Day 8 Disembark Admiralty Dream

Saturday, September 7, 2013

So, we got another early start. I think we were up around 4am instead of 5am today. Not good!  We have a very long day ahead of us. Anyway, we were up for the sail into the channel at Sitka. We were told we were going to dock at Petro Marine, but we didn’t figure out where we were until crossing the bridge on a bus and saw the ship. It was well down the channel away from town past the Shee Atika Totem Square Inn. Shortly after we were tied up, the Alaskan Dream, our sister ship tied up right behind us. The crew was busy trying to get rid of us while preparing for their last cruise of the season, which was a Road Scholars charter. Lee told us yesterday that their itinerary was going up to Skagway and taking the White Pass railroad into Canada among other differences.

We were informed this morning after breakfast that the afternoon flight out of Sitka had been canceled. That left only the 11:55am. (We were originally booked on an earlier direct flight to Seattle that was also canceled and when we were placed on this one, we could not sit next to one another, but one behind the other was the best they could do.) They were going to transfer everyone who was scheduled to fly out today directly to the airport with their luggage in the hopes that everyone would be able to get a seat on that 11:55am flight. We got to the airport about 3 hours early and before the Alaska Airlines counter opened or TSA. We self-checked in at the kiosk and got our boarding passes since we were still only flying with carry-on luggage. As far as I could tell everyone did get on the flight. It was a very full flight. It had originated in Anchorage with a stop in Juneau, then Sitka and Ketchikan before finally arriving in Seattle.

We made good time though and had little wait for our flight to LAX in Seattle. That flight was also pretty full. In LAX, we walked back through the tunnel between Terminals 5 and 6. We found our gate and went to Skewers by Morimoto for something to eat. We were finishing up by 9pm as they were closing. It felt like a long day already and we weren’t even halfway home. We returned to our gate and it was just mobbed. There were no 2 empty seats together. We sat across the hall. Clay went back over to get in line to ask what boarding group we were since it was not printed on our Alaska Air-printed boarding passes. While he was over there in line, the boards changed and said our gate had been changed to 54A (I think) from 53B (I think). Anyway it was beside where we had just eaten. Clay did not believe me because the people manning the gate were telling everyone that the flight would still depart from there, they just had another flight turning around there first now because the plane we were waiting for was delayed coming from Salt Lake City. All the departure monitors had now been updated to the new gate though, so we walked over there and got seats. About 30 minutes later, all the people who had been mobbed at the first gate showed up. It looked like it would be another full flight. We were in boarding group 1 because we had paid for the Economy Plus seats on these long cross-country flights. The really good news is that we had the good fortune of having an empty aisle seat on our row, so as soon as they shut the door, Clay moved over to it. That gave us a nice row to ourselves and I was very relieved because I was getting very twitchy and cramping by then and Clay let me lay down across the 2 seats and put my head on his lap a couple of times overnight. We did not have the attentive service we had on the first flight over, but then maybe they just expected everyone to be asleep. We got home about an hour late which was close to the delay in starting out. We saw Dean Cain get off that flight we were waiting for in LAX.

As we were waiting for our dinner at Skewers, Clay asked if I had any cough drops. I gave him a handful of Fox’s Glacier Mints. He told me he thought he was getting a sore throat. (There were a lot of sick people on our cruise, including Lee, our Tlingit guide.) I was feeling a little raspy and headachy myself. The bad news is that we both came home sick. The good news is that we weren’t sick on the trip!

We both had head colds for a week that then settled into nasty coughs in our chests. We had to delay getting our flu shots to recover. I am feeling about 100% now, but Clay's cough continues to plague him.

I found Clay's movies today. I will only post this one from embarkation day. These are the Sheet'ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi Tlingit dancers in Sitka. Click here to view the video.

 

 

Update

As you can tell from reading along, the disparity between the date documented and the date posted keeps getting bigger! I want to say I am working hard on this and my only excuse was taking the first week back from Alaska off with a cold. Since then, I had a couple of bad days the next week due to a failed pill trial. I saw Dr. Carnes on 9/16 and asked him about Mom's recommendation of taking CoQ10. He thought that was a good idea. I took it for a week, and it enhanced or strengthened the tremor to the point I couldn't mouse or knit. I stopped the CoQ10 and the tremor has fallen back off to about where it was on 9/16. Dr. Carnes considers my Parkinson's Disease progression stable at this point and is not trying a new drug now. That is a good thing. I will see him again in December.

