Alaska 2012: Day 7 of 22 (Glacier Bay)

View Larger Map

We left Skagway the previous night and arrived in Glacier Bay National Park in the morning. We were awoken by a National Park Ranger introducing himself over the intercom. He had boarded the ship along with a native Alaskan woman. They did a great job all day telling us about the park and the things we were seeing.

All photos for this day

All photo albums

Early on the weather was being very uncooperative

The water was like glass reflecting the snow covered peaks surrounding the bay

We found a secluded deck at the rear of the boat and spent most of the day there with warm drinks enjoying the view. It was one of the highlights of our trip.

There was a brown bear that came into view high on one of the hills

The bear is the little brown spot just left of center

At times the water was the most beautiful dark emerald color, but the weather was all over the place causing the colors that were being reflected to constantly change

Don't know why the ship trail looked this color against the water in the bay. It didn't look that way elsewhere.

We stopped by to check on Adam at his club

Adam joined us while his club was in recess for lunch

Helen and the boys got new water proof jackets for the trip, but I told Helen I would be fine just scotchguarding the old black pullover I keep in my trunk.

I was getting pretty wet on our first stop in Ketchikan and I saw that the jacket I'm wearing in this photo was only $20 so I bought it. It wasn't waterproof either, but at least it was another layer and it had a hood.

My new jacket says Alaska on it like all the other stuff sold at the tourist trap stores. Whenever we would see other people with "Alaska wear" we would smile knowing that they, also, had not properly packed for their trip.  

The deck areas were crowded with everyone trying to get a good view of the scenery. We were so surprised that nobody found our secluded spot.

Finally caught a glacier calving

The Island Princess came in as we were leaving

Helen and Adam look at a small boat following in the wake of the ship in order to avoid the ice

Island full of Steller sea lions

Afternoon tea

Derek got a special coffee

The Park Service boat coming to pick up the guides that had joined us for the day

Adam said the native Alaskan lady had come to his club and that he really liked her. She had some neat tools with her and told them some fun stories.

We were constantly on the lookout for whales. We saw plenty of whale water spouts but had not seen the real thing, although Derek claimed he had briefly seen a tail disappear in the distance. We saw dolphins and Dall's porpoise play in the ship's wake from time to time and we had even seen some distant orca fins.

As we were leaving Glacier Bay I finally saw a big humpback whale fly high into the sky and land on it's side, but it was in the distance through the binoculars. We wanted that to happen right outside our window. We kept watching and hoping.

Another formal dinner night

Derek had a daiquiri (virgin of course) each night with his dinner

Escargot

Derek wanted to give it a try

It didn't taste like hamburger

More pretty food

We thought the food always looked great, but many times it didn't taste as good as it looked. It was almost uncanny how they were able to get the food to look so good and, yet, taste just average or worse. We would look at something and think that it had to be delicious only to be disappointed. Overall, there was always plenty to eat, but it was hit and miss. You had to look for the food that was executed well. Luckily, if you didn't like something you could just keep trying until you found something that worked.  

The desserts were especially tricky. They always looked great. It looked like real chocolate or fruit, but it didn't taste like it. It wasn't necessarily bad and we usually ate it, but it just seemed like they had perfected the look without really putting the money into the ingredients to match the look. 

Adam was usually too busy at his club to join us for dinner so he was always bringing something back to the room from the late night buffet