Unexpectedly In Cordova Airport

When we checked in for our 8am flight home from Seattle, they asked for volunteers because the flight was full.  I had been looking forward to a quick return to Anchorage, but we had nothing urgent, so we figured we'd see what they had to offer if we took a later flight.

It turns out they had an earlier flight (7:30am), but with stops in Juneau, Yakutat, and Cordova.  But for $400 vouchers for future flights it seemed like we could go sightseeing.  Not sure how much time I have left with this wifi - I'm on the plane getting it from the Cordova airport - so I'll put up the pictures, in the order of the trip, but the best ones are at near the end.

From the plane at the Juneau airport.

It was snowing in Yakutat and the visibility was below the standards for landing, so after circling a while, we continued on to Cordova.  The image above was while we were waiting for Yakutat to clear.  

Flying into Cordova was pretty spectacular.  

Almost there as we fly past the glacier.


And this last photo is for my friend Jeremy who likes towers that do radio and other electronic things.

This is at the Cordova airport.














For non-Alaskans who have no idea where these places are, here's a map.  (I'm going to post this now  and I'll add the map. UPDATE 3:30pm:  There's the map.)

Q: When's The Cordova Road To Child's Glacier/ Million Dollar Bridge Going To Be Ready? A: It's Not.

Alaska DOT Photo

We had taken the road at the end of July 2011.  The road was closed in August 2011.   On November 23, 2011, I published this post:  Road to Child's Glacier and Million Dollar Bridge Closed Until after 2015.    I recently realized, hey, it's 2015.  I should check on whether the road was ready yet. 

So I emailed the Department of Transportation and got this quick reply:

"Hi Steve,

The bridge is still standing, but the approach to the bridge washed out with the shifting of the Copper River.

There is no plan at this time to rebuild the bridge, we just don't have the construction dollars available.

Please let me know if you have additional questions, or need more information.

Details on the bridge are available here:  http://dot.alaska.gov/nreg/bridge339/

Best,
Meadow Bailey"   (emphasis added)

The link takes you to this undated (Meadow emailed again and said it was 'this winter' so after the March 2014 link below)  announcement:

Copper River Highway Copper Delta Bridge #339

There has been a recent decision to close the project due to the lack of funding for design or construction.

History

The 56-mile Copper River Highway begins in Cordova and ends at the Million Dollar Bridge. The road provides access to vast areas of the Copper River Valley, is used frequently by hunters and recreationists, and potentially supports proposed resource development.
Bridge No. 339 is one of 11 bridges crossing the Copper River Delta. The bridge was constructed in 1977. The hydraulic design of the existing bridge was based upon a predicted flood event of 21,300 cubic feet per second (159,300 gallons per second).
Naturally occurring changes in flow between river channels across the delta led to a dramatic increase in the amount of water flowing under Bridge No. 339. This increase in flow was first noticed in 2009. In 2010 ADOT&PF along with the U.S. Geological Survey began a comprehensive monitoring program at the site. During the summer of 2011 the flow was measured at 89,000 cubic feet per second (665,800 gallons per second).
Early in 2011 a project was created to investigate ways to reduce flows and preserve the bridge. However, field measurements revealed that the increased flow has scoured away 50 feet of the river bed under the bridge. The scour has compromised the vertical and lateral structural capacity of the bridge piers and abutments. These conditions constitute structural failure of the bridge, requiring that it be closed.

Did you read carefully?  The bridge was built in 1977 "based upon a predicted flood event of 21,300 cubic feet per second (159,300 gallons per second)."  You can compare that to how many gallons per second go into your car at the gas station.

However, in 2011, the water flow (presumably a regular event, not a flood event) was 89,000 cubic feet per second (665,800 gallons per second)."   That's almost five times greater.   



And this DOT page has links to other updates, including a three page pdf in March 2014 that says, among other things:

• "There are two different bridge options
• Option #1
  Decked Bulb-Tee Girders on Drilled Shaft Piers.
  Estimated construction cost: $66,250,000
•  Option #2
  Box Girders on Pipe Pile Extension Piers.
  Estimated construction cost:  $50,700,000"
• "During the winter the road beyond milepost 16 is not maintained and is closed to vehicle traffic (typically November thru mid April).  The 2010 summer Average Daily Traffic Volume (ADT) at Bridge 339 was 65."  So, if we count summer as mid April to November 1

That means, say if summer is from April 15 to October 31, we'd have 168 days times 65 cars or a total of about 10,000 cars, which would mean, for one summer, each car crossing the bridge would be, using the cheaper bridge, about $5000.  And over 30 years - the life of the original bridge - at the same rate, the toll for each car would reduce to about $160 per vehicle.  (And this doesn't consider maintenance and repairs.)  Of course, other roads and bridges in Alaska aren't calculated this way.  It might be interesting if they were.  Say, how much would that road from Juneau to the mine they want to build cost per vehicle over 30 years? 