So, what is really slowing me down on getting the blog postings finished while I should be getting ready for our next trip to the Canadian Maritimes? Clay has booked 2 more trips while I am working at this! We now have a week booked in Las Vegas for Cirque du Soleil shows (that's on me!) and a week booked in Las Angeles because we've never been to Disneyland (that's all Clay!). I am thinking that this is what his retirement looks like...

Back tomorrow to finish off the Alaska trip blog!

Day 7 Kelp Bay and Lake Eva

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Friday, September 6, 2013

It was a quiet night anchored in Middle Arm of Kelp Bay. We were awoken at 5am by our neighbors’ alarm clock. It was fine because it meant we were already dressed and out on deck when we got an earlier than scheduled wake up announcement of a lot of whales. Evidently the crew or bridge saw a breaching whale. It was beautiful and perfectly calm and quiet and there were a lot of whales spouting and you could hear them, but no more breaching sadly. It was a nice wake up after a quiet calm night. The whales were at the intersection of Middle Arm and South Arm of Kelp Bay. Based on our experience coming out of Hobart Bay into Frederick Sound, I think humpback whales must really like intersections. Anyway, it was a magical morning so quiet except for the sounds of the whales. And there were so many of them all around us!

Breakfast was at 6:45am and our muster was at 8:30am, so we had a nice leisurely breakfast with Margaret from Australia. She was in the first DIB group and all they saw was eagles. We were in the 2^nd DIB group and all we saw was eagles, sea birds and salmon jumping. We rode past a small spawning stream but it was low tide and the salmon can’t get in yet. Very disappointed in Portage Arm not to have a morning bear, we’ve gotten spoiled.

Lunch menu is chicken & wild rice soup. Dungeness crab melt sandwich, turkey club wrap, or always available hamburger, veggie burger or salad.

Dinner menu is sweet potato soup, steakhouse salad, crab stuffed halibut or prime rib or baked tortellini or always available sirloin, chicken breast, salad or baked potato.

As we began our sail out of Portage Arm, I went up on the bridge to find the captain all alone. He welcomed me as his first visitor of the day. I think he had gotten lonely. His name is Paul Figuenick. He said Admiralty Dream was built in 1979. He soon let Ken, the master chief, drive the boat. As we neared the intersection of 2 arms again, we saw a bunch of humpback whales and orca together. We followed along with one orca on the port side almost all the way out to Chatham Strait. Ken, who was driving saw the humpbacks first, but I spotted the orca first. Lynette came up to the bridge and asked Ken to stop the boat or even turn around because there were some people on the starboard side watching the humpbacks and some orca together. No one on the bridge had seen them and they were traveling away pretty fast. Ken called the captain and asked and he said it was Lynette’s call if she wanted to be late to Lake Eva. She didn’t. I told her we should just stay with the one orca close along the port side and the people on the starboard side could come to the port side and watch him as we travel on. It worked out perfectly.

Back from lunch. Dessert was huge and incredible. It was a ramekin of peach and strawberry crumble with vanilla ice cream. I will justify the huge carb load by saying at 3pm we are to go ashore at Lake Eva for a 3 hour hike.

Tonight is the Captain’s dinner and at 7:45am tomorrow, they disembark us. We will fly out of Sitka in the morning and be in Raleigh by Sunday morning.

This Admiralty Dream trip has exceeded our expectations and we can highly recommend Alaskan Dream Cruises.

The ship has just stopped again, so I have to go out and see what there is to see. Well, we dropped anchor. It seems we arrived early at Lake Eva and the announcement has just been made for the 1^st DIB group to get ready to go. They have yet to announce whether we need boots for a water landing or if they can set up steps and we can wear regular shoes. Hopefully, by time for DIB 2 we’ll be told. We would rather not hike for 3 hours in heavy rubber boots we borrowed from the ship if we don’t have to, nor pack shoes over there. Also, the gift shop was finally set up in the lounge after final bills had been presented. We each got a t-shirt since they had maps on the back. The shirts were $20 each. Recommended tips are $15 pp/pd for 8 days. We gave an imprint of the credit card on embarkation day so we should be closed out now.

