Holy Titanic

Day 21 --  The Cruise


Lucille's all tucked in, and we're ready to take the ferry across the Prince William Sound from Valdez to Whittier.

You know what they say about the food onboard cruise ships.  MMMmmm.  Well, maybe this isn't the Princess, but for $11.00, we'll take a couple of eggs, sausages, toast and two forks, please.

Just as we had hoped, there was beautiful scenery to be seen from the deck.

But after awhile, even that grows on you.

If only something out of the ordinary would happen.   "Bill. Wake up. Come out here and see this. And it's just the tip of the iceberg."

Most are white, but some have a dazzling blue hue.  Not to be a smarty pants, but the reason they appear blue is because ice absorbs all colors except blue, which it reflects.

A few are crystal clear.

This one apparently had some Alaskan Eskimo children playing on it and, as they were making a Frosty Snowman, it broke off and became an iceberg.  Hope the kids made it back to solid ice. 

The skipper slowed the boat significantly and weaved in and out of them for about an hour.  We did hit a few, but they were small ones.

We were told that we would be able to see whales in the distance.  I was sure that I spotted a blue whale, but Cindy said she thought my eyes were playing tricks on me

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After an enjoyable six hour cruise, we reached our destination, Whittier, AK.   It's a small port town where just about everyone is employed receiving transport containers or passengers from the ferry boats or cruise ships.  Every single citizen in the town lives in one of two buildings.  (Both are in the lower right sides of the pictures.)  And by the way, how would you like to live right below a massive glacier?

Once off the boat, you must make it through the longest tunnel in North America.  It's a single laner.  Plus, you need to share it with trains.  So, don't get in a hurry. 

It's worth the wait, though, as Alaska's beauty awaits your arrival on the other side.

We decided to head two hours south to Seward, a port town of 2,500.   The town has a nice system where RV'ers can put $15.00 in an envelope, self-park and spend the night along the shore.

With Lucille settled in for the night, we mounted up on the Harley and took a nice ride around the town. The economy obviously is driven by charter fishing, fish processing and Kenai fjord cruise ships.

But there's also some quaint shops for tourists.

This little guy was pointing out the exact ones that he had caught.

Day 22 -- Goodbye, Cindy


Perfect french toast, again.  We'll maybe just a tad on the done side of perfect.  Nonetheless, a great way to start the day.

Today is essentially a bag drag back to Anchorage to get Cindy to the airport for a 7:30 departure back to the real world.  We hoped we would see some wildlife along the way.  What's that?  Not sure, but it might be one of those dark-eyed, hairy, upright walking creatures that some swear they have seen in the woods, while others shrug off as folklore.

The scenery on the drive back to Anchorage was not up to the spectacular standards to which we had grown accustomed in the past few days.

 

That, coupled with the fact that I was thinking seriously about coming right back here tomorrow to go fishing in the Kenai River. So, I asked Cindy if she would mind terribly if I just let her out here so that I wouldn't have to make a two-hour backtrack tomorrow morning. At first, she was hesitant. But she eventually became empathetic to my situation and agreed.  I gave her a kiss goodbye and waved to her as I turned around and drove back southbound.     

So that I wouldn't worry, I had asked her to have someone take a picture of her at the airport and text it to me.  That way, I would know for sure that she made her flight on time.  To my great relief, just after 6:00 pm, my cell phone beeped and I received the following three pictures.  Looks like she made it with plenty of time to spare.

It was fun having Cindy join me for the past week.  She was reluctant to sign on for six days in a small RV, but in the end, she had a great time seeing Alaska and I really enjoyed her company.  The blogging may slow a bit now as some travel is retraced back to Canada.  If anything new or interesting appears through the windshield, I'll be sure and let you know.