Dinner in the Ironbound

The other night our nephew Mark and his wife Lucy took Michelle and me to a great Portuguese seafood restaurant in the "Ironbound" section of Newark N.J. The Ironbound is a neighborhood in Newark which is near the downtown and stretches along the Passaic River. It is roughly triangular in shape and is bounded on all three sides by railroad tracks - hence "ironbound". Many years ago it was a predominately Italian neighborhood which gradually changed over to Portuguese and is now becoming more Brazilian but with a continuing Portuguese presence.


Lucy is from Brazil originally, and lived in the Ironbound for some time prior to meeting Mark. As a result she and Mark are quite familiar with the area (they visit there a lot to eat and see friends) plus Lucy of course speaks Portuguese which is a plus.




Anyway, they wanted to take us out to dinner to celebrate Michelle's birthday, so we strapped a baby seat into my SUV, strapped Little Mark aka "The World's Cutest Grandnephew (TM)" into the baby seat and off we went.



There is a kind of a back way into the Ironbound that Mark and I both use. It involves taking I-280 east and bypassing all the Newark exits to get off in Harrison. Take a left onto Harrison Ave, take Harrison to Frank E. Rodgers Blvd, turn right and go all the way to the bridge over the Passaic River. Once over the bridge you are in the Ironbound section and then it's four blocks straight to Ferry Street which is the main drag of the area. Coming back is even easier, as there is an entrance to I-280 West from Frank E. Rodgers Blvd.



Anyway, we went to a Portuguese Restaurant called Vila Nova, which is located on the corner of Ferry Street and Niagara Street. There was free parking across Niagara Street in a bank parking lot. There was an "attendant" of sorts in the lot who sort of directed people into spaces - since my vehicle was actually in one piece when we came out of the restaurant I tipped him a couple of bucks.

Mark and Lucy chose the place based on the fact that Michelle the Birthday Girl wanted Portuguese seafood and they knew this place since Lucy used to live right across the street when they were dating. We trooped into the place and were seated at a nice big round table, a highchair was secured for Little Mark and we were ready to go.

The restaurant had lots of atmosphere and large quantities of good food. The only negative was that it was a very hot and humid night and the antiquated air conditioning system in the dining room couldn't keep up. As a result, we were somewhat uncomfortable from the heat.

However, as I said, the food was good and plentiful. We actually ended up ordering too much food, although we did eat most of it. One dish that Mark recommended was a broiled seafood combination. It was supposed to be for two people; when it came out it was more like it could have fed three to four. It contained a whole broiled lobster, a huge piece of wonderful broiled flounder, a couple of huge prawns and a bunch of scallops, shrimp, mussels, and clams.

Well it would have probably been enough, but we ended up ordering two more dishes: some broiled grouper which was very good and some wonderful salty Portuguese style spareribs. The restaurant also gave us a loaf of Portuguese sausage bread that was very good and of course the main dishes came with a huge plate of saffron rice and another plate of those tasty Portuguese fried potatoes. Naturally, this was all washed down with a pitcher of Sangria. The four adults plus the little dude managed to polish off all of the seafood platter and a good chunk of the grouper and ribs. In the midst of all this gluttony we also found time to play peek-a-boo with Little Mark by hiding behind our napkins. He thought this was hilarious. Finally, we could chow down no more and regrettably we had to say no to the great looking dessert cart and ask for the check.

On our way back to the car, Little Mark stopped to "flirt" with a little Brazilian girl of about his age (2 years) who was sitting in the Vila Nova's sidewalk cafe with her mom and dad. But alas, we dragged him away to head homeward.

We went back the same route we drove in and were all soon back at home.

I would definitely recommend this restaurant, but would caution that the portions are huge so don't overorder unless you're a big fan of doggie bags (the waitstaff seemed to have a tendency to encourage overordering). Also, try to avoid going on hot, humid days. Again, it's the Vila Nova, 265 Ferry Street, Newark, NJ 07105, telephone 973-344-8540.

The Colbert Report

Last Tuesday was Michelle's birthday so by way of celebration we went in to New York City to be in the studio audience of the Stephen Colbert show: "The Colbert Report" which airs on Comedy Central. Last year we were able to get tickets to be in the studio audience of "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart and we had a really good time, so we were looking forward to this trip. We had gotten tickets a few months ago to see Stephen Colbert, but due to their overbooking, we were unable to get in at that time, so they gave us VIP tickets for this date which guaranteed we would get in.

