Columbia and Meares Glacier Cruise

We went on the Stan Stephens Glacier and Wildlife Cruise. Our boat was the Valdez Spirit. Our captain was very good and he spotted an eagle for us very early.

Our first stop was the Columbia Glacier. You cannot get withing 7 miles of it as it is retreating and the moraine is 7 miles from the face of the glacier. There were lots of small pieces of ice floating in the water as we approached the glacier. It is really something to see.

This piece of ice has some of the dirt embedded in it that shows what the glacier picks up as it pushes itself over the land.

Here are some larger pieces of ice floating.

You can see how much of the ice is below the water compared to the amount above it.

Here is a sea otter who was floating on a piece of ice.

He decided that we looked interesting so he dove in.

And came over and floated on his back near us. Sooo cute!

I took another picture as we were leaving Columbia Glacier.

One of the crew snagged a piece of glacier ice for us to see. This part was very clear.

Here is Wayne watching the floating ice and the sea otters.

Here are three sea otters that played around for us.

They are funny little creatures that are fun to watch.

The older they get the whiter their muzzles get.

We went over to Unakwik Inlet to Meares Glacier.

This glacier is advancing and you can get very close to it's face.

I don't know if the movie will work or not but on the right side there was a small calving.

As we were leaving the Northwestern from the TV show "The Deadliest Catch" went by us up to the glacier. It gives you something to compare the size of the glacier to.

In this area the seals were hanging out on the ice.

Our captain got a call from the captain of the Northwestern to come back over to them and tie up as they had a surprise for us. We did and the captain invited us to come aboard to meet him and the crew. People were climbing over railings and jumping between the two boats. Wayne and I stayed on board. Here is the captain of the Northwestern, Sig Hansen.

The boat is serving as a tender to pick up salmon from the fishermen and take it to the cannery for the summer. This day they were on vacation and sightseeing with two people who had paid approximately $1500 each for the privilege to spend the day on the boat. Here is one of the crew members, Nick Mavar Jr. and Matt Bradley.

And here is the other crew member.

Here are some of our passengers moving between the boats.

We finally got all of the passengers back on the Valdez Spirit and left.

Here is a puffin swimming along.

Here are some Harbor Seals sunning themselves.

There were lots of them.

On the way back the captain found another area with an eagle.

There are lots more pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/marynelle/ .

Mike and Patty's last night

On Mike and Patty's last night we decided to drive back out to the weir around 9:00. The sun setting behind the mountains was beautiful.

You could still see the glacier.

There were still plenty of dead salmon around the weir and lots of sea gulls but no bears.

As we were driving back out we saw cars stopped on the other side of the road so we stopped too and got to see this black bear. He didn't hang around very long though.

There was another black bear in another place but I didn't even get a picture of his behind.

Seeing bears was a good end for Mike and Patty's last day.

Another last day of fishing for Mike

Since Eagle's Nest RV Park had lost it's Internet service, we moved across the street to Bayside this morning. Mike and Patty decided to stay one more day so that Mike could fish more. He was told that he couldn't keep all of the fish today. The sun is actually shinning today. The glaciers are bright white against the dark mountains.

Patty and I went out to lunch again and did some shopping. The men called on their way back in so we went down to the dock to meet them. Here they are coming in.

They caught 12 silvers again today. George doesn't get to fish because he steers the boat. I think that is so unfair.

Here are Mike and Wayne with their catch.

Here is Wayne pointing to his big one.

Here are Wayne, George, and Mike with the catch.

Here is another pretty glacier. Notice, the sun is still shinning.

The weather is supposed to stay nice for at least one more day so Wayne and I are going on a glacier cruise and Mike and Patty are leaving.

Salmon Fishing with George

It has finally cleared up enough that you can see the glaciers on the mountains surrounding Valdez.

There are mountains on three sides and the Prince William Sound on the fourth side.

Our RV park has a great view of the mountains.

Here is Mike's coach.

And here is ours.

The glaciers are beautiful.

Our friend, George, from Anchorage came in yesterday evening with his boat and took Wayne and Mike out fishing for silver salmon today. Patty and I did our thing. Here they are coming in from the trip.

Here is Mike with the two largest fish.

Here is Mike watching George fillet the fish.

Since it was Mike and Patty's last day in Valdez, Wayne and George let Mike keep all 6 salmon.

Valdez Halibut Trip

Patty and I had a fun day shopping. I think we hit every gift shop in Valdez and had a wonderful girls' lunch. The men called us when they were coming into port so we drove down to meet them. Here are the mighty fishermen returning.

These were the two biggest halibut caught.

These are all of the other fish that was caught on the boat that day.

The man on the right is the boat captain that took them out. The other man is the fish filleter.

Here are Mike and Wayne with all of the fish.

Mike and Wayne each took home two halibut and Wayne got a ling cod that they split. It was a good day of fishing.