We headed off this morning in gloomy weather but as we travelled to Whittier to take a “26 Glacier Cruise” the sun started to come out!
We went through the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel, a 2.5mile World War 11 era railroad tunnel transformed in the longest vehicle-railroad tunnel in North America.In 2000 it was upgraded to accommodate vehicles.
We then boarded the cruise ship, a catamaran named the “The Klondike Express” which holds 342 passengers on 3 decks for a 5 hour tour! The cruise followed a 135 mile route through fjords and glaciers. We saw the cutest otters in the water and a harbor seal sunbathing on a chunk of ice. 
One of our stops was at a glacier called the Surprise Glacier that was beyond words. It was the closest we were able to get to a glacier and very hard to describe the beauty!! It was 1 mile wide and 300 feet high. While there, we watched chunks of ice fall off the glacier,(calve) into the sea 3 times. It happened so quick we didn’t get to even get a photo of this. People on the outer decks heard a loud boom when the ice broke off. The captain said that the ship before us did not get to see any calving on the glaciers so we were very lucky!!
The ship made one last stop at the Kittiwake bird rookery that has over 10,000 birds that inhabit the rocky cliffs. I just can’t describe what we have been seeing here in Alaska!! One thing keeps topping another and we just can‘t believe what we are seeing.
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