We had a beautiful day in Valdez today. It would have been hard not to; the ship was literally surrounded by towering snow-capped peaks. Hard for that to not put a smile on your face right from the start. Plus, it was another virgin port. Oh happy day.
With no schedule and an uncrowded ship, we lingered a bit over breakfast in the buffet. I posted the pics from the previous two days to this blog (and local cell service, though just LTE, was strong. Ten pics successfully uploading at a time makes me smile). The only time consuming part was getting them in the right place.
Valdez was a tender port, a situation that escaped me until today. It was listed as such on the embarkation day Patter, but, like most of the documentation that appears in the cabin on embarkation day, I missed it. Even the cruise director was confused, telling us we would be berthed until 11am or so, and then tender back to the ship after that. No, the ship was at anchor all day. We avoided the lines altogether and didn’t leave the ship until they announced open tender.
It wasn’t just the surrounding scenery that was picturesque; we tendered in through a small canal that was very New England-like, with buildings on tall stilts over the water and an entire marina of fishing vessels. Once on land, we really had just one goal: to get to Safeway; although there were hikes nearby, my body wasn’t feeling it today and G wasn’t high energy either. Safeway was about a 10-15 minute walk away and we just needed to follow our fellow passengers and crew to find the way.
I quickly found the contact lens solution I needed (for $18 instead of the $9 I’d pay at home) and we picked up two packs of Mountain Dew for G that will eliminate the need to find it in port for the rest of the cruise. G wandered the store for a bit while I waited out front, watching the fine Alaskan men wearing shorts and flannel shirts (one was a dead ringer for Sam Hartman) kindly return their carts to the store after unloading their groceries.
Getting the soda back to the ship wasn’t easy, but I think my left arm was getting shorter anyway, so that’s a problem eliminated. 😉
11:25pm sunset time! This is what we came to see!
Back on the ship, we dropped our shopping in the cabin and headed directly out to the Terrace Deck. It was sunny and felt much warmer than the 56° that my watch said it was. We actually sat in lounge chairs (and took still more photos) while I talked with friend Martha on the phone (Martha, this was my view while we chatted).
A beautiful afternoon!
While we were out there, Cruise Critic roll call member Janna contacted me about getting together to do something tomorrow in Seward, so we put some plans together before it was time to get cleaned up for the evening. I guess I was feeling guilty about going to dinner every night in a fleece and wearing warm socks and sneakers, so I wore “normal” cruise clothes and sandals tonight, thinking the day had been on the warmer side and that would be adequate. Big mistake. I froze all evening. It’s back to Alaskan wear for me tomorrow.
Views, all the time in this part of Alaska
This salad was a work of art
Seafood bowl
A little light on the seafood and heavy on the rice
It’s not your imagination (and it wasn’t mine either)
Same dessert menu as last night
Happy Father’s Day!
Annalise and Ryan performed again tonight in the Princess Theater, so we went to their show (excellent) and then walked across the Promenade Deck to return to our cabin on the back of the ship. The water was smooth as glass, and sun was still high in the sky at 8:30pm and it felt almost as warm outside as it was on the ship. What a day!