We’re back from our medium paced walk. It felt like it was a death march! I don’t know that we went much slower than the fast paced group. We walked all the way to Lake Eva and back, 4 miles, without seeing a bear. Our entire last day spent without seeing a single bear. I am sad. I am especially sad because on one of the first stone stairways on the way back, I dislocated my right kneecap again. I shortly got a chance to step out of line on the trail and push it back into place when Lee pointed out a baby bear print in the mud. Clay and I and some other photographer lagged behind and brought up the rear. Clay and I and Lee and Frasier, the deck hand were the last ones to DIB back to the ship as the tide just kept getting lower. It looked to have dropped 15 feet or more while we were ashore about 3 hours. When we got there the tide was higher than Lee had ever seen it and part of the trail was underwater. We had to make a detour around and over a couple of logs and streams to get to the other side. When we came back the water was down and the trail of stepping stones was exposed. That was good since we were hurrying to beat the dark and the tide. While we only saw an eagle, it was still a good day. It was about 60 – 63 degrees and partly sunny with not a drop of rain all day. 

So, now we’ve done some packing and we’re dressed for the Captain’s dinner. Just jeans and clean shirts! It looks like it might be a good sunset.  It turns out the round table at the back of the dining room that we have used every evening for dinner is the Captain’s! Since it was reserved for him and his 4 guests tonight, we moved to our usual breakfast spot and it was fine. Usually they only have 4 places set at that table though. We sat with the photographer from our walk today and his wife. They are from Colorado. They always serve one red wine and one white wine with lunch and dinner, as well as any beer they have that you ordered. Clay has had a lot of beers and some red wine. I have had only a glass of white wine at dinner and liked them all. But, tonight they served a chardonnay and neither of us liked it. Also, they had some kind of failure on the soup tonight and it was just awful. It’s too bad to finish on an off note. After dinner, they introduced the 3 kitchen staff. It is incredible to think that only 3 people in that tiny kitchen have put out such good meals all at one time every meal. They introduced all the waitstaff/room stewards again. At this point at the end of every meal, the waitstaff usually tell each table what is for dessert. The desserts and pastries and cookies have been delicious and we have all always been told that Sunshine bakes them while we sleep and she sleeps at night. Tonight no one had told us what was for dessert except that it was a surprise. They served everyone a small stem-less glass of sparkling wine. After the Captain made his toast, you know the one about tall ships and small ships but best of all friendships; they announced a dessert buffet extravaganza in the lounge. Where we all got to meet Sunshine!

The 3 expedition leaders all spoke again and they told us that wake up tomorrow is 6am and breakfast is 6:30am and between 7 and 8am an expert would board and speak in the lounge about our disembarkation. Luggage is to be outside the cabins before we go to breakfast and we’ll find it wherever we are heading when we arrive. Jon did a slide show of photos that he, Lee and Lynette had taken all week. At the end, he said he would hand one out to each Alaskan Dream Cruise booked cabin and Lynette would get them to the Orbidge folks via their photo sharing site. That was a very nice touch.

Our final onboard bill was $356. We spent $16 on a print at the Orca Point Lodge and Clay charged it to our onboard account. We bought 2 t-shirts for $40. We put $300 of gratuities on the account. The recommended amount according to the book in our cabin was $15pp/pd. Jon suggested $15 to $20pp/pd.

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Day 6 Red Bluff Bay and Hidden Falls

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Thursday, September 5, 2013

The drama of the mass whale feeding went on for hours last night. It was a whale tail extravaganza in Frederick Sound! Long after we had gone to bed I heard a whale breath very close by. I sat up and looked out and realized one was right outside my window. I called Clay and there were 2. The bridge has some kind of spotlights they turn on to see things at night and they were on. The 2 humpbacks were gliding along right beside the front half of the port side and as the 2^nd one raised its tail, I swear the right tip of the tail grazed the side of the ship. They moved off about 6 feet and then another 10 feet but they were keeping pace with the ship. Finally they were 20 feet away and dropping back, but it was incredible while they were so close. Of course it was too dark for photos of black whales in black water in the dark!

