Day 3 Anchorage - Seward

Day 3        Friday          June 22, 2001          

Anchorage, Alaska / Seward, Alaska

Sunrise ~ 4:20 AM

I put in for a 4:30 AM wake up call, as we needed to be at the AKRR (Alaska Railroad) Depot for a 5:45 AM departure to Seward.  Seward is where we boarded our cruise ship, the Rhapsody of the Seas.  Our hotel was only a few blocks to the AKRR Depot so we walked there. 

While waiting at the train station, we met Brian and Sharon.  They were from Minnesota and, they were also celebrating their 25^th anniversary.  As it turned out, they were also sailing on the Rhapsody.

The train left for Seward at 6:45 AM.  It was about a four-hour ride covering approximately 130 miles.  The scenery was magnificent.  It is difficult to find the right words to describe how beautiful the scenery was on this trip.  There were snow-covered peaks everywhere.  We saw quite a lot of Dall sheep.  They could be spotted on rocky mountainsides, as they where white against a brown background.  The question that each of us had in mind was, how did these sheep get to where they were?  It was incredibly steep.  I don’t know how they got there, but they were there.  At one point we saw three moose.  They were apparently running from the train into a lake next to the tracks.  A while later a bear was spotted.  It had been on the tracks ahead of the train.

We saw a few glaciers and quite a few areas where avalanches had occurred.   The AKRR folks pointed out the area where avalanches were.  They also went on to tell us that it was not uncommon for the authorities to pick when to have an avalanche occur.  This way they can have the proper equipment available to clear the railroad tracks and the nearby roads.  Otherwise, avalanches can basically shutdown the railway and the road whenever it happens. 

I’m not sure of the name of this glacier (there are so many of them).  This was on that we saw from the train on our way to Seward.

Arrived in Seward around 11:15 AM.  Blue sky, upper 50’s, it was a beautiful day.

 As we got off the train, we could see our ship in the distance.  Gathered the luggage and headed for the ship.  It was about a quarter of a mile walk to the dock.  The ship sailed at 9:00 PM, boarding didn’t start until 1:00 PM and it was currently 12:00 noon.  Our plan was to check in, board and then go see the town of Seward.  While sitting in this warehouse type building (watching the RCCL people get all the computers setup for embarkation) we met Peter and Cathy, from Arizona.  We talked with them for a while and before we knew it, the cruise line was ready for us.  I think we may have been in the first 20 people to board.  It was a very easy process.  Since we were very early, the ship’s buffet was not ready yet.  However, the Solarium Café onboard, had pizza, hot dogs, etc…  So, as we were quite hungry and did not want to wait for the buffet, we ate our first meal on our cruise – pizza and french fries!  :-)

The time was about 3:00PM and since we did not sail until 9:00 PM, we decided to walk around Seward.  It is a small town.  We saw quite a few fishing boats (for hire I assume), wildlife guide companies and plenty of stores for the tourists.  It seemed to be a halibut town.  Quite a few of the stores displayed pictures of the largest halibut caught recently.  The biggest one I saw was 97 pounds.  Now that’s a big fish!  While sitting on a bench enjoying an ice cream, we noticed a sign that said “Halibut Tacos”.  Below the caption, was a picture of a fish that had the caption, “Time for a fish taco”.  There was more to Seward but we were on foot and did not venture off too far. 

We ran into Peter and Cathy who were also walking around Seward.  They were on a mission to find something for motion sickness for Cathy (back on the ship they went to the Purser’s desk and got it for free).  Mary had also been worried about motion sickness.  She was ready though.  She had the patch for behind the ear, bonine and wristbands.  (She ended up just using the wristbands and was fine for the cruise)

Back to the ship.  We were still somewhat jet lagged and our body clocks were still adjusting to the four-hour time difference.  All of this added up to nap time!  We had signed up for early seating for dinner, so 6:00 PM would be our dinnertime.  Well, it was 6:15 PM when we awoke from our nap.  Off to dinner.

We had the early seating for dinner and were seated at a table for four.  Our dinner companions were Polly and Lud, from Texas.  We enjoyed their company at dinner all week.  Lud was an IBM retiree and I worked for HP.  So we had some good conversations regarding those companies.  I had read that Alaskan Amber Beer was a good beer, so I ordered one with dinner.  I was a bit surprised when our waiter told me that they were out.  Hmm…, but this was the first night of the cruise.  Instead I ordered an Alaskan Stout.  It was a good beer.  (Alaskan Amber is brewed in Juneau, they picked up a load of it when we visited that port).  Oh yeah, I had cod for dinner and it was good.

After dinner (while still at the dock) we had the Compulsory Lifeboat Mustering drill.  At the sound of the ship’s whistle (seven short blasts followed by one long blast) we went back to our cabins and got our life jackets.  With life jackets on, we headed for our muster station and listened to what they had to say.  After the drill we took a walk on the deck and shortly after that, we were off to sea.

Before bed we watched the entertainment in the Broadway Melodies Theater.  The comedian, Steven Scott, starred that night.  It was okay.

Day 4 - Cruising toward Hubbard Glacier