On our final cruise day itinerary we cruised up Disenchantment Bay to the Hubbard Glacier – North America’s largest tide water glacier.
It is over 120 kms long and 11 kms wide and on a clear day a very impressive vista. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a clear day, instead persistent misty rain and pretty poor visibility to be honest.
The captain did his best but with the weather conditions and a sea littered with icebergs we had to be content with a relatively distant view. Better that though than suffer the fate of the Norwegian Sun which hit a ‘growler’ or broken up iceberg , only two months earlier and had to abandon the rest of their trip in favour of repairs!
The photos don’t do it justice, it was extremely impressive and you could hear it groaning eerily through the mist. Luckily, it wasn’t the only glacier that we would see in the coming weeks….
After spending the morning here, I suspect hoping for a break in the weather, we headed back to more open seas for the final run into our disembarkation port of Seward the next morning. There was no mistaking we were in open sea as we experienced significant swells, enough to unsettle a few stomachs, moi included.
The following morning we woke to find we were already docked in Seward. We watched the dockside activity over breakfast as we awaited the announcement for our luggage ‘colour’ which signified our turn to disembark.
I have to admit I was excited at the prospect of beginning the ‘independent’ part of our trip now – no waiting for slower people to get on and off the bus etc. etc. 😉 We had booked accommodation in Seward that wouldn’t be vacant until 4 pm ( although our host did agree to store our luggage) and so we faced another very wet day until then, disembarkation being at 0800.
We strolled the main street (which didn’t take long), admired the many murals that decorate walls and alleys and eventually made our way to the Alaska SeaLife Centre.
The Alaska SeaLife Center is the only facility in Alaska that combines a public aquarium with marine research, education, and wildlife response. On top of that, it is a great way to spend a rainy morning!
We spent a couple of hours wandering around this facility which had “touch and see” tanks, outdoor pools and many underwater displays with informative interpretative boards.
We found Zudy’s Cafe for lunch which was packed. I asked a man sitting by himself if we could join his table and we were delighted to hear that he was one of the captains for the company we were doing a wildlife expedition with the following day! He was very friendly and we discussed the weather (dismal), wildlife seen recently (great) and the menu (also great.)
We wandered around after lunch, noting huge numbers of RVs in foreshore camping areas and learned that this town (and several other coastal settlements) were devastated by the tsunami which followed Anchorage’s 1964 earthquake and since then the immediate foreshore area cannot have permanent structures built on it.
Just after 2 pm our hostess finally rang to say we could check in and we were extremely happy to get out of the rain and into a hot shower!
Given that we had an 0800 start the next day we opted for an early dinner and settled into the cool Seward Brewing Company for a burger and fries. We loved this space, so much so that we bought the T – shirt and a commemorative glass 😉
Tomorrow, exploring the fjords, glaciers and sea life with Major Marine tours.