But there's more:

• "Since the bridge was closed in August of 2011, the river has continued to migrate east, washing out an additional 1,000 feet of the Copper River Highway.  Erosion is now threatening Bridge No. 340 located 1,100 feet east of Bridge No. 339."  

In any case, anyone  who knows about the price of oil and the state of the Alaska budget knows neither of these options is going to happen any time soon.

If you want to get out to the Million Dollar bridge or to Child's Glacier, which in 2011 had a beautiful campground, you're going to have to go by boat or float plane.  

Road to Child's Glacier and Million Dollar Bridge Closed Until after 2015

[UPDATE May 1, 2015:  Here's an update on the road. 
Q: When's The Cordova Road To Child's Glacier/ Million Dollar Bridge Going To Be Ready? A: It's Not]

We spent two days at Child's Glacier in July when we went to Cordova for Joe and Martha's wedding.  The campground host told me that there were problems with one of the bridges

Alaska Dept of Transportation photo

and it could be closed down any time.  So I took pictures of the bridge as we crossed over it on the way back.  At least I'm pretty sure this is the right bridge, but clearly the water level when we passed it was much different from in the DOT aerial photo below.

In any case, you can't go to Child's Glacier or the Million Dollar bridge any more by car.  The bridge was closed August 20 and today I got a press release from the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities saying if everything goes well, the might begin construction in 2015.  That means no campers will be using that great new campground at Child's Glacier for at least another five years.

River very near to Copper River Highway

Or maybe the intrepid entrepreneurs of Cordova will find ways to boat and fly people out there and just permanently park campers in the campground for several years until the bridge is finished.  But I have to say, the road itself seemed threatened by high waters for a good part of the way too.  I was standing on the edge of the highway when I took the picture on the left. 

DOT&PF Extends Copper River Highway Closure
Bridge at mile 36.5 must be replaced before road can reopen.


(FAIRBANKS, Alaska) — The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities (ADOT&PF) has indefinitely closed the Copper River Highway at mile 36 due to safety concerns at Bridge No. 339. The closure will last until the bridge is replaced.

I'm pretty sure this is Bridge 339

The 56-mile Copper River Highway is located near Cordova and ends at the Million Dollar Bridge. The road, frequented by hunters and recreationists, leads to vast areas of proposed resource development.


Bridge No. 339 is one of 11 bridges crossing the Copper River Delta. Naturally occurring changes to the flow of water between channels across the delta led to a dramatic increase in the amount of water running under the bridge. Due to the increased amount of water, 50 ft of “scour”, or erosion, was observed at the bridge in 2011. The scour resulted in a lowering of the channel bottom that compromised the structure of the bridge and necessitated the closure. 
Bridge No. 339 was constructed in 1977. Based upon the channel configurations at that time, bridge designers estimated that water under the bridge would flow at 18,500 cubic feet per second (cfs). During the summer of 2011, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) hydrologists measured the water flow to exceed 85,000 cfs.  Channel and flow distribution changes are a natural part of deltaic river systems. The adverse effects of these changes on Bridge No. 339 was first noted in 2009, when the bridge began receiving a greater portion of the total Copper River flow than its neighboring bridges. In 2010, ADOT&PF and the USGS began a comprehensive monitoring program at the bridge that included frequent on-site inspections and the use of bridge sensors that enabled remote observation of the bridge.
ADOT&PF received funding this fall to start the design phase of a replacement bridge; the design phase will progress through 2013 with agency permitting in 2014. Pending the availability of construction funds, the construction project could begin as early as 2015.
ADOT&PF oversees 254 airports, 11 ferries serving 33 communities, 5,700 miles of highway and 660 public facilities throughout the state of Alaska. The mission of ADOT&PF is to “Get Alaska Moving through service and infrastructure.”
Attached photo [aerial photo top of post]: Bridge No. 339, located at mile 36.5 of the Copper River Highway, is closed until a replacement bridge is built. A dramatic shift in the Copper River increased the amount of water flowing under the bridge, resulting in severe erosion. (Photo by Jeff Conaway, USGS).

