Alaska Cruise - Day 3

Today started off by walking around the boat for some morning exercise. Three laps around the ship equaled a mile... it was a huge ship! We saw plenty of otters or seals or something swimming alongside the ship, and we even saw the tail of a whale flipping up out of the water! The water was so smooth and pretty. Some forest rangers came on to our boat to let us know some information about Glacier Bay National Park before we sailed into the bay. We spent a couple of hours floating through the bay, and it was incredible!

(Jaw Drop point)

(Rhea and I in front of the Johns Hopkins glacier. Don't be deceived by my jacket... I took it off soon after this picture because it was so warm here!)

We saw a couple of huge glaciers and we had the best view right from our room balconies. It was very crowded on top of the ship where everyone was trying to see the glaciers, but it was nice to have our own balcony where all of us could sit and enjoy watching the glaciers! It was great, although I got very sunburned.

(Mom posing on our long connected balcony)

The most impressive glacier we saw was the "Margerie" glacier. Paula and I ran (so we wouldn't miss anything) up to the bow (the very front) of the ship, which was only opened up for this one day. We were so close to the glacier and I couldn't believe how massive it was! We were told that this glacier is 1 mile long and 250 feet tall... incredible! This glacier loses 6 feet a day from chunks of ice falling off, which is called "calving." I saw some small pieces fall off, but nothing huge. You can heard the ice crack and it sounds kind of like thunder when it breaks off.

(The Margerie glacier)



Most of the day was spent watching the glaciers. After that, we had another amazing dinner, and then went to watch a comedian, Tyler Linkin. He was a really funny comedian/juggler. He juggled everything from toilet bowl plungers to bowling balls to machetes, and he had a really dry sense of humor that made it all very funny!