Day 70

August 7, 2017

At 10:15 AM we walked as a group from the campground to the harbor (about 2-3 blocks) where we had a rest

then saw the Lu-Lu Belle, our excursion vessel for the day that is quite plush with teak, mahogany and oriental rugs.

and once aboard we left the Valdez harbor with Captain Fred who operated the boat with two female helpers and narrated the trip.  He talked non-stop all day.  Our first sighting was of sea otters and they were much larger than those we had seen previously.

The scenery was really beautiful as we cruised Prince William Sound.

including the puffins

and lots of Stellar sea lions

several waterfalls

and then we started seeing icebergs in the water.

We saw more sea lions lounging on the ice flows and icebergs.

Then we saw the Columbia Glacier from a distance and our captain took us very slowly through the ice to less than a mile from the face of the glacier where we stayed for about an hour

The Columbia Glacier is the second-largest tidewater glacier in North America and the largest in Prince William Sound.  Now is revealed the largest:  Hubbard Glacier on the border of Alaska and Yukon Territory, Canada.
On our return from the glacier to Valdez we had several whale false alarms but we bobbed around in the water each time hoping to see a whale but it was not to be.  we finally got back to the Valdez harbor at 9:15 PM.  We passed the pipeline terminal where there are 18 huge storage tanks and dock space for tanker ships loading.  Arrived at our Unity exhausted.

Day 69

August 6, 2017

Left the dusty campground at Glennallan enroute to Valdez, 9:00 AM with stops to see glaciers, mountains, streams.

We climbed along the Alyska Pipeline route where the pipeline was visible above ground for a long way.  The Wrangell Mountains were in evidence along the way.

The Worthington Glacier rose up in front of us

On to the Thompson Pass 3,300’ climb and down the other side toward Valdez with an exciting 12% grade for 71/2 miles.  Gives real meaning to “gear down”.

A stop at Bridal Veil Falls

then a stop at Horsetail Falls

We passed the Pack Trail of 1899 where the gold miners started their trek from Valdez to the interior of Alaska looking for the quick riches from gold.  We arrived at Bayside RV Park in Valdez about 2 PM and got set up.  Took the car for a wash, badly needed.  We do have a view of the bay if we stretch our necks to look between other rows of RV’s but the other three sides have mountain views. 

After our dinner of fried chicken and green beans we were invited to watch the 2016 Halifax Military Tattoo video on the outside big-screen TV of our neighbor.  About 12 of us.  Brought back memories of Edinburg in the 1980’s when we lived in Aberdeen.

At one of the pull-outs today we found a big Ford pickup that had lost an encounter with a moose.

Day 68

August 5, 2017

Our drive from Seward to within 16 miles of Glennallan was 127 miles, roads were not as bad as we had been told.  We had one stop for a cinnamon roll that was memorable so we bought a second one for later.  There were some fantastic views of the Matanuska Glacier along the way.  That means that the glacier that we saw a couple of days ago was not the Matanuska.  Therefore unknown.  Our campground for today has “Wilderness” in the name and we’ve decided we are not wilderness folks, we are more “resort” type folks.  No wifi, no paved roads, lots of dust, our car is covered with a blanket of dust, water is brown, need we say more?  Iris fixed us a great taco salad for our late lunch around 3 PM.  Happy hour while we watched Paul & Susan’s video of Louis Lamour movies.  Bob, of course, loved it.  Our group had a dessert get-together at 6:30 around the campfire with lots of stories and fun.  Then to bed.

Day 67

August 4, 2017

Morning activity was grocery shopping in Seward at the Fred Meyer.  After lunch we drove to the Musk Ox Farm where we had a tour narrated by a nice Alaskan girl that works there.  They have about an 80 animal herd of musk ox and they are grown for the hair, called qiviut, that is used to make warm, soft clothing by native Alaskans for sale.  (https://www.muskoxfarm.org)  We were surprised how short the animals are even though the females weigh 6-700 pounds while the males can get up to 1,000 pounds.  They had five calves this spring which is a very good crop according to our guide and all the animals are domesticated to the extent that they will change fields, go to the barn monthly for weighing and stand still for combing.  We did see a large bull charge the fence trying to get to a young bull.  Fortunately the fence held.  

