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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, AUGUST 4, 2017
WEEKEND
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BIG, BIG, BIG STATE
STUNS THE TRAVELER
By STEVE FORRESTER
EO Media Group
I
’m not sure what I expected from our
fi rst trip to Alaska. The place is not
that far away. But it is a world away.
Big, big, big is our take on Alaska.
The grandeur of the place stunned my
wife and me. Denali National Park is
Yosemite on steroids. Mt. Denali itself
could contain three Mt. Rainiers, and it’s
6,000 feet higher.
In planning our trip, my wife admit-
ted to being overwhelmed
with options. Thanks to local
advice from Steve Fick of
Fishhawk Fisheries and Rox-
anne Fick, a former Alas-
kan who is a travel agent, my
wife pieced together an itin-
erary that was manageable
and diverse.
We fl ew to Fairbanks, from which
we caught the Alaska Railroad to Denali
National Park. The train took us on to
Anchorage, from which we drove to
Seward for the Fourth of July, thence to
Homer and fi nally to the City of Kenai.
Landing in Fairbanks on June 27, we
entered the night of never-ending sun-
light. Unfortunately, we had missed the
annual Midnight Sun baseball game, in
which the Fairbanks Goldpanners played
the San Diego Waves.
At about 2 a.m. on our fi rst night in
a cabin by the Chena River, there was a
moment of twilight and then the dawn.
Fairbanks restaurant tip: Geraldo’s offers
an excellent Italian cuisine. And the Chena
River Grill was quite good seafood.
The Alaska Railroad is one of the won-
ders of this state, which purchased it from
the federal government in 1985. Its pas-
senger cars maximize window opportuni-
ties. And at the back of the cars are open-
air platforms — a delight for viewing
the passing landscape. Unlike its Amtrak
cousins, the Alaska RR offers great cook-
ing in its on-board restaurants. The rail
journey from Fairbanks to Denali offered
stunning views and wildlife sightings.
One may have the Denali experience
entirely without renting a car. In fact, cars
do not enter the park, which is a smart
thing, and probably a strategy Yosemite
will eventually imitate. On our bus trip
we saw caribou, Dall sheep and grizzlies.
But seeing Mt. Denali itself would wait
for another day.
‘Seward’s Folly’
That day arrived as our train moved
south, on its way to Anchorage. Huge.
Majestic. Denali, the mountain, revealed
itself in stages, during a half hour of train
travel.
The 9.2 earthquake of Good Friday
1964 is a fresh memory in Anchorage.
Mike Stinebaugh and Charlotte Fox said
that when they moved to the city, people
spoke of the earthquake as though it hap-
pened yesterday. The vestiges of that day
are profound.
I met Charlotte some 15 years ago at
a Western Arts Association meeting. Her
husband’s sister, Sara Wisti, lives in Asto-
ria. On Charlotte’s recommendation, we
toured the Anchorage Art Museum as well
as the Museum of the North in Fairbanks.
Both of these museums are fi rst-class.
Photos by Brenda Penner
LEFT: Above Homer, looking across Kachemak Bay. RIGHT: The multi-talented Marian Beck on the dock below the Saltery
Restaurant. Beck runs the Saltery and creates paintings, ceramics and jewelry displayed in a nearby gallery.
fi reworks display. The start time was all
about maximum darkness, which resem-
bled our twilight. The atmosphere that
night was heavy, so the smoke from the
fi reworks hung in the air.
found our way to the Saltery, a restaurant
in Halibut Cove. One gets there by way
of a World War II vintage wooden boat,
the Danny J. On the way across Kache-
mak Bay we saw a profusion of tufted and
crested puffi ns, common murres, cormo-
rants, harlequin ducks and guillemots on
Gull Island.
At Halibut Cove we met the most
remarkable person of our trip: Marian
Beck, who runs the Saltery while also cre-
ating paintings, ceramics and jewelry that
were displayed in a nearby gallery. Beck
has also written and illustrated a cook-
book, and she manages the island’s water
system. My wife asked Beck: “When do
you sleep?”
