Seward

Up almost before we got to bed to be at the ferry terminal at the requested hour of 4am! "Piffle", said the bleary eyed lady when she finally turned up at 5. "You don't need to be here that early". Thanks - tell that to your web site. Anyway, that meant that we were at the front of the line of large cars in queue 4. Unfortunately they boarded queue 2 and some of queue 5 before us, so all the seats upstairs had bags on them before we got on. "A polite reminder that there are no reservations on this boat. Please do not leave your bags on unattended seats as other passengers may want to sit there." intoned the polite ladies voice. Yeah, right. Nobody moved a muscle.

Not that it really mattered. Another gloriously sunny day, and this is Alaska. The mv Aurora is certainly not the ms Statendam in any form. There is one lady in the kitchen, and she is mainly taking money and replenishing the coffee whitener. On the bright side, there was a vending machine that sold both key rings and chocolate, so every contingency was covered off, and you could even walk around an outside deck if you didn't mind getting dizzy.

Sailed past the reef where the Exxon Valdez ran aground and caused havoc - it now has a high-tech wooden pole sticking out of the water so no other ship will come near it. Then it was through the part of the bay where the ice that has calved off the Columbia Glacier floats down to the sea, and past several colonies of sea lions sunning themselves on the rocks. Spectacular snow covered mountains everywhere. Unfortunately, as each of us has observed, despite every sight being amazing and absolutely worthy of several photos, at the end of the day they somewhat look the same. A sad indictment isn't it, that the sights you are seeing are all so incredible that it all becomes somewhat mundane.

Brendan bought yet another new card game called Bohnanza, on the pretext that his mother would like it which, as we all know, is code for another game that I can beat you at, and inevitably that's what transpired, though it past a lazy hour as we meandered across Wells Passage.

Once we docked in Whittier and drove the car off the boat, the town kind of just ended at the face of a huge rock cliff with a red traffic light on it. The only way out of town is through the 4km long Whittier Tunnel, a one lane tunnel carved through the mountain. Every half hour traffic in each direction gets a turn, as does the train. So, in our case, we waited for the train to go though, and the traffic light to turn green so that about 100 of us could go single file through to the other side. Really interesting, and quite slippery as, not only is the tunnel wet from the mountain seepage, we are also travelling on the railway tracks imbedded into the road.

Then it was down the road 70 miles or so towards Seward where we landed exactly a week ago by boat. Close to Seward, we took a right turn and drove out to the Exit Glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park - yes, with the obligatory selfie at the entrance. The glacier itself is one of the most easily accessible glaciers in Alaska, and there were hundreds of people there taking advantage of it. Walked the mile from the carpark to the side of the glacier, then came almost the whole way back, and took a different track to the toe of the glacier.

The glacier is retreating at an alarming rate - something like 3cm a day, so it's quite likely that if Brendan and Rachel ever come back it will be completely gone. The only (very small) advantage is that the glacier is retreating so fast that a creek hasn't had time to form at the edge of the glacier, which means that you can actually step on to it - something that I've not been able to do in other places like Iceland and Canada - so that was special.

Eventually arrived in Seward and checked in. Seward is very much the summer holiday destination for Alaskans and other US families from further away, and there are hundreds and hundreds of RVs, campervans, 5th wheelers and tents all around the coastline - just like Rosebud at home. Along the foreshore, too, is the trail that is the starting point for the original annual Iditarod dog sled race - all 938 miles of it to Nome.

Brendan and Rachel took us out to dinner as a thank you for organising the holiday, as we fly out to Colorado tomorrow with Brendan, and Rachel flies home. We're going to miss her.