From here we went back to the Unity for a short nap and then at 5:00 PM it was a cook-out with hamburgers, hot dogs and reindeer sausage with all the fixings.  A very pleasant evening with the whole group on the tour.  We tried to watch some TV but sleep overtook us.

Day 66

August 3, 2017

Travel day from Seward to Anchorage to Palmer.  Got to Anchorage, found Best Buy to replace camera battery that died ($40 should have been $8) but got to have photos.  Then to Home Depot for lynch pin to replace one lost from the tow bar then an uninspiring lunch at a Mexican cafe before getting back on the road toward Palmer.  Some scenes along the way.

Arrived at the campground, Mountain View, about 3:30 PM, found we could get Anchorage TV stations and low and behold the Dallas Cowboys were playing on NBC.  Even though it was just an exhibition game Bob enjoyed it.  Iris did not.  Still made it to bed fairly early.

Day 65

August 2, 2017

A short meeting with our leader then a walk (we drove) to the Seward Museum at 10 AM to see exhibits, most about the 1964 earthquake and its impact on the town.  A drive around town took us by the Anglican Church.

We drove to Ray’s Waterfront, a nice restaurant on the harbor front where we watched sea otters play in the water and had a view of the Regents cruise ship in the harbor for the day.  A very nice lunch and then back to the campground in order to drive as a group to the Exit Glacier, a national park.  We arrived in time to walk from the visitor center to the view point with a ranger volunteer, a nice lady, Ann, that has been coming to do this for 13 years.  She said she had found her park.  We walked along a path through deep forest and got an explanation of the different places that the glacier had been in prior years.  There has been a huge retreat of the glacier since 1815 when information was first available.

Day 63 & 64

July 31, 2017

Late yesterday Iris met a couple of real Alaskans that just returned from a fishing trip

Bus picked us up at the campground at 9:15 AM to take us to the public harbor where we boarded the “Coastal Explorer” 

for our Kenai Fjords National Park Wildlife and Glacier Cruise. 

Once out of the harbor we were immediately presented with a photo opportunity with two bald eagles sitting atop a buoy marker.

Then a sea otter decided to cavort for us.

About a half hour later we saw rock structures similar to the Bay of Fundy in eastern Canada.

Then a rookery of Harbor Seals

followed by a rookery of sea birds.  My advise is try to stay up-wind.

Was only able to get one puffin.

Then a whale announced his presence with a “blow” and after three time he dove giving us a view of his tail.  Iris said it was just a fluke I got the photo.  (Pun intended)

It was time to see the glaciers and they are really unbelievable.  We saw several but the highlight was when we saw icebergs in the water followed by kayaks in the water near the Aialik Glacier.

There were about 200 seals lying on the ice that had broken off the glacier face.  We also saw several huge chunks of ice calve off the glacier causing a little tsunami.

On the way back to Seward we saw a school of jellyfish.

We were served lunch on the boat and later we were on our way to Fox Island. We had a glass of wine 

as we were to have a salmon dinner on Fox Island.  The dinner was a buffet with delicious salmon and prime rib for those who chose that.  At the whistle, we returned to the boat where we were greeted with hot chocolate chip cookies.  We pulled into the small boat harbor about 6:15 and were bussed back to the Unity.  Another wonderful day, but long and tiring.

August 1, 2017

Still in Seward with a “free day”.  That means laundry at the laundromat ($19 - we’re used to paying about $8 in the lower 48) and a trip to Safeway for milk and bread.  Groceries are expensive too but we try not to look.  For lunch we fixed a couple of brochette with beef, onion, red and green peppers that we had bought at Soldotna and they were very tasty.  A short nap followed.  We finally figured out how to watch recorded programs on our Dish satellite system.  That’s good as there is no cable nor TV reception in Seward.  Some houses have large dishes aimed at the horizon.  If there is a mountain in the line of sight, forget it.  We had a chicken wrap for our dinner and early to bed.