We had a day at sea as we passed out of Anchorage through Prince William sound all the way down Cook’s Inlet and across Prince William sound and then across the Gulf of Alaska again as we made our way towards the port of Valdez. Most people recognize the Exxon Valdez as one of the biggest oil spills in history—one that created awareness across the world and certainly across the United States of the damage that spilled oil can do to bird life and other wildlife. Here also in Valdez was where the huge earthquake of 1964 originated shortly offshore and produced a tsunami across Alaska wrecking harbor towns down as far as Crescent city and even down to Noyo. Here in Valdez we took another tour bus, this time up the Lowe river valley to its headwaters where we stopped and viewed the beautiful and retreating Worthington glacier. Today was rainy but mostly light rain, so we could get on/off our bus to walk up to waterfalls, etc. along the journey we six bald eagles, two on the wing and four in tree tops. We stopped at one heavily fished area where we saw tons of sea lions basking beside a side stream coming into the Lowe River along our highway, and dozen or more fishermen catching salmon. We traveled all the way to Thompson pass and the Worthington glacier, where we walked around again before turning for the return trip back. Our ship sails away early evening toward our next port, Sitka.
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