Alaska - Day 5

Sunday, August 3, 2008 - There is really not a lot to report on today's activities. We basically rode a bus from Denali to Seward that took close to 8 hours. We did make a stop for lunch and a couple of other stops, but essentially, it was riding a bus today. Thankfully, it is the last bus for this trip, with the possible exception of catching a bus when we fly back home.

Our bus driver this time, Eric, is a school teacher here in Alaska. He is driving buses during the summer months. We drove through his home turf and he told us stories about local towns and his school district. He educated us on many interesting facts about Alaska during our ride. We were very entertained on most of it. Meanwhile, Jack slept through a big part of the ride, which worked out for us.

We finally arrived in Seward sometime before 5pm where the bus dropped us off right at the ship... the MS Volendam. We said our goodbyes to Josiah, our tour guide and friend through the land tour of our trip. Proceeding to check in for the cruise, there were not many people in line. I did the on-line check in which really helped to speed up the process. Eleven years ago when I went on the Carnival cruise, we had to wait in an extremely long line and seemed like forever to finally get on the ship. But this was not bad. I think we spent less than 10 minutes with check in. Sweet! Of course we had to go to the mandatory safety drill to prepare in the event the ship is going to sink. And that didn't really take as long.

Jack is all about the Lido Deck, where there is the swimming pool. I recently discovered The Loft where it is a lot of video games and such for teens. Jack will also like that. Mom says she could just sit on her balcony for the rest of the trip (her room is on the port side of the ship, so she had a good view of the glaciers). We started to set sail at 10pm. Tomorrow is basically just cruising as well as Tuesday. Our first port of call will be on Wednesday (I don't remember where).

I have a bit of some disappointing news for my blog fans. While the Volendam has wireless Internet access, it comes at a price. So in the interest of saving my dollars for much needed alcohol and freeing up time to vacation instead of blogging, I will only be logging onto the Internet intermittently.

Alaska Fun Fact #1
Eric the bus driver's school district is approximately the size of West Virginia. And in the state of Alaska, which is incredibly large in size, is divided in Burroughs instead of counties like most other states.

Alaska Fun Fact #2
There is an estimated 300,000 moose in Alaska. According to Eric, he has to get moose collision insurance on his car, which he has hit a moose in the past. And on the bus ride today, we got to see a moose feeding in a pond. So collectively, we have seen 1/100,000 of all the wild moose in Alaska on this trip thus far.

Alaska Fun Fact #3
According to many of the people in Alaska, this summer has been the coldest in the past 60+ years. There has only been a handful of days that the temperature has been over 65 F. Eric, the summertime bus driver and school teacher, talked a bit about the receding of glaciers and global warming. At the top of mountains where there are glaciers, are ice fields. These are bodies of water turned to ice from years of accumulated snowfall turned to ice that is unable to drain. Once full, the ice starts flowing over the top, just like pouring more water into an already full glass. Eric claims the recession of glaciers is twofold from his research. Glaciers are going to melt regardless since the Ice Age is over. And while rising temperatures can explain accelerated melting, Eric has noticed that less than enough precipitation is not allowing ice to overflow from the ice fields.

Photo Info:

All of us with Josiah disembarking off the bus and onto the ms Volendam.