Tuesday, August 28, 2012  Day 21

Gerry viewing an iceberg in Columbia Bay

We have now left Alaska and are about an hour into Canada along the Alaskan highway.  We have the bad roads again with all the frost heaves so we travel about 40 miles an hour.  We have another 100 miles on the rough roads tomorrow and then the roads should be a lot better.  We arrived in Valdez on Sunday evening in thick fog and rain.  You couldn't see the mountains from the campground.  It was also rainy on Mon. morning but we decided to take the glacier cruise anyway, and once again we were fortunate as the weather cleared, the sun came out, and we were closer to the glaciers than the ship had ever been.  We were able to see calving (ice breaking from the glacier) and hear the thunder of the glacier.

The Columbia Glacier

As we were cruising some Dall's porpoises came near and kept swimming along side and in front of our cruise ship.  They look like a small orca whale.  They kept swimming, diving, and traveled with us for quite awhile.  It was really fun to watch.  

The Steller sea lions were basking in the sun.  They have a loud boisterous bellowing sound.

This cute bunny was by our cruise ship as we were getting ready to depart.   Just had to snap a picture.

Valdez receives so much snow in the winter (about 25 to 26 ft.) that they need to put up these pole markers for the snow plows to find the road.  

It has been fun receiving e-mails from so many of you.  Keeps away the homesickness that I (Kathy) get from time to time.  We are now heading for some time in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and northern California.