From Bridge Looking East

[UPDATE Feb. 8, 2012 - There's a long discussion at Trip Advisor - Child's Glacier - which includes this comment (#51- Feb. 7, 2012):

I am the person building Childs Glacier Lodge (childsglacierlodge.com). I am hoping to provide transportation to and from the Glacier. Problem is, the Forest Service wants their piece of the pie. I was informed a USFS permit is necessary to have people walk from the road to my boat and back to the road across the river on the other side of the closed (washed out) bridge 339. I have a 15 passenger van on the other side of the washout. I have applied for the permit and have been informed I may have an answer sometime in March. The USFS has however stated to me that the USFS Campground will be closed but that they are reviewing that decision. Issues that need to be addressed by the USFS for their campground are sewer and garbage disposal. Even if the campground is closed, my facility in front of the glacier will be where I will take people if they (the USFS) gives me the permit. I am allowed to go there as long as I don't charge so I will be working on my lodge as soon as the snow and ice situation allows. If the permit is granted the permit conditions will determine terms, schedule and price. If everything works out, there is nothing more grand than Childs Glacier calving. There was a reason two world champion surfers chose it as the only glacier calving waves ever surfed.]

Each Culture is Like a Volume in the Encyclopedia of Human Knowledge

The alternative title is:  What Do Wampanoag and Eyak Have In Common?

Alaskans passed an English Only initiative in 1998 which, in part, said:

"The English language is the language to be used by all public agencies in all government functions and actions."

That particular language was struck down by the Alaska Supreme Court in 2007.

I have to work hard to bite my tongue and not make snarky comments about people who come up with ideas like this and voters who don't speak other languages and simply have no understanding of the value of other languages and other cultures to humankind.

Each culture, in my mind, is like a volume in the Encyclopedia of Human Knowledge.  Each language, and the culture to which it gives life, represents one way that a set of humans found to survive in their part of the earth. 

It contains a view of the world and an understanding of aspects of the world that allowed them to live in their particular niche. It has knowledge that no other language or culture has captured.  And we never know when that knowledge may be of value to the rest of us.  Most of us have no idea of the rich diversity of knowledge that has been collected over millennia and preserved in the blend of each culture and language.

To lose a language is to lose a volume of that encyclopedia. 

There were two movies shown at Out North on Tuesday night.  We Still Live Here told the story of the Wampanoag people, 2/3 of whom were wiped out by yellow fever after early contact with Europeans arriving in their land in Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.  The movie follows Jessie Little Doe who still has remnants of the Wampanoag language in her head, even though the last fluent speaker had died 100 years before.

She ends up on a Fellowship at MIT working to resurrect Wompanoag.  Not only does the language regain life, so do the remnants of the Wompanoag people who rediscover their heritage.

I know those who favor things like English Only are thinking, "It was better off dead.  If these people call themselves Americans, then they should speak English."  Well, first, they do speak English.  Second, the movie traces how the Wompanoag language and culture was essentially destroyed through policies such as taking away their children and raising them in white families.  And third, as I said above, each language contains a unique knowledge of the world.

The last native speaker of Eyak, Chief Marie Smith Jones, died in 2007 at age 90.  But University of Alaska Fairbanks Professor Michael Krauss, has been studying Eyak for almost 50 years and has a rich collection of tapes and documentation of the language.  And a young Frenchman, Guillaume Leduey, discovered Eyak as a child and began studying it from tapes and other materials.  He arrived in Cordova, the area where Eyak are from, in the summer of  and continues to work with Eyak people via the internet and Skype.

Thus the second - short - movie is called Parlez Vous Eyak?

The film maker was at the Out North Tuesday as were six or seven Eyaks who are part of the Eyak Language Project who, like the Wompanoag, are working to resurrect their language.

In the photo, you see UAA Linguistic Anthropologist Roy Mitchell, film maker Laura Bliss Spaan, and four Anchorage Eyaks.  I apologize that didn't write down their names.  It was a powerful discussion after the movie as they discussed the delights and difficulties of learning Eyak.  They also talked a bit about We Still Live Here  and the similarities and differences between the two experiences of reviving their languages. 

You can watch Parlez Vous Eyak below.





