Alaska Cruise - Tracy Arm/Juneau

Day 4
Juneau

Early this morning we began pulling into Tracy Arm.
An arm is a long narrow, arm-shaped body of water.
At the end of Tracy Arm was a glacier.
It was finally getting a little chilly!

We're approaching the glacier now.
There was a naturalist on board who would come over
the P.A. system to tell us what we were looking at
and to explain things. I liked that.

Some of the ice is blue. We heard a few explanations
as to why it is blue. Here's one I found online.
"Glacier ice is slightly different from other ice.
Years of compression make the ice so dense that it absorbs
every other color of the spectrum, thus appearing blue."

Here is the glacier again, moving imperceptibly slowly into
the sea. It wasn't a tall cliff like I thought it would be.

Back inside Mom stops for a treat, a lick of a
really big ice cream cone. Don't do it, Mom!

How many people get to open birthday cards
next to a glacier? (Sorry about the funny color).

The Diamond Princess crossed paths with us.
They were on their way in as we were on our way out.
These gigantic ships really dwarf their surroundings,
especially the little port towns. The ships honked
at each other. Do ships honk? Is there another word?

It was chilly and windy at the front of the ship,
but here at the back, it's calm and warm, just perfect
for taking . . . a . . . ZZZZzzzzz . . . .

I went to a class about glaciers which was so
interesting but had to leave before it was over
to make it to my appointment with Michael,

at the ice-carving demonstration.
They are making an ice bear here.
They are working in the attractive swimming
pool overflow area. When the seas get a little
rough the pool water sloshes into here.

Juneau is coming into view.
There is nothing between these port towns.
No cars, people, buildings, roads, nada.
Only mountains, snow, water, wilderness,
and whales that don't seem to like coming
to the surface. You know, we had unusually warm
weather the whole time. I wonder if that's why
the whales didn't come up much.

There were three other cruise ships in Juneau and nowhere
for us to dock yet. So we anchored and they "tendered"
us to shore in these little boats.
(Tender = Small boat with motor to transfer passengers
from a boat/ship to take them to shore or to a boat.)

The Barkers, Davises, and Pimentels were also
tendered to their "Mendenhall Glacier" excursion.

Our Juneau excursion was called "Tram & Trek."
We took this tram up a very steep mountain
(hey, our ship finally looks small!) and did a
little hiking at the top.

Our guide showed us around and we stopped at this
lookout deck to see the mountains across the way.
There was a small stream going underneath it.
It was only about 10' off the ground.

We noticed some movement in the greenery
below and saw a marmot (large rodent) wandering
up the hill toward us. We were all snapping pictures like
crazy. As it was passing underneath our deck, we all
crossed to the opposite side to see it come out.

Well! Apparently there was a bear underneath our platform
because as soon as we saw the marmot emerge on the other side
this (not full-grown) black bear jumped out and killed him--EEK!
After he caught his dinner, he was pacing back and forth,
and eyeballing us. Our guide advised us to back away, stay
together to appear bigger, and let him have his dinner
in peace. Heh. No problem. Go right ahead.

We continued on to another spectacular lookout point
that looked out over Juneau and the water.
Spectacular was a daily experience on this trip.

Meanwhile, the Barkers, Davises, and Pimentels (Ron and Sarah here) were
having a nice, peaceful look at the Mendenhall Glacier. One of the few
(the only?) glaciers you can get to see on foot.

Peter and Jennifer were off to the Salmon Bake excursion
today. The really cute, long, yellow bus didn't start, so
another bus was brought in to take them into the woods, a short ride away.

There was a river, 6'-8' waterfalls and a
mineshaft opening (blocked off, of course)
and miners tools lying around....very cool!

Jen ordered this salmon cross stitch chart
from an Alaskan company. Do you get the idea
they like salmon? Shown is the needlepoint version.

I saw some of my favorite flowers, the happy, friendly pansies.
Look at that face, doesn't it just want to be your friend?
This was at the dock.

At dinner we did something Mom thought of.
She brought a name tag for each of us to
wear when we feel down. We passed the name tags
around as we each wrote on them something to
positively describe each person. That thoughtful Mom!

Michael tried some daring things for dinner but tonight he
wasn't too crazy about the catfish. Karen was kind enough
to trade her fajitas for his catfish. I guess Michael doesn't
like "cat" in any way, shape, form, or flavor.

Someone tipped off the waiters about Susan's birthday
and they brought a delish chocolate cake. They also sang a
rousing Happy Birthday along with the rest of us!
She was so cute about it all.

After dinner Ron, Sarah, Laurel, Michael,
and Patty encouraged Mom to go into town
to do a little shopping. Michael and I hadn't had
a chance to shop yet due to our excursion anyway.

Patty came back to the ship with LOTS of finger
puppets. She had given some to Susan for her birthday.
Susan was wishing for more, as was Karen. So Patty
got quite a few more for the three grandmothers;
Susan, Karen, and herself. She also brought one
back for each sister.

Blair is wearing his cool new faux-fur Russian hat.
He was given another one previously as a gift but it didn't
fit quite right. He liked it enough to get another that did fit.
This one has the novelty of an insignia of the Soviet Union
and Russian writing on the inside lining.

Everything about the ship was beautiful, even the
ripple it made in the water. Sunset was at 10:08 tonight.
Sunrise would be at 3:45 am!

We were told that tonight would be ideal for whale watching.
Well, it was too cold and windy at the bow (front) of the boat
so here are Linda, Craig, Ron (waving), Sarah, and Clint
behind glass to cut the wind.

The two sillies, Laurel and Michael, stayed at the bow
to whale watch. The moon is in the corner.

We gave up after an hour of unsuccessful whale watching.
It's 11 pm, and still almost light enough to read!
There was something so serene about being quietly
on the dark, calm water with no civilization in sight.

When you're on a luxury liner getting ready for bed doesn't
mean get your PJ's on, brush your teeth, etc. It means first making
a pass through the 24-hour buffet to see if there's anything
good you missed or didn't have room for at dinner, THEN
moving on to the PJ's and teeth.