We got four tickets total so we went in with Michelle's sister and her friend. True to their word, the show ushers let us right in without having to wait in line. We did have to spend about an hour in a waiting room, but at least there were places to sit, a water fountain, and restrooms.

Finally, we were ushered into the studio. I was surprised that the studio audience for "The Colbert Report" is only about half the size of that for the "Daily Show". They seated us and then announced that before the taping of the show, they were going to do a skit making fun of an incident a couple of months ago when Stephen fell and broke his wrist and they needed us for audience reaction shots.

The skit involved some muscle builder guy with no shirt, just a tie, taking the part of Stephen Colbert and running around the studio like a maniac. He also threw (fake) $100 bills to the audience and autographed some woman's baby (naturally she was a plant and the "baby" was a doll). Eventually, Stephen's stand-in flexed his muscles and took a swan dive onto a load of padding on the floor. As for the rest of the audience, we were told to cheer and clap hysterically at the appropriate times and to show shock and horror when "Stephen" took his fall. The stage manager and others that were there running the skit were pretty nice and the whole thing was a lot of fun. After it was over, they told us that the skit would used on a future show. Also, I got a fake $ 100 bill to keep as a souvenir. Then it was time for the regular show to start.


Stephen Colbert came running out to real cheers and applause this time and did run around the stage like a maniac. I can see why he did fall since the stage includes a raised platform where his desk is. He answered a few questions from the audience and greeted us warmly. He seems like a genuinely nice guy. He made a point to say that he was out of character at this point before the start of the actual show. I should point out that his "shtick" is to take the part of a right-wing blowhard ala Hannity/O'Reilly/Limbaugh. Of course he takes it to clueless extremes that are hilarious. It's a real send-up of the Fox News and right-wing talk radio universe.

His show that night was funny, as usual, one bit Stephen did was a feature called "Worthy Opponent" in which he debates himself and made fun of "War on Terror" paranoia.

His guest that evening was Michael Shermer founder of the Skeptics Society and the author of a book which he was there to plug called "Why Darwin Matters". True to form Stephen Colbert took the part of a right-wing intelligent design supporter and hilarity ensued.

The show was in a building on West 54th Street between Tenth and Eleventh. Afterward we walked to a restaurant on the corner of Ninth and 50th called "Roberto Passon". It was an Italian place recommended by friends of Michelle's sister. The food was very good and reasonably priced for a restaurant in New York City. Here is a link to the restaurant web page: http://www.robertopasson.com/

After dinner, I got the car and we headed home.

One really strange thing was that both in our trip into the city, and our return to New Jersey, traffic was extremely light. It may have been the combination of a Tuesday night, rainy weather, and summer when people are away, but it was still weird.

Anyone who is interested in tickets to either the Daily Show or Colbert should check on the Comedy Central web site. But when you go, get there early and be prepared to wait a couple of hours. Otherwise, you may get cut off the way we did the first time. You will then be guaranteed entrance the next time they give you tickets, but you will then have made two trips into the city. Although, I must say that the first trip we made was not a total waste even though we did not see the Colbert Report that time, as we went in very early to New York and spent some time in the Metropolitan Museum of art.

Also, we finally did get to see ourselves on TV. On a later show The Colbert Report featured Stephen getting his cast removed. As part of that whole bit, they showed some parts of what they had taped with us before the show that day. Sure enough, as the stand-in guy took his pratfall, there were the four of us in the audience looking "shocked and concerned". They actually used very little of what they taped that day, but at least we didn't end up on the cutting room floor so to speak. I think the segment, which aired on August 23rd can still be seen on the Comedy Central web site. The Colbert Report (also for tickets) site is here: http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_colbert_report/index.jhtml

North to Alaska VII

The last time around I left us on the train to Talkeetna AK. Talkeetna is a small town with a year-round population of about 800. It's a popular tourist destination and it's other claims to fame are as a jumping-off point for expeditions setting out to climb Denali (Mt. McKinley) and as the town which was the inspiration for the quirky little Alaska town in the 90's TV show "Northern Exposure". That show was filmed in Washington State, but having been an occasional viewer of the show and having seen Talkeetna, I can see where they captured the atmosphere of the town pretty well, including the community radio station. Well, we pulled into the Talkeetna RR station and our faithful bus and driver were waiting for us. The next stop was our hotel: the Talkeetna Alaska Lodge.

It was a very nice hotel with two restaurants and a huge wood-burning fireplace in the main lobby. But it's main claim to fame is that from the patio in the back of the lobby, you can see all the way to the Alaska Range and, weather permitting, get an excellent view of Denali itself. Well, the weather only permits on the average 60 days out of any given year.

