Sensory Overload

Glacier Bay is our “outdoor museum of the wonders of nature”.
-National Park Service Ranger onboard the Norwegian Pearl

WOW! And a lot of other things that I can’t say on here! I need to write about the past two days, and our excursions, but right now I am sitting at a tiny desk with mom’s laptop, looking through the sliding glass doors as we glide slowly by the mountains and glaciers that make up Glacier Bay National Park.

We just pulled up in front of the Margie Glacier and the Grand Pacific Glacier. We pulled up as far as we could into Tarr Inlet to see them. And, from what the National Park Ranger who got on board as we entered the park and who has been giving commentary throughout the day said, we had a RARE view of Mount Fairweather (15,300 feet tall, and the source of the glaciers in this area), with the sun shining on its cap. Evidently it’s a lucky day just to be able to see the glaciers through the fog, and an AMAZINGLY RARE day to see Mt. Fairweather, and almost unheard of cruise where the top of the mountain also has blue sky around it.

As if that wasn’t enough for us to be amazed by, the Margie Glacier CALVED while we were watching – and I think I may have caught it in a series of photos. The sound itself was awesome, too. Oh, my, Gosh!

If ANY one of the hundreds of pictures I have taken today turns out, it will be so wonderful. I am so incredibly full of awe right now. Yes, where I live is beautiful, and I definitely need to be more appreciative of Hatteras Island’s beauty, but this is downright take-your-breath-away inspiring. Aunt Rocky is on the balcony now with binoculars, trying to spot a bear. (I took a picture of something that might have been a big boulder, and might have been a polar bear…hopefully it’s in focus so we can have the answer to that mystery.

Oh, I have to digress again on that segue – tonight, we signed up for a Murder Mystery dinner. Only 100 guests got to sign up. Tico would have been so proud of me; there were people who hadn’t been sitting in the lounge area as long as we had been, who tried to push to the front of the line when the crew member showed up to sign us up. I wasn’t about to have wasted the 30 minutes we had been sitting there, so I pushed right in front of them. Not rudely (well, not so much – but they were rude FIRST…) So, that should be exciting. We have had murder mystery parties with friends at home before, and it was so much fun. I always laugh too hard and have way too much fun. Mom and aunt Rocky haven’t ever experienced anything like this, so I can’t wait to watch them get into their characters.

Back to the present. Mom and Aunt Rocky just went up to the top deck at the back of the ship to see the view from there, and to get some coffee and/or hot tea. It is FREEZING here (obviously, since we’re basically surrounded by ice and in a glacier park in Alaska). Ha ha. We have the heat cranked up all the way in our cabin, and keep running in to get our hands warm, and then running back out, afraid we’ll miss something.

The water is a strange light greenish-gray from the run-off from the glaciers. The clouds and fog have started to move in more and drop down lower, so the mountains look less distinguishable and more like huge “lumps” in various shades of gray. And still, it’s amazing. (Yes, I’m humming “Awesome God” again). WHAT an experience!

I know how Master Po feels about crowds and organized tours – he’s not a fan – but I still keep wishing he could see this. The wake of the boat is making all these cool patterns in the cold water. The glaciers are full of brown stripes of dirt throughout the 350-feet-tall frozen rivers of (Carolina) blue ice. The craggy mountains tower over and around the glaciers and end abruptly in the bay. There are tiny floating chunks of ice, and miles and miles of frozen waterfalls cutting paths through the sides of the mountains.

It’s amazing, as I listen to the ranger, to realize that we’re actually in a rainforest. It’s so different from the amazing Redwood Forest that we were in just a week (although it feels like a year or two) ago. The major difference is that the elevation of these mountains guarantees that the precipitation falls as snow, not rain.

We’ve now passed a third glacier and are pulling up to a fourth. We’ll get as close to it as the icebergs floating in the water will let us. I keep shaking my head, overwhelmed with the majesty of it all. Today has indeed been a Gift that I will treasure forever. Thank goodness I have this blog and lots of pictures to keep the memory fresh when I get home and get into a cycle where I question my ability to be creative. I feel SO inspired right now!

Right now we are crossing over a tectonic plate. To our left, is the Pacific Plate. This plate under the Pacific Ocean is moving slowly to the northwest. We’re passing rock made out of marble, which starts its life in warmer waters as limestone. When the limestone is pushed below the earth’s surface and compressed it becomes marble. The ranger is speaking over the ship’s intercom and I’m typing as fast as I can. It is so cool that Tacoman’s class was studying geography and geology when I left home, and we can talk about all this stuff I’m seeing (and he can explain a lot of it to me).

One more digression for those of you who would rather laugh than read my gushing review: When we checked into our room there was a bottle of champagne waiting for us, compliments of NCL. Because Mom booked the cruise during a certain time and selected a cabin with a balcony, they were offering us the “honeymoon package”. The three of us got a laugh out of that.

About an hour ago, we decided to open the bottle and enjoy it to celebrate this wonderful day. Aunt Rocky got down the bottle and I got down the bucket (chiller) to put the bottle outside to get nice and cold on the balcony. Evidently they had delivered not only the champagne, but also a bucket of ice, when we checked in (four days ago). Can you guess what’s coming next? You win if you guessed that I dumped the entire bucket of melted ice all over me. So I changed into all of the shirts I’ve already worn. I don’t smell really great, but at least I’m warm enough to go back outside.

