Day Six - Glacier Bay National Park

Glacier Bay is such a historic and wildlife-rich place that there are no shipboard activities while we’re here. There is only a lecture in the library that is being simultaneously broadcast into the cabins (and to which I’m listening as I type). He is talking about conservation, which is refreshing but incongruous in this atmosphere of luxury and excess.

There are no words to describe the landscape of mountains, glaciers and water. We saw a bald eagle sitting on the ice, otters (from a distance), and the Margerie Glacier doing a little “calving”- splitting off of some ice. I actually caught that on camera! It sounds like thunder – just like I imagined an avalanche would sound. Then we went into Cooks Inlet and saw the Johns Hopkins Glacier, in a cove where the stellar seals have a protected habitat. Afterwards, we sailed to the Marvel Islands in the hope of seeing some sea lions, who were asleep on the tiny beach and hard to make out.

We went to the show again, this time starring Mickey Finn and his wife, Cathy Reilly. Cathy is a former Miss America contestant and the only woman to be inducted into the National Banjo Players Association. I never heard of them, but they are (or used to be) pretty well known. Their show was totally hokey and, although she was creative and obviously talented, I didn’t like the sound of the banjo with songs that weren’t meant to be heard on it. Karen said I don't have to sit through these shows with her anymore as long as I don't make her walk in alone.

Had a late dinner afterwards (lunch kept me full through dinner time) from where I finally saw whales for the first time, ever! Not their whole bodies, mind you, but puffing from the blowholes and back and fluke several times over. Thank you, Lord. It was amazing.