Here is a picture I found of Denali from the Lodge on a perfect day

Here is the view we saw. If you look hard, you can sort of see a bit of the mountain poking through the clouds above the dark, saddle-shaped mountain in the center.

That evening, we took a shuttle bus into the booming metropolis of Talkeetna in the pouring rain. We ended up at what I would consider the ultimate Alaska wilderness dive - a bar and restaurant called the "West Rib". We loved it. Contrary to what you might expect from the name, they did not serve ribs of any kind. The name refers to an approach route to Denali used by many climbers. What they did serve was an amazingly good seafood platter of salmon, halibut and Dungeness crab. I also tried an ale called "Ice Axe" which was around 9% alcohol. It tasted like regular ale with a shot of vodka in it. After one, I switched to Alaska Amber.

Michelle and her sister in the "West Rib"

The next day, we pretty much had to whole day to kill in Talkeetna before our train left in mid-afternoon to take us to Anchorage and the end of the trip. We went back into town and ate breakfast at a place called "The Roadhouse" which is a restaurant and bakery. Their breakfasts are so huge we were advised to order a half portion which was plenty big enough even for my appetite. Afterwards, we wandered up and down Talkeetna's two block long main street and checked out the various gift shops and galleries. There were some nice but expensive things; however, nothing jumped out and said "buy me". In the end, Michelle found a neat miniature mask in the hotel gift shop of all places. It is by a Native American artist and depicts a wolf with its prey in its jaws.

Main Street Talkeetna with the "West Rib". The "Roadhouse" is down the street to the right.

Eventually, we returned to the hotel and hung out in the lobby until it was time to get on our bus and go to the train station. It was during this time that we got the (very) partial view of Denali from the back patio.

We got on the train and headed for Anchorage. Dinner was served on the train and we saw some more scenery and eventually we wound up at our last hotel, the Marriott in Anchorage. The next day we were up at Oh dark hundred to catch our flight home via Seattle.

Well folks, that concludes the story of our Alaska adventure. I'm sure I left a lot out, but that will be stuff to bore family and friends with. Generally speaking, I would say that the cruise/land tour is the best way for the average person to see Alaska. My only recommendation would be that anyone who does this reverse the order. That is, arrange to do the Alaska interior land tour first, and then get on the ship in Seward and cruise to Vancouver. The trip can be booked this way and has the advantage that after the fairly hectic schedule of the land tour, you can look forward to the relatively relaxing cruise portion. Other recommendations (some of these are based on an earlier cruise-only trip we took): try to make it to a Dungeness crab dinner, gold-panning is fun, the WP&Y railroad is great, whale watching is very enjoyable, if your ship happens to go to Sitka (this trip didn't) there's a wonderful raptor rescue center there with close-up views of bald eagles. Also, see Denali Park, don't miss river rafting, and be sure your tour takes the riverboat in Fairbanks. Oh, and if you like beer, don't miss the Alaska Amber.

North to Alaska VI

After a bus ride of several hours, we arrived at the gates of the Denali National Park and Preserve. Denali is the Native name for the tallest mountain in North America also known as Mt. McKinley. The bus dropped us off at our hotel: The Grand Denali Lodge. It is located on top of a mountain near the Park entrance and there was a spectacular view from our room. After a few minutes to freshen up, we were off to our whitewater rafting adventure on the nearby Nenana river.

The view from our room. The river is the Nenana where we went rafting

A bus from the rafting company picked us up at our hotel and took us to their base on the Nenana river. There we were all fitted with "dry suits". These are tight fitting rubber suits which are water tight and keep one from getting wet if you should fall into the river's icy, glacial fed, thirty-five degree water. We also had to don life vests. They then herded us onto a school bus and drove us to the put-in point some thirteen miles upriver from their base. There they divided us into groups of eight or nine to a raft. Each raft was piloted by an experienced river guide who steered us with a pair of oars from a middle seat - in our case this person was a young woman who despite her youth was quite experienced and had even done raft guiding in New Zealand. Our job was simply to hold on and enjoy the trip.

