26 glaciers in one day
We dropped our girls off at the sitter's at about 9:30am then headed out to Whittier. To get to Whittier, you have to drive through a tunnel. The toll for the tunnel depends on what you're driving. For us, it was $12. The tunnel is 2� miles long. We got to Whittier, paid $5 for all-day parking, and caught a shuttle van to the waiting area for the catamaran.
The cruise was supposed to start at 1pm, but I don't think we boarded until about 1:45.
It was raining the entire time. Otherwise it would have been perfect.
We headed out across Prince William Sound to College Fjord where we viewed several glaciers named after men's and women's universities--Yale, Bryn Mawr, Harvard, Smith, Vassar, Barnard, to name a few. We also saw sea otters, seals, eagles, kittiwakes, and various other bird species. Unfortunately, we didn't see any whales.
We turned around in College Fjord and headed up Barry Arm where we saw a few more glaciers, the most awesome being Barry Glacier. It was huge! It took about 5 pictures to get a total panoramic picture of it because we were so close. We saw a little calving happen here, but no giant slabs falling off. (Calving--when slabs of glacier ice fall off the front of the glacier into the water, becoming ice bergs.)
We turned around and went up another part of Barry Arm to see Surprise Glacier. After that we turned around and headed back to Whittier. The whole cruise lasted 4.5 hours.
Part of the package was lunch. We had a choice between chicken and halibut. Hubby and I chose halibut, of course. It wasn't the best, but edible. It had been previously deep fried and frozen, so it was a bit dense. It also came with some fruit and something else I don't recall. On board was a bar/gift shop.
When we got back to Whittier, instead of taking the shuttle back to the parking lot, hubby and I walked. It wasn't very far and the rain was to our backs so it wasn't too bad. Hubby had smuggled a small bottle of whiskey on board and finished it during the cruise so I had to drive back to Anchorage. The tunnel was scheduled to open at 7 (it's a one-lane tunnel that is also used by the train, so it's open alternately in each direction every half hour) and we got in line to wait at around 6:45. Just before 7, a train pulls up. Trains get 1st priority, so we had to wait another 20 minutes or so before we could go through.
I probably shouldn't have driven back because I was really tired and just wanted to pull over and take a nap. But, we had the kids to pick up and we were already running late because of the cruise starting late and waiting for the train to use the tunnel before us.
We picked up the kids and went home. I was so tired, I went to bed earlier than usual.
If you ever come to Alaska, try to make it a point to take this day cruise. It's well worth it, in my book. I'd love to go again sometime when the weather is nicer.
I don't have a digital camera yet, so I had to take pictures the "old-fashioned" way. When I get them developed, I'll post some here.
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