May 17. We were 253 nautical miles from the Hubbard Glacier but the sun
was the same, rising at its lovely leisure.

The Mercury Daily, our very enlightening publication from the ship, described Valdez as
"Blessed by fortune and cursed by disaster".

We are all familiar with the oil tanker that ran aground here, but

In 1964 an 8.5 magnitude earthquake completely destroyed the town of Valdez.

So total was the destruction that the residents did not rebuild the old town but rebuilt 4 miles away on safer ground.

Valdez has a population of 4486 and encompasses 219 sq miles of land and 55 sq miles of water.

And it was beautiful, unfortunately my Sony Mavica FD90 ran aground here also and I lost about 200 images.

This is the harbor, I think, and one building of the town

Then we took an excursion thru the Thompson Pass

to the Worthington Glacier   The snow took the blemishes off of everything and made reality look perfect.