I know that English Only folks are passionate in what they believe.  But it was people like them who have destroyed languages all over the world.  These people work to make it harder for non-English (and you can substitute  other dominant culture languages around the world) languages to survive.  It's no different from people who kill off endangered species because some part of them is thought be a powerful aphrodisiac.  It represents self-centeredness and ignorance.  But despite their efforts, people recover lost languages.  It's not impossible.  The most successful example I know of is the revival of Hebrew to become a robust modern language. 

Alaskans can see:

We Still Live Here 

Thursday (tonight) on 

PBS (Channel 7 in Anchorage) 

at 9 pm

It's part of the show Independent Lens.

Copper River Delta Brown Bear Learning To Fish

As we drove out to Child's Glacier last July, a car was stopped on bridge.  We stopped to see what they were looking at.  A young brown bear was in the creek trying to catch fish.  The half hour we were there he didn't have much luck.  But then the glacial silt made it hard to see what was in the water.

But it was a beautiful spot and a magnificent young animal.

Orca Cannery Cordova

Sunset from Campground

As you drive from downtown Cordova toward the ferry terminal, you make an unexpected right and then pass a minimalist campground (we stayed in this gravel parking lot a few nights because it's close to town and looks out onto the water, but it's right next to the road and the only amenity is a restroom) and end up a mile or so later at the Orca Cannery.  There's a lodge there now too.  On Sunday our friends took us out there to look at this place where Martha had fished as a child and where some of Catherine's ashes are.

There's a lodge out there now, and then the old cannery buildings and lots of old stuff.

Under the Cannery

How Big is Big? Child's Glacier

[UPDATE Nov. 29: The road to Child's Glacier (and the $1 million Bridge) was closed in August due to a problem with one of the bridges and a new bridge is not expected to begin construction before 2015. You can read the details here.]

So, how high is this glacier?
a.   50 feet  (15.2 meters)  b.  100 feet  (30.4 m)  c.   200 feet  (60.8 m)  d.  300 feet (91.2 m)
e.   1000 feet (304.8 m)

Does this help?

It's the white mass in the lower middle.

How about this?

Or this?

Big is relative.  It has to be in context.  So when you see Child's Glacier, you need context to get how big it is.   At the view points, besides the signs warning about tsunamis, there's this sign:

Oh dear.  20 story building.  300 foot high face.  Who wrote 300 feet?  I always thought a story was about 10 feet (3 meters).  Did someone change it from 200 feet?

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat just happens to have a formula for calculating the height of buildings if all you know is the number of stories:

So, H= height and s = stories. (The formula assumes a story is about 3.1 meters and adjusts for a lobby, mechanical floors, and a roof.)  Using the formula the height of a 20 story building would be 93.6 meters or 307 feet.  So, I was off and the corrected sign was right.  

But none of that captures how awesome it was to be there on the bank of the Copper River (famous for its well marketed red salmon) watching this huge edifice a quarter mile away, as the water of the river causes it it calve huge chunks of ice.  

The sounds ranged from firecracker through cannon to thunder.  And it went on all day and all night.  Fifteen minutes and you were sure to see at least one, maybe a couple of ice falling events.  Two hours guaranteed you one or two massive events.  Camping there two nights meant we kept being wakened by the crashing thunder.  

The signs also let us know that this is one of the few glaciers that is currently advancing, not retreating.

How can I describe the campground?  How about gentrified? Ready for the big motorhome set with big campsites a comfortable distance apart and lots of clean pit toilets, bear proof garbage cans and food lockers.  But no water or electric hook-ups.  We were there Wednesday and Thursday night and I don't think there was more than one or two other vehicles in the campground.  There's a separate area for tenters.


There's no way you can get this short of going there. And since Cordova isn't connected to the rest of the world by road, you have to go by air or water. So I took some video to share. As I watched the waves come racing towards our shore, I couldn't help but think of surfing and watching the video, you'll see why.



Given this summer is the 50th Anniversary of the Beach Boys' first big hit, and Fender Guitar is giving away Surfin USA ringtones, I hope the Beach Boys don't mind my borrowing their great music which I've been enjoying these 50 years. I don't imagine they had Child's Glacier in mind when they wrote Surfin USA though.




And when I was looking for more information on the glacier, I ran across this video of Garrett McNamara and Kealii Mamala riding the surf here at Child's Glacier.