Anyway, we’re still checking out the glaciers and a couple of waterfalls. I just took some pictures of an iceberg, and about five minutes later, it broke up completely. We’re waiting for the ship to turn back around in about 20 minutes so we can have a view of the Johns Hopkins glacier. Meanwhile, I’m popping in and out of the room typing a couple sentences, looking up, “Oh, WoW!” and running back out again. The champagne is awful but it’s wet. Life is good. The only thing better would be to have the rest of the family here with me!

The ranger just told us that the best chance we’ll have of seeing marine mammals is in a couple of hours, when we get back to the entrance of the park and drop them off. I hope we do get to see some, but have to write about our whale watching trip, and you’ll understand why I won’t feel slighted in the bit if the sightings are all on the other side of the ship.

On Tuesday, September 18th, we got off the ship (after waiting in an awful line that wrapped down several floors of the ship. I was so thankful not to either hyperventilate or pass out.) We took a bus for about 20 minutes, past Juneau, and got on a two-story catamaran run by the Allen family (that’s what the guidebook said, anyway.) There was a guide named Kelley, who was absolutely wonderful. I wish I’d gotten her address so I could have sent her a cat clock from the gallery – I think she’d have appreciated it.

It took only about 20 minutes of riding until we came upon a pod of Orcas. I am not sure how they could tell male and female, but there was at least one bull, and several cows (one with a calf). By law, we could only get within 100 yards of any of them and are only allowed to stay with any one (or any pod) for 30 minutes. We moved on and next saw some Bell’s porpoises out front. They are black with a white stripe, and look a little like baby orcas. I didn’t get any shots of them, but they were fun to watch.

Next we came upon a channel marker with about four stellar sea lions napping on it. (Master Po will appreciate the fact that I knew exactly what settings I wanted to use on the camera, thanks to his tutelage.) I think I got a couple of good shots when the bell rang and one of them lifted his cute little head and looked at us.

After we moved on we saw some more orca pods but decided to keep looking for whales. We were NOT disappointed. Over the next couple of hours, we probably saw about 20 humpback whales at different times. I got several pictures of them as they “fluked” (dived deep for about five minutes, giving us a wave of their tail as they went under). It was one of the coolest things I had ever seen.

The day was capped off when, on the way home, we saw a couple of bald eagles in the trees on a little island in the harbor. They were kind of far away, but I still tried to get a couple of shots. The mates on the boat fed us some smoked salmon on Ritz crackers, which I loved (surprise, surprise). We docked and I just kind of floated off the boat, a couple of feet in the air. Mom was wishing that I had brought business cards – I bet she’d have handed them out to everyone who asked me what kind of a camera I had, and what size lens I was using. All of the staff on the boat keep talking about what good luck we had brought with us (all the cruise guests, not just the three of us,) because of the rarity of a sunny day in Alaska, and of sighting so many animals of any species, not to mention so many of several species.

We fell into bed that night, exhausted but smiling. I kept teasing Mom and Aunt Rocky about going to bed early, but I’m right there with them – no big shock to those of you who know me best.

The next morning, we woke up before the sun again and got in another line (not so bad this time) to get off the Pearl. We got on board the White Plains and Yukon Trail Train. The ride was about four hours. The weather was typical Alaska. Misty rain with very low cloud cover, and COLD. There were supposed to be wood-burning stoves on each train. Judging from the time it took for my feet to thaw, I really don’t think the train staff had the fires very well stoked. It was a beautiful ride, and I enjoyed the waterfalls and rapids immensely. I took several pictures of rocks (since we couldn’t get off the train to collect any for Tacoman, I thought I’d see if he could teach me anything from the pictures).

We went to the top of the 5,000+ foot tall mountain, then switched our seats in the opposite direction and exchanged seats with the people across the aisle from us. We sat for a couple of minutes and then headed back down the way we had come. It was neat to see the sights that we’d had to only hear about on the way up. The train squeaked, clanked, and perched on the edge of the cliffs as it jostled its way back down. I told mom and Aunt Rocky that I probably wouldn’t need to ride the train again if we ever came back (hypothetically speaking), but it was neat to experience once.

It was so windy and cold as we braced ourselves to climb back aboard the Pearl. Supposedly this is a great week to shop at the ports in Alaska because it’s the last week of the cruise season and everyone is trying to unload their inventory. I love to shop as much or more than the next person, but it was too cold for me to even be tempted in the slightest.

We came back to our cabin, shed the outer layers of clothes we’d been thankful to have, and put on our suits to head for..guess where..the SPA! I even got in the steam room and sauna, both of which I usually avoid for fear of getting too light-headed, to try to thaw out. We stayed up in the spa relaxing and reading for an hour or so until we felt better, and then came back to our cabin. We got dressed and, after wasting a couple of hours, ate what I think was the best meal yet on the trip. Italian, of course. I was so happy because the night before, at my suggestion, we’d eaten at the steakhouse. My steak was wonderful. Mom’s veal and Aunt Rocky’s salmon were both HORRIBLE. Such a disappointment for three women who take such pleasure in good food.

So there’s the saga of the last few days. Tonight we go to the murder mystery dinner and tomorrow we dock in again and take a tour of the Misty Fjords. I know it’d be a lot to ask to have yet another rare sunny day, but a girl can dream…stay tuned for that report.

I miss you guys at home, and will see you soon!