Alaska Part IX

Wednesday (yes, still only Wednesday) - Portage Glacier

On our way up, before arctic_alpine fell asleep, we agreed to go to check out Portage Glacier.
So about Portage Glacier: When the Portage Glacier Visitors Center was built, it was basically abutting the glacier. Now, you have to take a short boat ride across a brand new lake to even see the ever-retreating hunk of ice. This works out great for the visitors center, because now they can charge people to go see it. Driving to the glacier was fantastic. There are lots of glaciers around there. Really pretty drive.
So... we step inside the Visitors Center where it's full of tourists. And I mean hotel tourists, not hostel tourists. Lots of overweight suburbanites who I haven't seen the likes of since the airport. arctic_alpine gets in line to pay for the last (4:30) tour and I look at a book on Alaskan birds that's for sale (really well-organized and pretty. It's in sections by color!). One of these tourists (I would bet he's from Brooklyn based on his accent and mannerisms) walks up to me and says, "I didn't tell you this, but there's a buy-one-get-one discount on the 4:30 tour. You should tell your girlfriend [sic] that she has to specifically ask for it."

ASIDE: Throughout the trip, everyone kept assuming we were either dating or married - especially at Chabad when arctic_alpine wore a bandana. Even friends of ours asked if we were going out when I told them the two of us were going on a trip together. It wasn't really annoying, more interesting, really. Can't two friends of different genders/sexes go on a trip together? Anyway, at this point I didn't think it was necessary to correct the nice Brooklynite.

Okay, so that aside, let's go on. I pull over arctic_alpine to tell her and the guy comes up and clears up any confusion. She told them about the deal, and they were suspicious. "Where did you hear about that?" "Huh?" "It's an Internet special. Where did you hear about it?" "Uhhh... the Internet." "No, where'd you really hear about it? Was it someone in here?" "No, " arctic_alpine lied convincingly but nervously, "it was a woman named Sandy (? I forgot her real name) I met at the hostel in Seward. She was here yesterday." (note that most of that sentence was true - we heard about this boat ride from her, and she did go there the day before). "Okay, fine," was the reluctant reply.
Anyway, one coffee later, we get on the boat, and set out on the lake. The water was that same shade of white-blue we saw in Resurrection Bay. Same consistency, too. The forest ranger aboard the boat informed everyone that it was due to fine particulate that the glacier grinds from the rock face as it makes its way down the mountain. We learned a lot. I was really happy to mix in this type of learning as a complement to the more experiential learning we'd been doing before.
Hmmm... I wish I had time to explain to all of you about glaciers, but that'll have to wait for my next entry...