We started our day in Whittier and did our laundry. This involved walking in the rain and waiting in line for the small laundry room. Apparently the building is referred to as the city in a building and houses 80 percent of the town. I doubt this laundry room supports the whole building.

Otherwise there was not much to do in Whittier yet this time of year.

We boarded the Holland America Westerdam cruise ship for an opportunity to travel Alaska by boat southward through the inside passage. It’s a big enough boat to get lost. We aren’t cruise people, but an Alaskan cruise is the best way to travel the coast of Alaska. Many of the places we are visiting are only accessible by boat or seaplane.

On our first day aboard, we stopped at Hubbard Glacier, North America’s largest tidewater glacier. It is 76 miles long, 6 miles wide at its face, and rises 350 to 400 feet above the water. Hubbard Glacier is an advancing glacier and grows 80 feet per year and retreats 7 feet per year, which means it is growing in size.

Mom and I opted for the boat excursion to see the Hubbard Glacier up close. A group of us filled two boats with people, and we left the majority of the cruisegoers to see the glacier from about 7 miles away while we got to see the glacier from half a mile away.

The views were stunning!

Look at the texture of the glacier. You can even see some glacial silt.

A tidewater glacier will sometimes calve. This means that part of the glacier breaks off and falls into the water. This causes a beautiful sight and a loud thunderous noise and sometimes waves. It’s a natural and expected event for the glacier.

The parts that calve off are different sizes. There are growlers (small), bergie bits (medium), and iceburgs (large).

A glacier is essentially a river of ice. A tidewater glacier has become dense enough to flow down to the waters edge. If a glacier retreats enough (melts and decreases in size) and no longer touches the water, it is no longer a tidewater glacier.

Glacier ice is extremely dense, lacks oxygen, and reflects the color blue. The glacial ice at perimiter of the icey area is estimated to be around 400 years old. We are holding 400 year old ice!

The crew also fished out some ice for our drinks. I opted for a glacierita!

It was amazing to experience the glacier. We made friends with the crew and got to sit in the captain’s front room with all the equipment and the good view.

Hubbard Glacier is a 10/10!