An array of wildlife
‘A wonderful spirit among us’
ALASKA
Area in
detail
6
Denali,
20,310 feet:
Highest point
in N. America
AL
K
AS
A
Fairbanks
2
3
DENALI
NATIONAL
PARK
E
NG
A
R
3
North-to-
south route
starting in
Fairbanks
1
Anchorage
Valdez
Kenai
9
1
Homer
Seward
KENAI
FJORDS
NAT’L PARK
f Alaska
Gulf o
N
50 miles
Alan Kenaga/EO Media Group
They depict the natural history of Alaska
as well as its political and cultural his-
tory. Most of us remember that Secretary
of State William Seward bought Alaska
from Russia and that it became known as
“Seward’s Folly.” Few of us know much
about Russia’s long colonization of this
vast place.
Our next stop, Seward, resembles
Astoria in its active waterfront. The
town’s population is 2,538, but the fi sh-
ing boat population moored at Seward
seemed to be twice that of Astoria.
At midnight — as the calendar clicked
to the Fourth of July — Seward did its
Seward’s great opportunity is a boat
excursion into the Kenai Fjords National
Park. Sitting next to us on that boat was a
couple from Switzerland. Across from us
was a family from India. Behind us was a
group of six French speakers.
We sailed into Resurrection Bay
toward Chat Island and up to the Aialik
Glacier, where we observed large chunks
falling into the water, creating the sound
akin to gun or cannon shots. Along the
way we observed a spectacular array of
wildlife including otters, a large pod of
orcas and humpback whales, puffi ns and
mountain goats.
Of all our Alaskan destinations, Homer
was the most spectacular setting — on a
giant body of water with mountains loom-
ing behind. While shopping, we saw col-
orfully dressed Russian Old Believers,
who have migrated here in recent years.
With our guide Gary Sinnhuber, we
fi shed the Ninilchik River. Sinnhuber
lived in Astoria until the age of four. His
father worked with Duncan Law at the
Oregon State University Seafood Labo-
ratory. As we began our fi shing at about
4 a.m., a moose and two calves came
toward us, walking down the riverbank.
These animals are so large that the young
one was as large as a pony. We enjoyed
excellent fi shing, which produced that
night’s dinner.
Thanks to a tip from Charlotte Fox, we
The Pratt Museum is Homer’s hidden
gem. Its exhibit on the Exxon Valdez oil
spill of 1989 is disturbing. By depicting
the magnitude of the spill on a piece of
black plastic, the visitor may place that
marker anywhere on a map of the U.S.
To our surprise, the oil spill spanned an
area from northern Washington to north-
ern California.
The Pratt’s exhibit on homesteading
was most affecting, and its artifacts sum-
moned memories of my grandparents’ life
in Alaska. Of that time, my Grandmother
Forrester said: “We were surprised when
descriptions of our time in Alaska sounded
to others as a hard life. It didn’t seem so to
us. We were physically strong, and there
was a wonderful spirit among us.”
We went to Kenai to see the place and
to see Steve Fick, proprietor of Astoria’s
Fishhawk Fisheries. Fick has an adjunct
Alaska facility that he operates for one
month. Fick is a master of seeing oppor-
tunity in an asset that someone else is dis-
carding. His Kenai building sits high on a
ridge overlooking the Cook Inlet.
Restaurant tip: Louie’s. While the
diner communes with stuffed wildlife,
he enjoys hearty breakfast (reindeer sau-
sage) and tasty dinner entrées. The tem-
pura shrimp is fabulous. Eat at Louie’s
early on a July morning, and you’ll fi nd
Fick at a booth near the entrance — his
Kenai offi ce.
THE ALASKA RAILROAD IS A WONDER. UNLIKE ITS
AMTRAK COUSINS, ITS RESTAURANT COOKING IS FABULOUS.