4. SEARCHING FOR ALASKA-24TH

THURSDAY JUNE 24TH- GLACIER BAY is a national park. and at 6am the rangers left their headquarters on an island just inside the bay and rode their little boat out to the ship and boarded it, by climbing up a rope ladder on the side of the ship.  they were with us all day talking about the park and all the glaciers and giving lectures.  they were on the P.A. system that could be heard thru out the ship.   only 2 ships are allowed in glacier bay per day.

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GOT UP at 6am.  missed the 1st whale watching that was at 4am.  my alarm went off and i hit it and rolled over.  i will make sure i do the 2nd whale watch on the way out of Glacier Bay in the Icy Straits.  i went down for coffee.  It was extremely cold, rainy and foggy.  we were approaching John Hopkins glacier, but didn't go all the way up to it, because the seals and their pups were on ice bergs and they didn't want the ship to upset the bergs

(i think this is the one, from the glare on the window, i was still inside)  it appears that we are only about 1/2-1 mile away.  the ranger informed us that we were 5 miles away!  and the glacier was 1 mile across.  i can't even get the whole thing in my shot at 5 miles away!  it is just HUGE-amazing..........no one could hardly believe it.  we still had 1 1/2 hours til we get to Glacier Marjorie-the one that calves regularly.  so, i went up to get mom for breakfast.  we sat at breakfast and watched the glaciers go by and listened to the rangers.

we then headed outside on the deck to watch more.

this is my mom's idea of a summer vacation-  she was freezing and the deckhands were handing out blankets.  i wrapped in one for a few minutes and then gave mine to her.  it was our coldest day.

  i loved it{~;

she kept hoping for some sun.

MARJORIE GLACIER-approaching

it looks small but i have zoomed in on it.  it is 2x higher than the ship.  and when you look above, where the clouds have parted you can see it in the back.  it goes on forever- i think all the way to the Canadian border!

while on deck you could hear the icebergs cracking and we saw a few small calves, where the ice breaks off.  but also while we were watching we saw 2 big calves.  it was amazing how loud even the small ones were. awesome!!amazing!! beautiful!! haunting!!surreal!!

i can't think of anymore.....

as we were turning to head out of glacier bay, we saw the Grand Pacific Glacier.  it is black and almost looks like the mountains around it.  black down at the bottom of the picture  white at the top.  it also goes for a looong ways.

in the afternoon we listened to a park ranger give a lecture live on our TV.  we knew the theater would be packed so they broadcast it  so we could watch from our room.  plus from our room we could still see what was going on out side from the balcony.  i went out, mom stayed in.

when we were approaching the Icy Straits again. the rangers disembarked back onto their little boat for the 1/2hr ride back to their island ranger station.

maybe this islandor this island

heading to icy straits.

these pix are from our balcony now.  i was on a whale watch quest, since it might be the last time we saw whales.  we saw at least 3-4 pods-groups of families of whales. some close some far off.  but you could tell because they would all surface about the same time and you could see their spouts.  we saw each pod numerous times.  oh yeah, i forgot an adjective- COOL!!

THEN AS WE WERE passing an island on the way out of the icy straits, we saw some serious splashing and spouting.  i grabbed the binoculars.  side note-the other day when hear the ships naturalist, she talked about a young male whale exercising its tail.  well, this one kept slapping the water with it tail over and over,at least 20-30 times the short while we were watching.  i saw 1 full breach and many flukes. 

 sooo, coool !!

what a treat for the last whale we saw.

we are now headed north along the coast to Whittier.  one more full day on the ship and on the way we will see College fiord.

look for more on the adventures in alaska in #5