Saturday July 4th - A Day to Remember!

Up early, we were at the downtown Alaska Rail station by 9:15am, to catch the “Coastal Express” train to Whittier. Our seats were book in the upper level of the special double decker rail car that gave us a perfect view of the mountains and the sea as we rode through the morning. The tunnel into Whittier is 2.6 miles long and can only allow either the train one way, or auto traffic one way. They each take turns on a specific schedule and pray that they never meet J . Once in Whittier , we exited the train and walked across the road to the harbor. Within a few minutes, we boarded our boat for the afternoon trip into Prince William Sound. It was, as our Captain said, a “brochure “day. It was picture perfect calm seas, warm sun and crystal blue skies. As we made our way out of port we were given a brief history of the area by our on-board Chugach national ranger. And then we were given an all-you-can-eat prime rib and silver salmon lunch. By the time we cleaned out plates, we had already seen bald eagles and a “raft” of otters. Out on the top deck we could hear the cracking and popping of the glaciers and could feel the spray from the pristine waterfalls. We watched the harbor seals play and dive at the base, as the glaciers calved.
We rode the train back with new friends, & found a train car that was completely empty to claim as our own! A perfect day for the fourth of July.