June 9 June 10 June 11 June 12 June 13 June 14 June 15 June 16 June 17 June 18	Sunday June 10, 2007 The room was very warm all night. I guess they're setup for cold weather here in Anchorage... I did my exercises and yoga, then got dressed and went downstairs. I stopped by the travel desk to get the train reservation confirmation, then the front desk to find out if there's any way to cool the room down - sure, just open the window and turn the fan higher.... Some answer... Then back to the Whale's Tail for breakfast materials - I got a large blueberry muffin, two bananas, and two cups of tea. The tea cups should have been double cupped. They were getting too hot to handle by the time I got to the elevator. I wound up setting them on the floor to give my fingers a rest... Finally got organized and downstairs to call a taxi for the train station. It was a short taxi ride. We checked in, boarded, and left about ten minutes later. This train may not be very speedy, but the scenery was spectacular! 62.5 miles to Whittier took just over two hours. The train rocked along Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet as far as Portage, then through two long tunnels to Whittier. The photo on the left below shows the train we rode as it runs along Turnagain Arm. The one on the right below shows the view directly across Turnagain Arm. There we boarded a ship (the Klondike Express - shown here on the right) for a short (4.5 hour) cruise around the area to see 26 glaciers. The trip included lunch, halibut strips with macaroni salad, apple sauce, chips, and a chocolate chip cookie. Up College Fjord, back to Barry Arm, then back to Whittier. Fantastic trip. Words are just inadequate to describe the scenery. Cameras try to capture it, but don't completely succeed. We saw several rafts of sea otters, a couple of mountain goats, and a couple of sea lions. The photo on the left below shows a sea otter and the one on the right shows one of the many magnificient glaciers we saw. No big calvings of the glaciers, but some small ones. At one point, the boat looked like it was gliding through a big slushy, as you can see in the photo below! The trip was just the right length. Any longer and it would get boring. Any shorter and one would feel gypped. Then it was back to the train for the return trip. It was a beautiful day with perfect weather. Once back in Anchorage, we grabbed a taxi for a quick ride back to the hotel and a late dinner at Fletcher's. Their pasta special for the night was gnocchi with shrimp, salmon, halibut, zucchini, and yellow squash in a delicious red cream sauce. Yum! Later, Mom said she didn't really care for the sauce. We had the same waitress as last night, who insisted I was the mother and Mom the daughter. She was delightful. We finally returned to the room about 10:30 to repack for tomorrow morning, download photos, check email, shower, hair washed, etc. Finally made it to bed a little after midnight. Still twilight outside... Next...