Occasionally, those waves are really big - the signs say that they throw salmon up onto the shore to the delight of the local bears. And back in 1993 someone I knew was there for the big wave and came back with only a broken arm to prove she'd been there.

How big?  The face of the glacier has to be about one or two miles.  So think of how many 20 story buildings you could have in that area.  The large chunks coming down are six to ten stories collapsing into the river.    Here's one last picture.  I stacked the two parts because it would have just been too small to try to fit them in here.  And I'd point out that on the ends, the glacier surface is covered with dirt so while it looks grey, it's still got ice underneath.

Did you get the height right without looking at the answer?

Coho Bar - Cordova

I've got lots of pictures of  Cordova, so I'll just get them up as fast as I can, but not in any particular order.  This is from Sunday.  After a walk at the old Cannery, Joe picked the Coho Bar for lunch because it reminded him of what things used to be like in Nome.  This is NOT a place J and I would have otherwise walked into on our own, so it was good we were with Joe and Martha.

Here it is from outside.

And below, what it looks like inside.

click to enlarge all the photos

The cafe is in the back, but open to the bar.  People kept coming up to Martha to say hi and congratulations.  We got to meet lots of people and hear lots of stories.  Unfortunately, I like to keep my friends, so all the stories are off the record.  We did hear about housing, fishing, work, people's kids, people who have moved away, people moving away, and lots of other stories.  

I took this picture for the sign.  You'll probably have to click on the photo to enlarge it and see it clearly. I was surprised to see people smoking inside.  But this is out in rural Alaska where people are still free.  To some extent.  (Not endorsing, just documenting.)

And here are the newlyweds, surrounded by the Coho's cookie jar collection.  The menu is mainly burgers - all with real meat - with fries or onion rings.  I had a bowl of chili.  

Mystery Yacht - Alucia - in Cordova

Last night people pointed out a yacht in the water near the ferry port that had a helicopter on deck.  People were wondering what celebrity might be in town.

This morning as we sat on the Alaska ferry, Chenega, waiting to head out, I noticed the mystery ship was just ahead of us.  After a week of almost rain-free weather, today Cordova was socked in and I had to shoot through through a raindrop dappled window.

I got a better view as we finally left the dock. (A car waiting to come on board couldn't start and we were 50 minutes late leaving but only 20 minutes late arriving in Whittier.)  I was able to get this clearer shot and saw through the binoculars that it's called Alucia.


Yacht Insider gives some history:

"Alucia originally was a submarine tender built by the French in 1973 and called Nadir. Her current owners have all but obliterated that persona, having just completed a rebuild that makes Alucia a private motoryacht with accommodations for scientists and documentarians alike. In addition to the yacht-like cabins aboard, Seattle-based Joseph Artese Design penned onboard laboratories, an aquarium, film editing suites, and satellite hookups for beaming live footage of discoveries to the world.

“Alucia has been built as a specific hybrid,” said Rob McCallum, who was the project manager in Washington state, working with Kirilloff & Associates on the rebuild naval architecture. “Alucia is capable of making the largest private contribution to marine science since Cousteau’s Calypso.”

A February 2010 Artesedesign (they design yachts) article identifies Mike McDowell as the owner:

“We wanted an expedition yacht with formidable ability,” explains owner Mike Mcdowell. “and that’s what we got.”

. . . A notoriously staunch vessel in the face of rough weather, Nadir caught the eye of McDowell, an australian adventurer passionate about science and oceanographic exploration. Mcdowell had earned a reputation by leading tourists and amateur explorers on expeditions to the distant reaches of the globe. some of his adventures included taking russian icebreakers to the North Pole and diving to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. Through his company, Deep Ocean Expeditions, formed in 1998, McDowell was among the the first to offer commercial tours to the Antarctic, leading dive explorations to Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, and eventually conducting submersible expeditions on deep ocean excursions. He was the first to dive on the battleship Bismarck and was an early visitor to the RMS Titanic with his submersible team.

Noticing the disconnect that often accompanies the design of expedition ships and the needs of their users, McDowell was inspired in 2004 to found Deep Ocean Quest and commission the Alucia rebuild. he wanted a vessel that could work comfortably in remote and challenging regions.

