THURSDAY, AUGUST 1

THURSDAY, AUGUST 1:

     Totally overcast this morning, and stayed that way all day.  I wasn’t feeling good because of my cold, so a good day to just take it easy and not do anything strenuous. 

      We used the afternoon to go into town to the city museum there.  It depicts the history of Valdez, from its Gold Rush days (some 4,000 gold seekers tried to take this “all American” route to the Klondike – trekking over Valdez Glacier) to modern times, including the devastating and tragic 1964 Good Friday earthquake and tsunami that killed 32 people (including some children who were on the dock welcoming a ship which regularly came into port and always threw candy at the kids), and the disastrous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.  After the earthquake, when so many buildings were destroyed, the land was declared unsafe on which to re-build, and the town was re-located 4 miles away.  Homes and businesses which weren’t destroyed had to relocate.  I think some 30-40 structures were moved to the new town site, the place where Valdez is today.  But for the most part, there are no historic buildings in Valdez.

     Came back & ate a sub sandwich.  Bill went back into town for a couple of Gold Rush Days programs in the town Civic Center, which he later said was very nice.  One was the great-grandson of the man who won the 1908 Great Auto Race:  New York to Paris (original route went west across the U.S., up thru Canada, stopped at Valdez, and upward across the frozen Bering Strait.  Except it wasn’t frozen, so almost the entire route needed to be re-done.  Great advance planning team).  Anyway, Bill said it was a very entertaining talk.  I was too tired, so stayed home and went to bed early.