Glacier Bay, Alaska

Day 8 Glacier Bay

OK, I am totally impressed. Glacier Bay is just an incredible experience. We woke up as usual and went to breakfast. There is nothing like seeing a glacier out the window, as you finish your food. It makes you really want to just up and run. But I figured we had hours to view things and I was right about that.

We get up onto the 15th floor, which is outside and though it is not really too cold, it is drizzling, so you have to be careful of your camera (cell phone). Some people are using the beach towels to protect them.

We photographed Margerie Glacier (pictured) and got to watch it calf a piece of ice. About 10 seconds later you hear a loud BOOM! Awesome, seriously. There was another boom later on, but we were on the other side of the ship, at the time. So now I can say I saw a glacier calfing.

The water by the glacier had lots of floating ice, whereas the remainder of glacier bay, does not. They then take us to the John’s Hopkins Glacier and make an incredible turn in the inlet. Seriously, the ship just barely makes it. They say that later in the year, they can’t make this maneuver, so we are lucky.

We decide to break for lunch and eat at the buffet, while watching the scenery pass us by. Note, I had reindeer chili with my lunch. It was OK. I would have loved the coffee with Kahlua, but it was $8 a cup. Way too much. We had straight coffee, instead.

We adjourn back to our room and after a nap, I check out the window. There are whales that are coming to the surface. We were told they hang out toward the opening of the Glacier Bay area. Supposedly we passed them around 7AM, but I was not going to check them out at that hour. Glad I saw something, on the return trip.

We have a dinner date with a friend from work’s parents tonight. We will see how that goes.