Alaska - Hubbard Glacier

We have cruised on this boat previously, and it is just as good as we remembered. The food is excellent, the service is outstanding with very friendly staff who go out of their way to please you, and the boat is very luxurious. But the weather....oh my goodness it has been foul today. 

When I woke up this morning I could not see anything due to the low mist and rain. I was in the gym just after 6.30am and running on a treadmill while the boat is moving is a very peculiar experience, I felt a little dizzy and disorientated when I got off. It has been a lazy day at sea, and just as well we had no onshore activities as it has rained all day, the visibility is poor, and it is very cold. Plus the air conditioning on the boat is too cold for me, I wish I had packed warmer clothing. 

We had a leisurely breakfast with the boys working their way through eggs, French toast, blueberry waffles, smoothies, which were all very delicious and well cooked. Given that the weather does not look good for the rest of the week we decided to change some of our booked onshore activities. We were meant to be kayaking tomorrow to the glacier but in this weather it has lost its appeal, so we spent some time planning other activities instead. This meant changing some dinner reservations too. 

We listened to an excellent talk on our next location which is Juneau, the capital of Alaska. It has an interesting history with the panning of gold which took place there. After lunch we reached the Hubbard Glacier, but it was so foggy I was not sure we would even see it! The boat went right up to it which is when I took this photo. An extra of Tommy and Inca who came out of the spa pool to see the glacier so they were still in dressing gowns, and it was freezing up on the top deck in the rain.

This afternoon we attended the quiz which was a lot of fun. Now we are just relaxing before dinner - we seem to go from one meal to another! Tomorrow we have planned to do some hiking above Juneau and then later are going on a whale watching expedition. And it is a certain someone's birthday, he will be 25 years old!

Interesting facts about Alaska


It was acquired by the USA from Russia in 1867 but remained a territory until 1959 when it became the 49th state of the USA. As it is geographically separated from the rest of the USA, the contiguous part of the USA is referred to by Alaskans as 'the Lower 48'. (When I asked a guide where she did her shopping for bigger items she said the Lower 48 which I thought was the name of a shop!)


All residents of Alaska receive a dividend (The Permanent Fund Dividend) paid annually from the surplus revenue of the state's oil and gas reserves. It is to benefit current and future generations. It is currently about $1600 and many use it to pay for their college fees.