Alaska - Part Two

On Friday, we headed down to Seward via train. The train ride between Anchorage and Seward is quite beautiful, especially when the weather is clear. During the train ride alone, we saw humpback whales and sheep. As soon as we arrived, we were whisked away to our helicopter ride to Godwin Glacier. I was terrified a few years back when we took a helicopter to Catalina, so I didn’t know quite what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised, there was so much to see that I completely forgot my fears. There is a dog sled team that spends their summers on this glacier and we got a chance to talk with them, meet the dogs and ride on a dog sled. One of the guys up there will be running his third Iditarod next March and it was really neat to hear about all that goes into planning for that event. I had such a neat time riding on the sled that when D. fell off, I didn’t notice. Sorry honey, at least we were close to the main camp! Here are a couple pics from that experience:

On Saturday, we took a day-long Fjords cruise. The cruise was enjoyable and we again saw humpback whales (closer than I would have liked) and amazing glaciers. The scenery was great. They urge you to take seasickness medicine for the cruise and ironically, the medicine made me sick for the first part of the day. Other than that, we had perfect weather and smooth sailing. We cruised up to Aialik Glacier and got to hear the glacier calving. It’s almost complete silence and then you hear the cracking and thunder as small parts of the glacier break off into the water. All around the glacier, you have “ice water” since large chunks remain in the very cold water. Here’s a picture of Aialik: We spent our evenings in Seward at a place called Ray’s Waterfront. It’s ridiculously expensive, but we ate at the bar and felt like a part of the family by our third visit. The whole town of Seward seemed very “Mystic Pizza”-esque to me and I really like the idea of a teeny fishing village until our last day when the weather was ugly and I realized that there’s nothing fun to do in a small fishing village if it’s raining. We sat under a tree and played Yahtzee until the rain finally drove us inside our favorite spot, Ray’s. (I guess that’s what you do in a fishing village when it’s pouring, have a beer.) Meals including Salmon or Halibut Count: 8 Total Meals: 12