Who's Mike McDowell? A University of Queensland site offers this (and they have a photo):

A geophysicist in a former life, Mike has built a career from adventure and exploration in some of the most inaccessible regions on Earth and beyond. A leading innovator in expedition cruising and ecotourism ventures, Mike founded Quark Expeditions, pioneering the use of icebreakers to take expeditioners into the frozen reaches of the Arctic, Antarctic and the North Pole. In the late 1990's he founded Deep Ocean Expeditions, the first company to make abyss-rated submersibles available to the general public. More recently, Mike co-founded Space Adventures, a company successfully offering space travel to the public. Over three decades, Mike has specialised in nurturing bold, 'off-the-wall' concepts from concept to fruition. With Deep Ocean Quest and Deep Ocean Australia, he sees a unique opportunity to combine his passion for adventure with his lifelong interest in science and technology.

So, how can former geo-physicist adventures afford a ship like Alucia? We know from above that there was also a silent partner and we don't know how much each contributed. But it would appear that at least some of McCormick's customers have plenty of money.


AdventureCruiseGuides gives us a sense of how pricey Deep Ocean Quest adventures can be.  They say offer a 13 day program with a seven hour dive to the HMS Titanic for $60,000.

Sydney expedition cruise company, Adventure Associates (AAs), is offering places on the 11-hour roundtrip to the wreck in conjunction with Deep Ocean Expeditions (DOE) who have been taking paying divers to the depths since 2001. Australian Mike McDowell launched DOE in 1998 but is perhaps best known as founder of benchmark expedition cruise company, Quark Expeditions, in 1991. Coincidently, McDowell is also the new owner of AAs, having purchased the company from founder, Denis Collaton this year.

Before you rush for your Visa card, the 13-day program will leave you very little change from US$60,000 and you’ll spend just seven hours in contact with the wreck itself. And, yes, you pick up your own airfares. Can you take home a souvenir from the deep? Hmmm… let me ask.

But wait!  It appears she was sold May 2011.  From Boat International:

Stuart Larsen at Fraser Yachts tells me he and joint listing agent Tom Allen have sold the extraordinary 55.75m motor yacht Alucia.

All custom superyachts are by their very nature unique, but Alucia is something else again. She was originally built by the Auroux yard in 1974 as the support ship for the French research submersibleNautile. She was  completely stripped, rebuilt, rewired and re-equipped, while a thorough reworking of her superstructure gave Alucia a new submersible hangar, a sundeck and a helicopter pad.

She’s the only ship in the world to carry three deep-diving manned submersibles and this, in conjunction with her decompression chamber, mixed-gas dive support, powerful sonar and tenders, make her one of the most sophisticated  sub-sea exploration platforms ever built.

Her interior has been fitted out to superyacht standards and accommodates up to 16 guests in a master, double and four twins plus four Pullman berths. With a range of 10,000 nautical miles at 11 knots, Alucia was asking $38 million.  Her interior has been fitted out to superyacht standards and accommodates up to 16 guests in a master, double and four twins plus four Pullman berths. With a range of 10,000 nautical miles at 11 knots, Alucia was asking $38 million.

Stuart ponts out that she was used by Hollywood director Jim Cameron to discover the remains of Titanic and most recently as the mother ship to the Woods Hole scientific expedition that found the Air France wreckage off the coast of Brazil.

It's too late to contact Larsen tonight and I doubt he'd tell me who bought it anyway.  

Some other places you can learn about the Alucia:

The Deep OceanQuest site offers a detailed description of the  ship.
Super Yacht Times gives all the stats.

Cordova Sampler - Bear, Bridge, Ice, Wedding

This is just a sneak preview.  We spent a spectacular two days at the Child's Glacier then got back into town today for the wedding of Joe Senungetuk and Martha Hoover.  More on all this later, but here's an appetizer.

Child's Glacier

Million Dollar Bridge

Whittier to Cordova

A riverfall, not just a waterfall, was coming down the mountainside as we waited to get on the ferry in Whittier.

It holds 35 vehicles and two hundred and some people and gets from Whittier to Cordova and three and a half hours.  Too fast to see much.  And J didn't get seasick!

We sat 'out' in the solarium for a while.  It was protected from the wind, but after a while I was getting chilly and the noise was LOUD.

It was hard to read my book - The Lacuna - with all the scenery around us.  But I like the book.  And see?  There was some blue sky.

Looking overboard.

This is a very comfortable way to travel.  No pat downs or scanners either.

Almost in Cordova, which is on left (out of the picture.)

We're hoping to enjoy some Alaska time.  And visit friends.