Day 2: Unalaska, Alaska

Our first full day of this trip . . . it was busy and constantly on the move!  So to make sure we had energy we decided to grab breakfast before heading out . . . our choices of restaurants are very limited not to mention the price to eat out is expensive too.  We walked next door to Safeway (grocery store) for breakfast . . . hey it meets our needs!  The town is more spread out that we thought so decided to rent a car so we could explore the island.  I was not aware that Alaska was used as a base for World War II.  When this trip was being planned, I was amazed to learn the active role that was played here.  Of course as soon as Colin heard me talking about WW2 he was ready to go!  Our first stop was to hike to the top of Bunker Hill . . .

Checking out the bunkers along the way . . .

The views were amazingly beautiful.  Dutch Harbor is one of the largest fishing ports in the United States.  Some of you may recognize the name from the Discovery Channel Show, Deadliest Catch.  The port area was always busy with boats coming and going . . .

. . . but we never saw one unloading their catch.  The other beautiful part of the hike was seeing all these guys . . .

They were flying all over the place and so great to stop and watch!  The brown one is an immature eagle . . . I didn't know that eagles look this way until they are about five years old.  We finally made it to the top . . .

 

Thankfully it was a nice day and we hiked back down so we could head to our next stop.  We drove by the S.S. Northwestern Memorial . . .

. . . during WWII in the Campaign of the Aleutians, the S.S. Northwestern served as housing for civilian construction workers.  It was sunk during a bombing raid by the Japanese.  The ship was half sunk in the water and later moved to the end of Captain's Bay where the bow can still be seen above the water.  The propeller was transported to the memorial park.  A plaque is mounted on part of the hull of the boat in front of the propeller to serve as a reminder of the lives lost during the war. The propeller blades are about 6 feet in length.  Behind the memorial was a small Russian cemetery.

Next stop was to the beautiful Church of the Holy Ascension . . .

. . . we tried several times to get inside but it was always locked.  I can only imagine how beautiful it was on the inside.  As we were driving away we noticed a boat returning back to the harbor . . .

. . . it must be a hard life/job.  We were getting hungry so guess where we went?  Back to Safeway of course; don't laugh but they had a nice salad bar and deli.  Again, I tell you there aren't too many places to eat.  We then head over to the WWII Museum and paid to enter.  After we were inside, I noticed it was park of the National Park Service and we could have entered for free with my National Park pass . . . oh well but it did annoy me that I paid when I could have entered for free!

It was a great museum that gave a great overview of the events of the area during WWII.  We picked up a self guided driving tour of Fort Schwatke and headed out to explore more bunkers.  Fort Schwatke was the highest coastal battery ever constructed in the U.S.  Can you guess who was loving every second?

He was all over the place and in and out of bunkers as much as I would let him.  I just enjoyed standing around soaking up the awesome scenery and weather too . . .

The weather started to change so back to the hotel to relax . . .

. . . and we actually had dinner somewhere other than Safeway!  We went next door to the only other restaurant in town, Amelia's which was good.  It was a busy day but awesome too!

***So today was suppose to be our last day in Unalaska.  We were to board the MV Tustamena ferry to Kodiak Island.  It was going to be a three day trip on a ferry; with time to explore some of the Aleutian Islands.  At the end of April, I got an email saying the ferry was under going routine repairs that were taking longer than planned so our ferry was cancelled.  Well, isn't that just grand.  We already paid a small fortune to fly one way to Dutch Harbor and really wanted to go there so had to completely rearrange our trip.  So, we decided to stay an extra day and fly back to Anchorage and continue with our plans to Kodiak Island via plane.  It added more flights to our trip and all this came at a price, but I just sucked it up.***