I grazed like a moose today. First breakfast was a continental one delivered to our stateroom. Then we went up to the forward deck for whale watching. At 8:00 AM we were entering the Icy Straits on our way into Glacier Bay National Park. Today was the reason I have wanted to come to Alaska. It was everything I had hoped it would be. The weather was so beautiful that the guides, park rangers, and our ship’s naturalist kept going on about it. We saw dozens of humpback whales, some just off the port side of our ship. We saw bears, sea otters, steller sea lions, harbor seals, bald eagles, puffin, and a dozen other kind of water fowl. By 10:00 it was time for second breakfast, so we got a plate of Belgian waffles and cups of coffee that were being served on the deck.
We’d been standing in a cold wind for a couple of hours and enjoyed the opportunity to sit for a while. At 10:00 a team of National Park Rangers joined our ship for the day. One of them, Laurie, offered an lecture about Glacier Bay National Park at 11:00, so we took advantage of that. She was outstanding.
The voyage into the park took us past more wildlife and several active glaciers. The scenery was magnificent. (I need more adjectives.) The bay was formed by glaciers and was filled with one as recently as two hundred years ago. These glaciers began a rapid retreat over the past two centuries and the valley they had created is now filled with a deep turquoise water. The shoreline is made up of cliffs and mountains, still covered in snow. Waterfall descend hundreds of feet delivering melted snow to the bay. The end of the trip was the Margerie Glacier, an enormous tide water glacier that extends more than sixty miles back into the ice fields around Mt. Fairweather. Our ship sat in the bay for an hour or so, allowing us to watch the calving of the glacier. A loud crack like the sound of shotgun would be announce portions of the glacier breaking off and falling hundreds of feet into the water. Then a sound like thunder would follow. The ranger estimated that one of the pieces we saw fall was 250 feet high.
During the journey into the park, most of the action was on the port side of the ship, so we remained on the deck. But for the trip out, we returned to our starboard side state room and sat on the balcony as we watched the sights roll by once more. (It was now 2:00 and time for another trip to buffet. We brought pizza and a salad back to our room.) The captain took us up the Johns Hopkins Inlet (named for the university) to see the Johns Hopkins Glacier. This sight was perhaps the most awe-inspiring vistas so far. The huge glacier wound back into the mountains. Two large, jagged, snow-covered peaks loomed behind it. The water in front of it was the deep aqua blue. Once more the captain allowed the ship to sit at rest while we took it in.
At 5:30, we hit the buffet line again for a light snack and then joined the park rangers on the forward deck for wildlife viewing again. The rangers left the boat at 7:15 and our ship’s naturalist took over again. The whales were plentiful again. She claimed this was the best day of whale sightings she has had.
By 8:15 it was time to (guess what?) eat again. We changed into appropriate attire and joined our British friends and another Pennsylvanian couple for dinner. I had only a soup and salad. For some reason I was not all that hungry.
Melinda asked our head waiter (Luis, from Mexico) half-jokingly when we were going to have Mexican food on the menu. He told her that was not scheduled, but that he would take care of that for her. So Thursday night she is having vegetarian fajitas.
So now it is 11:30 and we have an early train to catch. More tomorrow.
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