and teachers were kinda snots), Mike holed up in our Anchorage hotel room to work on his screenplay, and I hit the road for sights unseen. (Apologies. I had pictures, but Walgreens severely screwed up the processing and printing. So this will be purely textual.)

I drove out to a ski resort in Girdwood and rode a tram up the mountainside. Trust me, the views were awesome. The pictures will eventually reveal just how awesome. Man, who’s gonna care about Alaska pictures if I post ‘em weeks after the fact? Fucking Walgreens. But hey, I saw Marmot from the tram!

While on the tram, I overheard a guy telling someone that he saw Beluga whales while riding down the Seward Highway one time. He described them as little white bumps that’d come up out of the water occasionally. He initially thought they were white caps, just waves.

I had this in my head as I drove back down the Seward Highway toward Anchorage, and I occasionally glanced out at the water, idly wondering if I’d spot something. Sure enough, I saw the little white bumps just when I came upon an overlook, so I swerved off the road, parked, and spent an hour snapping pictures of Beluga whales – probably almost a dozen of them – as crowds amassed around me. I got lots of pictures, but they all look like little white bumps in the water. There were two whales that came super close, but I wasn’t fast enough to capture them.

Mike was jealous. He had been wanting to see wildlife the whole time. The first time he decides to stay in, I go up the tram and see Belugas off of the Seward Highway. Figures.