Noon Report:

• Location: N 61° 07.44′, W 146° 21.76′
• Speed: Docked
• Course: Docked
• Weather: Low Clouds
• Temperature: 11º C; 53º F
• Wind: W 4 knots; 5 mph

Up and at ’em normally this morning. We docked in Valdez about 8:30 but our excursion wasn’t ’till after 9:00 so we had time for a waffle.

It was a bit chilly on the walking deck at sunrise – I actually donned a jacket and gloves – but there were some stunning shots of mountains and clouds.

After breakfast we readied ourselves and proceeded to the dock where we traded our excursion tickets for tickets to: A video on the Great Valdez Earthquake, Entrance to the Valdez museum, and Entrance to the Whitney Museum at the local community college. Then we boarded the shuttle bus for the Hop On / Hop Off tour of the town. We skipped the earthquake video and got off at the second (museum) stop. But before touring the museum we walked a few blocks to the Safeway where we stocked up on drugs.

Back at the museum we perused exhibits related to the big events in Valdez history: Interactions with native peoples, Gold mining, the earthquake on March 27, 1964 that devastated the town, the rebuilding of the town in a new location, the construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline from Prudoe Bay to Valdez, and the devastating oil spill caused by the grounding of the Exxon Valdez tanker ship on March 24, 1989.

Following the visit to this museum we boarded the shuttle and moved to the Whitney Museum.

Maxine Whitney ran a gift shop in Fairbanks and spent significant time traveling to native villages to purchase locally made crafts to sell in her store. Eventually she gave a large collection of those items, along with the contents of the Eskimo Museum in Fairbanks to the Prince William Sound Community College.

The collection is extensive – with emphasis on smaller items (the kinds of things you’d find in a gift shop) and mounted animals.

We were looking at an item labeled as being made from baleen (but didn’t look like it) when the museum curator joined us to look at the piece. He assured us that it was, in fact, baleen. He showed us another similar piece and we spent some time talking with him. He teaches anthropology at the college so we told him about Kim. He’s brand new as curator and he talked about some of the work ahead of him to improve the curation of the collection.

Leaving the museum we decided to walk back to the ship (Valdez isn’t that big). Along the way we spotted some interesting sights.

Near the dock we photographed several wooden sculptures.

Back on board it was lunch time. We braved the breeze and sat out on the terrace where we watched a harbor seal defend his own lunch from a flock of gulls.

Then it was back to the stateroom to work on this post, nap, Cheryl had a massage, and catch up on a bit of reading before…

We skipped the 6:30 lecture choosing, instead, to eat an early dinner before crossing to the Explorer’s Lounge to claim seats for the 8:00 Team Trivia contest. While we waited we were greatly entertained by resident guitarist King.

Trivia was an ‘interesting’ affair as just before it began whales started spouting ahead of the ship. Every so often during the contest we had to stop and move to the windows in hopes of seeing a breach or a tail flip.

Eventually we were able to finish. We scored 13/15 – our best ever score. Sadly one other team got all 15 right so we didn’t get the free mimosas.

After chatting a bit with Bob and Pam (from Tulsa) we headed back to the stateroom to watch the Sitka port talk, fill out the ‘end of cruise’ surveys, finish this post, and read.

Last day tomorrow. Sigh. We spent some time today saying good bye to some of the great cafeteria servers we’ve traveled with before, and some we’ve just met this week. It’s interesting to compare notes on future ships to see when we might see them next. Family.

So that’s it for now.

Nite all, R