I should point out that the raft trip we took was one of two possible routes. Ours was considered more of a scenic wilderness trip and less of a thrill ride in that we only experienced a few class II and one or two class III rapids (rapids go from class I to class VI with VI being the most dangerous). The other route had more of the class III rapids. However, our guide told us that ours was by far the more scenic route. I think she was probably right. Other than the other rafts, we saw no other humans or signs of humanity during nearly the entire 13 mile trip on the Nenana. It was only as we came to the end that we saw some houses along the banks. The scenery and the atmosphere was really amazing, the rapids we did shoot were a lot of fun (those suits proved their usefulness) and while it rained a little bit during the trip (who cared? Rubber suits!) it was enough to create a beautiful double rainbow which we haven't seen since we were in Hawai'i. The only bad thing is that we were not permitted to bring any cameras unless they were waterproof - so unfortunately no pictures of this trip.

Here is a picture from the Web of the area we rafted on the Nenana

By the way, the raft trip (including preparation) started at six o'clock in the evening and ended around nine forty-five - and it was still broad daylight. The sun only sets for a couple of hours a night in that part of Alaska in the summer! After the raft company took us back to our hotel, we ate a late dinner and off to bed.

The next day, we were picked up by a U.S. Parks Service bus for our Denali Park tour. The Parks service decided some years ago to ban all private vehicles from most of Denali Park in order to preserve the integrity of the eco-system. The only way to see the park by road is on the Park Service bus tours. The drivers are all park rangers and qualified naturalists, so this is probably as good a tour as you would get in any case.

The bus took us to the visitors' center at the park entrance where we watched a short film on the history of the park - and more importantly scored some coffee and bagels for breakfast at the snack bar. Then we headed off down the park road. The park was very beautiful with mountains, tundra, and taiga (taiga is a sub-arctic forest made up mostly of evergreens with some broadleaf trees). Unfortunately, we did not see much in the way of wildlife - just a couple of caribou too far away to photograph, some snowshoe hares, and some wild sheep which were pretty much just moving white dots high up on a mountain. The bus driver/naturalist said this was pretty much par for the course - seeing wildlife was a luck of the draw sort of thing.

The Savage River in Denali Park

Eventually, the bus tour wound up at the Alaska Railroad terminal in Denali Park, where we boarded a rail coach for the next leg of our trip. I found it interesting that the cruise companies have their own private rail cars for their land based tours. They are coupled on to regularly scheduled Alaska Railroad passenger trains traveling on the line between Fairbanks and Anchorage. The RCL coach was quite nice. It was two levels with the top having a full length vista dome and the lower level being a dining car and kitchen facility. On the day we left Denali bound southward to the town of Talkeetna we ate lunch on board and it was quite good. While we spent most of our time up top in the dome where the view was unobstructed, the dining deck had large picture windows so that even while eating we did not miss much of the spectacular scenery. The train also had an on-board tour guide who told us what we were looking at and answered questions.

A view of our train from our private coach. The other cars you see are regular Alaska Railroad passenger cars

Eventually, our train pulled into the town of Talkeetna AK where we were to spend the night. More on that next time.

Next: Talkeetna, a classic Alaskan gin-mill, and the elusive Mt. McKinley.

North to Alaska V

Well, as Marty Allen would say: Hello dere! To continue the narrative of our Alaska adventure, we arrived by air in Fairbanks AK on the evening of the day our ship docked and officially began the land portion of our RCL tour. They put us up in a hotel called the "Sophie Station". It was a nice place with a decent but pricey restaurant and the rooms were actually suites with sitting rooms, full kitchens and balconys in addition to the bedroom and bath. The beds were quite comfortable and the rooms were clean. If I had any objection to the place, it was that it was not near anything easily walkable. We could have taken a shuttle to downtown Fairbanks, but after a day that started at around 5:30 AM, we were not feeling very ambitious. So we ended up eating in a "pub" that was an adjunct to the hotel restaurant. I had a buffalo burger - quite good and supposedly lower in fat than beef, and Michelle had some tasty fish and chips made with Alaskan halibut.

The hotel was about a quarter mile from a store called "Fred Meyers" which is a chain in Alaska. This particular store was a combination department store/supermarket - something on the order of a Walmart, but not as large as the typical Walmart store. I walked over there to pick up some snacks and diet coke for the rest of our trip. On the way I saw something that hit home about how far north we were. Each set of four parking spaces in the hotel lot were clustered around a short steel post. On top of each post was a cluster of four electrical outlets. I then recalled being told that in -40 to -60 degrees F a vehicle left out overnight had better have an electric block heater to keep the crankcase oil from becoming a solid immobile mass that no starter will be able to turn over. Well it seemed strange since the temperature in Fairbanks that day was in the 80's with 90 forecast for the next day but I was told later that in winter, it can fall to -60. Some temperature range!

