I want to first apologize for being so late with this post. Three of us got sick and slept an entire day and then we had no 3G or LTE coverage until we arrived in Anchorage yesterday. Like I have said before, you can drive miles and miles and miles in Canada and Alaska with no cell signal. Being cut off from the world has been my biggest challenge, especially since I want to keep this blog updated.
Finally a bright sunny day!
Sunday was our most amazing day in Alaska so far! We took a 32 mile boat trip to view a glacier from the water in Prince William Sound on Lu-Lu Belle, out of the port of Valdez. This time we spoke with the ticket lady beforehand, who happens to be the wife of the boat captain and also owner of the boat. We found out that if we arrived early and waited in line, then we could get a table in the main cabin on the right side of the boat. Yay! No more replays of the train ride. We are smarter now!
Waiting in line to board the Lu-Lu Belle.
The Valdez boat harbor was filled with commercial fishing boats. They were manned and waiting for the green light to go catch salmon. The Alaskan government is very particular about how and when they can fish. Valdez is a key fishing port, that’s for sure.
Commercial fishing boats.
It is also known for the pipeline. Tankers are loaded with oil here and they take millions of barrels to refineries all over.
This was the first sunny morning we have seen since arriving in Alaska. Seriously! I don’t think I was prepared for the cold damp weather we have endured so far.
During the cruise, captain Fred told us a lot of history ranging from the gold rush days, the earthquake that decimated the entire town, the Alaskan pipeline, as well as facts about wildlife and glaciers. He was very informative! He did ramble a bit at times, but we could easily talk amongst ourselves and didn’t have to listen to every word.
The Lu-Lu Belle can hold 40+ passengers.
We were hardly out of the marina and we saw a group of sea otters. They were so cute! They float on their backs when they are not diving for food. The mother otters hold the babies on their chest but they stayed far away from the boat.
Awe, cute little sea otters!
Fred had some serious boat driving skills! You could tell that he has been driving this route for 30+ years. We saw eagles along the shore and we chased some porpoise, but it didn’t take long to spot a humpback whale. Those guys are so hard to photograph, but the captain waited around for it to resurface and we anxiously watched for the all elusive tail to appear. Everyone had their eyes peeled on the water in front of us!
There’s a tail!
He kept going along his route and took us to an island that hosted a stellar sea lion colony. These are the same species that we saw out of Skagway. Overall, the boat experience was similar, except this one culminated at the base of a glacier.
Sea lions basking in the sun.We saw lots of waterfalls.
The captain would drive the nose of the boat into rocky caves to look for puffins. I was very excited to see one, especially being a fan of the Happy Feet movies. They flew away so fast and there was no way to snap a picture.
Hey, is that a deadliest catch boat?
The final 12 miles were spent weaving in and out of icebergs. There were all shapes and sizes of ice that has calved from the glaciers. The Columbia glacier is retreating at a high rate of speed. Over the 30 years that Fred has been taking tourists to see the glacier, it has retreated about 10 miles. Wow! I can’t imagine, but credit is given to global warming. This glacier is predicted to stop retreating in the year 2020 when it finds a stable place to rest. Some of these icebergs are 2000-4000 years old.
Icebergs everywhere!Darin posing by an iceberg. You can only see 10% of the ice. The other 90% is under water.
The end of our journey was remarkable. We stayed there for about an hour and listened to the pieces of ice crashing into the water. The crew had Christmas hats and a Merry Christmas sign to use as props and they took pictures with each person’s camera. We opted for the life ring.
The crew took our picture. Very cool!
We were out on the boat for 8.5 hours and the interior was heated. The air temperature got down into the thirties and we had to bundle up to go out on the deck. It was very spacious and all around a comfortable day. I highly recommend this tour out of Valdez. I actually wished we had spent more time in Valdez. I really liked that town.
We made it to the face of the glacier!Birds hanging out on this floating ice.
Spoiler alert – the feature image of this story is actually the glacier beside the Columbia Glacier. It was so pretty too!
