Valdez

Valdez isn’t a popular cruise port - unlike our previous stops with anywhere from three to six cruise ships in port at the same time, today we were the only strangers in town.

It was raining - not a downpour, but soaking “beach rain.”  I overheard a crew member saying that it was the best weather she’d experienced here.  The ship provided umbrellas and we have good rain gear, so no problem.

There aren’t a lot of tourist activities, but our first stop was the public library to use their WiFi to upload blog posts.

It’s small, but it seems to have a nicely varied collection,and their WiFi was blazing fast.

A very helpful staff member gave us directions to our next destination, Safeway.  She actually went outside with us and showed us exactly how to get there.

Again, small but well stocked.

En route to the local museum we spotted an outdoor supply store that caught John’s attention.

When we arrived at the museum, it seemed overrun with cruise passengers - it’s a very small space that isn’t designed for large groups of visitors.  So we decided to head back toward the port.  

Seeing one of the shuttle buses nearby, we headed over and climbed aboard, assuming it would deliver us to the ship in a reasonable time (it’s a really small town and there aren’t many places to go).  However, the driver seemed to want to give everyone a thorough tour.  After nearly a half hour of wandering around, I got off at the visitor’s center to watch the film about the town’s history and the 1964 earthquake that destroyed the old town.

Note that the ship is just behind the building - I walked back, and it took maybe five minutes.  John stayed on and continued the circuitous tour - it was another half hour before the bus finally returned to the dock!

There’s an extensive fishing boat basin here - fishing is a seriously big deal here.  thought about walking the half mile or so to take pictures, but it was starting to rain harder by then and I decided to just get back to the ship.