Riverboat landing in Fairbanks

The "Discovery II"

The next day we breakfasted at the hotel and then were bussed to a landing on the Chena River which runs through Fairbanks. There, we had some time to shop for tee shirts etc. and then onto the sternwheel riverboat "Discovery II" for a trip on the Chena and Tanana rivers. The riverboat trip was quite enjoyable as they did more than just point out scenery. For instance: they arranged for an Alaskan bush pilot to take off and land his float plane right next to us on the water. That was for starters. Then, a little further down the river they pulled into a landing at Trailbreaker Kennels, the home and dog kennel of the late Susan Butcher: a young woman who had won the famous Iditarod dogsled race a number of times. Sadly, Ms. Butcher passed away a few years ago at quite a young age, but her husband and others keep the kennel and tradition alive. The dogs are trained in the snowless summer by pulling a four-wheel all-terrain vehicle with the engine removed. As we watched from the deck of the boat, the dog trainers had a team hitched up to demonstrate for us. It was amazing how excited the dogs were at the prospect of a run. Sled dogs are bred for this and it is what they love to do.

Here is a picture of dogs training by pulling an engineless ATV

After our stop at the kennels, the boat continued on to the junction of the Chena and Tenana rivers, where it turned down stream into the Tenana. Next stop was a recreated Athabascan Indian village where two young women who attend the University of Alaska - one an Eskimo and the other an Athabascan Indian- showed us around the exhibits and described the Native Alaskan cultures. We also met an Athabascan lady named Dixie Alexander who makes her summer home at the village and is a world renowned maker of traditional Native Alaskan fur parkas. These are made from all natural animal pelts and decorated with elaborate and beautiful beadwork. One of her parkas is actually on display at the Smithsonian. At the village we also had the chance to see some reindeer and some more sled dogs close up.

Another interesting thing at the village was a traditional Athabascan fish wheel. This is an ingenious device invented by the Indian people which uses the river current to turn a wheel upon which are mounted baskets that scoop up the salmon swimming upstream to spawn. I have to say that this device and other things I was told and saw left me very impressed with the Native Alaskan people and their ability to survive for thousands of years in a hostile and unforgiving environment.

Incidentally, if you're wondering what the difference is: Eskimos (Inupiaq, Yupik and Cupik peoples) are a coastal people who live on the west and north coast of the state. Athabascans live in the interior, Aleuts live on the south coast and the Aleutian Islands (naturally), and Tlingit, Eyak, Haida and Tsimishian Indians live in the coastal panhandle region. These people in the panhandle have a lot in common with the Native people of the Pacific Northwest regions of the U.S. and Canada. E.g. they are totem pole carvers.

Anyway, after the tour of the village, we reboarded the Discovery II and it was back to the landing where we set out from. At the dock we boarded our tour bus and it was off to downtown Fairbanks where we had lunch (Italian food of all things) and wandered around the downtown where some sort of gold rush festival was in progress. After that it was onto the tour bus and off to Denali Park.

Next: Denali, whitewater rafting and a train ride.

North to Alaska IV

It occurs to me that I should digress for a bit and describe something that we saw during our cruise, even though I'm telling it out of sequence. Like most ships, the "Radiance of the Seas" had nightly shows with their on-board orchestra and singers/dancers, along with specialty acts such as magicians, comedians etc.

Well one night, somewhere in the middle of the cruise, the announced act was a comedian named Marty Allen. Now Marty Allen is someone I vaguely remember from TV during my childhood/teen years back in the 50's and 60's as one-half of an act known as Allen and Rossi. Michelle had a similar recollection of him. Mr. Allen was best described as a short, somewhat chubby Jewish guy with a head of wild hair that looked like an oversized black Brillo pad. His trademark line was "Hello dere". Well, the name of the on-board show was "Hello dere" and indeed it was that Marty Allen. He appeared with a female singer named Karon Kate who did a few standard musical numbers (she has a decent voice) and acted as a straight woman to Marty when he came out on stage. She is also his wife of twenty-three years. Unfortunately, all of the jokes he told have been circulating on the Internet for years, and at least one, involving an Irish woman and the "rhythm method" has been around since I was a kid. I guess the big thrill was actually seeing this guy still alive and doing comedy. To put him in perspective, he was a guest on the Ed Sullivan show when the Beatles made their first US appearance there. Oh well, at 85 years old the guy has a lot of heart to still be doing Vegas and cruise ships.


