We had a hectic drive getting to the tour boat on time. We'd been told it was approximately a 2 hour drive to get from Anchorage to Seward. So we left 3 hours prior to the "dinner cruise". Well, with summer construction, the 2-hour drive turned into a 3 hour drive. (And since we pre-paid for the non-refundable tickets, we had a great incentive to get to the boat before it departed.) We arrived at the marina and ran to get on the boat, which departed less than 2 minutes after our arrival. (We'd been the last passengers to board.)
While it was very cool and foggy at the beginning of the tour, we didn't feel very cold.
As you can see, we were aboard the Tanaina.
It's amazing how one's appearance can change so much in an hour. We were pretty frozen by this point, even with the added extra layers of clothing we'd brought with us.
This picture was taken after dinner, so we'd had a chance to warm up a bit. You can see the glaciers in the back ground.
On thing photos don't capture is the noise. It was very eerie hearing all the creaking and breaking of the glaciers with huge ice chunks falling into the water. The splash in this picture was caused by a chunk of glacier the size of a small house falling into the water.
We also saw lots of wildlife -- otters, bald eagles, dolphins and a smack of jellyfish, something neither of us had seen before. It was a great cruise, but I'm glad we took the shorter cruise rather than the 8-hour excursion. I would've frozen on a trip that long. Plus, after an hour or so, all glaciers tend to look and sound alike to the non-scientific eye.
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