Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
— 31 —
And All I Ask is a Tall Ship
And a Star to Steer Her By…
WE'RE STILL LOOKING FOR
rain and not finding any. So, not one to fly in the face of
providence, I went white-water rafting down Keystone Canyon along with John and Jan
and eleven other hardy souls. It was so hot beneath all the rain gear and boots and life jack-
ets that it was a positive relief to get hit in the face with what our boatman called a glacial
facial. The river was swift and rough, fed by waterfall after waterfall, the Sluice Box, the
Horse's Tail, and the inevitable Bridal Veil, all of which provides world-class ice climbing
when frozen.
Back to the ship by noon and the rest of the day was spent on the aft deck, working on
my sunburn. We departed Valdez at 5 p.m. for Seward, to a lecture in the Mid-Ocean
Lounge by Dr. Dick Thomas, on “Landscaping with Ice: A Guide to Glacially Modified
Terrain.” Considering the massifs of ice we'd been sliding by for the last three days, an ap-
propriate topic.
Day 9: May 22
nd
, Seward
At last, at last, clouds, rain and fog. Good old Seward. World Explorer Cruises had ar-
ranged for the authors to host twenty lucky winners of a ticket raffle held as a benefit for
the Seward Public Library to lunch on board ship, after which we went to the library to talk
and sign. I got to spend the morning and the evening with my friend Sharyn, who lives in
Seward, which made it almost a day off. Everyone else takes the trip to Denali, which is
why we were in port until 9 p.m. that evening. It seemed very odd to set sail when home
was only a hundred miles up the road.
