The trip was arranged by Joanne, the café owner.  She drove us out to the home of her friend Bob, who leads kayak tours.  Bob had a big black dog, black lab mix.  As soon as we put the kayaks on the beach, the dog jumped right in the front seat.  Unfortunately for the dog, there was an odd number of us, so I got to sit in the front seat of Bob’s kayak instead of the dog.  He was very disappointed.

Bob gave us some paddling lessons and then took us out for a few hours.  The scenery was lovely.  Snow-capped peaks, ducks, and a bald eagle.  We turned up a small river for a short way, but the tide was going out, and it was too shallow to get very far.  We stopped at a beach and took a short hike into the woods.  It was very beautiful.  The forest floor was covered with moss, and the trees had a good coating of moss on the north side as well.  Bob said that it was a temperate rainforest.  But it was not rainy that day.  It was brilliantly sunny, and in the 70s.  Bob said that we were very lucky:  there is usually snow on the ground that time of year.  

After the kayak trip, Joanne came to pick us up.  I asked her whether she thought I would have time to visit Exit Glacier.  That is the glacier just outside of Seward.  I had never visited a glacier, and many people had told me that it was quite beautiful.  Joanne said that I should have sufficient time.  It was only a fifteen-minute drive.  She said that she would take me if the cafe was not crowded.  

We got back, and the cafe was crowded.  Joanne had no help.  Seward is such a small town that she just left the customers while she went to pick us up from Bob’s.  Several people had waited for her to return, so that they could pay their bills.

Anyway, Joanne asked a friend of hers named Charlie to drive me to the glacier in her truck.  He agreed.  This was really great, since the taxis were charging $40.

 Charlie was a big Native American guy.  He told me all sorts of things about himself.  He had grown up in Sitka, a town to the south, and had learned lots of tribal traditions, like dancing and making gold ornaments.  He had worked as a deep-sea fisherman, a logger, and he now worked at the maximum security state prison near Seward.  He had given up drinking, and had gotten his stomach stapled to lose weight, because his knees were giving out.  

Charlie walked with me around the glacier.  It was a huge wall of ice, bluish in color.  A sign indicated that the ice crystals absorbed most light of the spectrum besides blue, which made it appear bluish.  It was very beautiful.  

One fascinating thing about the glacier was that it provided a graphic example of global warming.  It has signs with dates on them indicating where the edge of the glacier used to be.  The oldest sign said 1899.  It must have been a couple of miles from the current edge of the glacier.

 Just since 1989, it has receded several hundred yards.  Pretty disturbing.  I imagine that the glacier will be gone sometime in my lifetime. I barely made it back to the ship by the 8:00 p.m. on ship time.  I ran into some students who were planning to celebrate the birthday of Jude, a young woman that I know.  They invited me to have birthday cake with them.  It was my birthday as well.  When the students sang happy birthday, they sang it to the both of us.

Afterwards, I went to my cabin and took a shower.  A little later the phone rang.  It was Dick.  I had mentioned at lunch that today was my birthday.  Dick invited me up to the Navigator’s Lounge (the faculty lounge, where the bar is open 2100–2300 hours each night) to buy me a drink.  A large group of faculty and staff members sang happy birthday.  It was very nice of them.

Overall, it was a great day.  I only wish Beth had been here to share it with me.  

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