Another early start, though happily an hour later than
yesterday. We seemed to arrive in port a
good two hours ahead of schedule, giving me the opportunity to watch us glide
up to the dock and parts of the process to secure the boat since our port-side
stateroom was facing the dock this time.
After a quick breakfast at the buffet, we headed into the line
of passengers exiting the ship, but things were moving much better than
yesterday. Between the earlier docking
and our later departure, we seemed to have lucked out.
The bus to the combo tour of whale watching and visiting the
Mendenhall Glacier pulled up right near the exit ramp, and off we went to our
first adventure. This tour was run by
the same folks who had taken us to Misty Fjords, the Allen Marine folks. If you ever get the chance, look them up,
they do a professional and very enjoyable job.
We saw a mother-and-calf humpback pair soon after motoring into fairly
open waters, and after hanging out with them for a while we passed a pair of
navigation markers with a bald eagle perched on each. Another buoy was covered in sea lions, with a
group of seals trying to get their share of the sunlight. As the sea lions were in no mood to share, we
found ourselves witness to a pinniped punchfest – quite a show! (We were told that the sea lions were so
protective of this prime sunning spot that when the Coast Guard arrives to
perform maintenance first they fire-hose the critters off of it, then they
actually remove it from the water in order to service it without being
attacked. Sheesh!)
The weather was perfect again – some high haze and lots of
sunshine. This allowed us to view the
Eagle Glacier, which normally is occluded by mist and/or clouds. Shortly after that, a big humpback surfaced
very near the boat; followed by our motoring past a rocky shoal with a dozen or
so bald eagles hanging out. Another
mother-and-calf pair surfaced and gave us some flukes. Many of these whales are identified and
tracked world-wide, so we know they winter in Hawaii, where the 700# calves are
born. Mom needs to feed them well, as
they need to gain 7# per hour to
gain enough insulation to survive up north.
Mother feeds herself all summer and fasts all winter.
Angie and I both rationed our sun time carefully as
yesterday we each sustained an interesting inner-thigh sunburn received RIGHT
THROUGH OUR JEANS as we sat on our little balcony. Too weird!
We were amused to see all the locals in shorts & t-shirts, while we
visitor lugged around many layers of insulation. While we were indeed too warm, it beat being
thoroughly chilled.
We returned to the dock, wishing we could have stayed on
much longer. But the bus to Mendenhall Glacier
was waiting, and we were eager to see it – the only drive-up glacier
around! We had exactly an hour there, to
learn from the Park Service exhibits and rangers, and take in an educational
film. It was startling to be told the
historical reach of the glacier at various times. But the broad reach of ice was beautiful and
its little “calves” in the lake below glowed the eerie glacial blue.
Back to the bus, and to the ship. We left a few things in the room and walked
back to the downtown shopping district to check out a few specialty shops. Each of us was able to fill some items on her
“to do” list, so we hoofed it back to the boat once again. Dropping all extraneous items, we enjoyed a
glass of wine outside and wondered at a parasailer soaring high above us for a
good half-hour. We then headed off to
our salmon feast. The venue was sited
along a rushing creek, with a lovely wide waterfall a short walk up a gravel
path. The sun came out and graced us
with a rainbow on top of all the other lovely things this day had brought. The salmon was very good (and of course scary
fresh); while the remainder of the meal was forgettable, we genuinely enjoyed
our dinner with Mother Nature.
On the way back from dinner our driver noted that he’d heard
there was “a good chance” of an aurora tonight, so some fellow riders whistled
up the app and confirmed its projection of beautiful colors around 1 or 2
AM. We’re not going to set any alarms,
but if nature would call around then, I guess we’d poke a head out and see what’s
up.
Back at the boat, Angie bravely took the stairs (we had to
laugh at ourselves when we realized why it seemed we never could count the
floors correctly … the floor numbers progress from 11 to 12 to 14!) and made
just as good time as I did on the elevator.
We both have long surpassed 10,000 steps today, and are looking forward
to a good sleep tonight…another early call tomorrow when we visit Skagway.
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