Marty Allen

Returning to the chronological account of the trip, the "Radiance of the Seas" docked at the port of Seward AK on Friday, July 20th, exactly eight days after we sailed from Vancouver BC. Since we were continuing with the cruise line's land portion of the tour, we waited until we were called to board our bus to Anchorage, about a three-hour trip from Seward. The trip was, however, not boring. It took us through the Kenai Peninsula which is a scenic national park filled with mountains and glaciers. Our trip called for us to then take a plane from Anchorage which is on the south coast of Alaska to Fairbanks AK in the central part of the state. However, since our flight was not scheduled until the later part of the afternoon, they had to do something with us to kill time so they took us to the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. We had time to have lunch in their restaurant and tour some of the galleries. There was a lot of traditional native Alaskan art and galleries of art by non-native artists depicting life and history in the state in times gone by. My favorite gallery, however, was an exhibit of contemporary art by native Alaskans. It consisted of art done in various media including video installations and dealt mostly with the artists' visions and feelings about their roles as traditional people in a modern society. I would have liked to have spent more time in this exhibit, but we had to hop back on the bus and head for the airport.

Next: Fairbanks and the riverboat: sled dogs and another native artist.

North to Alaska III

Sunset at sea - taken by Michelle

Hello again. When I last left my faithful readers (all two of you) we were departing beautiful downtown Skagway AK for our next stop - Icy Strait Point: a small Native Indian fishing village and site of a former cannery. The basic entertainment choices here were: a.) a hike in the woods b.) a trip on a whale-watching boat or c.) a form of insanity called a zip line in which you are driven up a mountain for 45 minutes in a bus, wait an hour in line and then spend 90 seconds screaming as you're strapped in a harness and slide down a wire cable for 1500 feet back to where you started. Needless to say, we went whale watching.

The old cannery at Icy Point Strait

The whale watching boat was a large twin hulled power boat that had three decks and was fairly comfortable and stable. The tour was accompanied by a young woman naturalist who told us about whales and what to look for, what we were seeing etc. We did see whales. Since summer is the time the Humpback whales migrate to Alaskan waters to feed (They're not dumb - they spend winter in Hawai'i) there were plenty of sightings. In fact, we got fairly lucky as a mother Humpback and her calf surfaced near our boat and put on quite a show of rolling over, splashing their tail flukes etc. All in all it was probably the best shore excursion we had taken to that point. It was also the best whale watching we have seen since the time we were in the Gulf of Maine outside of Bar Harbor and saw a rare form of cooperative action among Humpbacks called "bubble netting". It's a way the whales work together to herd herring into a small area for easier pickings. When Michelle mentioned that we had once seen this to the naturalist on this current trip she was boggled and pretty much said that behavior was so rare as to be a kind of holy grail for whale watchers.

A humpback whale breaches - picture taken by Michelle.

After the whale watching, we walked along the small boardwalk they had on the town waterfront, watched some of the lunatics come down the zip line, and ate some great fried halibut (halibut, along with salmon, is kind of the Alaskan national fish) in a small restaurant overlooking the water. It occurs to me that I may not be doing Icy Strait justice. It is a very beautiful spot scenically and worth the stop.

That afternoon, we set sail for the Hubbard glacier. We arrived there the next morning. The Hubbard glacier is located far up a bay. It is a huge river of ice, some six miles wide which makes its way many miles down a mountain valley and ends at the salt water bay. Since glaciers are always moving forward, chunks of it are always breaking off and falling into the bay, forming small "icebergs". Apparently in Greenland this happens with even bigger glaciers which form not so small icebergs and hence what happened to Titanic. However, our bergs were not so big or dangerous (fortunately). Of course our ship's captain, a Norwegian chap who fancied himself a comedian, started coming on the ship's PA system about 7:00 AM with reports on our progress toward the glacial face and a few lame Titanic remarks thrown in for good measure. Fortunately, he was a far better seaman than comedian and he was able to safely navigate our 90,000 ton ship to within 1200 feet of the glacier. In fact, we were told that this is supposedly closer than any other cruise ship gets. Since I used to struggle to get a 1 ton sailboat within two feet of a dock, I was duly impressed by this feat.

Our closest approach to the Hubbard glacier.

Needless to say, the view of the glacier was spectacular. We were close enough to hear the roar of the ice as it began to break off from the face, and to see the splash and puff of powdery crystals as the break actually happened. It was like being in the middle of a National Geographic special. Finally, though, the ship turned around and headed back down the bay and we were on our way to Seward AK, our final port.

Next: Weird shipboard entertainment and Seward to Anchorage to Fairbanks.