We sailed south down Frederick Sound and the water was crazy rough. This is the downside of a very small unstabilized ship. We were tossing about. About 3am, I woke up to the spotlights off the bow again and sat up and looked out to a giant washing machine of bergie bits, the big ones that Lynette described. I guess the bridge was trying to avoid having one tossed onto us! I don’t know what glacier we were close enough to for all that large ice to be in the channel. Just before dawn we entered Chatham Strait and things began to calm down. By about 5am we had entered the mouth of Red Bluff Bay which had a couple of jogs to make to get all the way inside. Once we reached the end where there is a small salmon spawning river or stream, there was a brown bear or grizzly feeding and hanging out there all through breakfast. We are on the back side of Baranof Island from Sitka. We have passed and anchored just beyond a perfect tall cascading waterfall. I am sitting out in the sun on the aft deck 3 and can hear the roar of and see it and a pair of bald eagles. We have had an incredibly scenic trip. Today is beautifully bright and sunny.

The first DIB group is out and we have about another 2 hours to just sit and soak in the scenery, bear and eagle watching with binoculars before we get our turn. Then we will sail back north a bit to the Hidden Falls salmon hatchery for our afternoon visit there. The hand drawn route map in the lounge shows Eli Cove is the location. Tomorrow is Lake Eva and Kelp Bay. We are geographically very close to Sitka again, if you could go straight overland, but of course with a huge mountain before us, you can't. Time is just flying by and it is hard to believe tomorrow is our last day.

The breakfast special today was French toast with house made raspberry sauce. I had it with raspberry yogurt and bacon, delicious. Clay had eggs, toast and bacon with orange juice. We were joined again by Lynette and she pointed out a brown bear on the shore.  We asked her about the small black and white diving birds and she said they were murrelets in their winter plumage. She said all summer in their mating plumage they were dull brown things that looked like baked potatoes floating in the water. She said they had just recently changed plumage for winter and now they are the more attractive black and white. They are amazing at how long they can stay underwater and how deep and far they can swim. When they fly, they swarm around like butterflies.

Clay said our room steward was on ice watch to get the minute the berg bit melted away in the lounge. It is 8:30am and it is gone. So, Clay is out of the running.  The 2^nd DIB group has just gone and we are next so I better go and see what I need to put on for that. I wore a pair of long underpants on a recommendation of an early DIBer, but that was overkill with jeans, a sweater and a fleece jacket under the lifevest. We had 15 on our DIB again. Same exact group. I was on first and made sure I sat on the starboard side by the tub and away from the engine. It was good. We saw a brown bear pull out and carry up the shore a salmon and feed on it. He kept staring right at us like he wished we’d go. Lynette explained that brown bears and grizzly bears are the same bear, but generally the brown bears that feed on fish along the shore are called brown and bears that live inland on mostly berries are called grizzlies.

Then we went to get a very close up call at the spectacular waterfall. After Jon told us there would be no need for waterproof gear! I think Adam was amusing himself with the close encounter. Clay thinks he got a good photo of Adam as we left the waterfall. I got his email address in case we did.

After we got back, we were still waiting for our room to be serviced and got a chance to visit the bridge. The Captain was up there all alone and it was a great 360 degree view. Lynette is about to give a presentation before lunch. So, I’ll be back later with the lunch and dinner menus and a full report. 

Lunch was white bean minestrone and Baranof Beef Dip with a twice baked potato or strawberry chicken salad with carrot cake. We both had soup and I had beef and Clay had the salad. I think we were both a little disappointed. I had chocolate ice cream and Clay had carrot cake. We sat with Ken & Beth, a pair of attorneys from Naples, FL where Beth is also a circuit court judge.

Jon showed a video in the lounge about commercial salmon fishing. I passed, but Clay went. Lynette’s talk and slide show was about the environmental impact of the reproductive life cycle of Pacific salmon in the wild. There are 5 types: chum, sockeye, king, coho, pink. All 5 have alternate names but I am sure I can’t get them right. If I write them here, I’ll have to look them up online later. OK. so here are the 2 names of the 5 types of salmon. Chum or dog. Sockeye or red. King or Chinook. Coho or silver. Pink or humpies.

Dinner is Pacific crab & corn soup and pear salad and almond crusted bone-in pork chop or roasted garlic prawns or stuffed Portobello mushroom.

I think I have an hour or so before we arrive at the salmon hatchery and I haven’t had a good nap all trip. I hate to miss scenic sailing, but the past hour or more has begged for some of those humpback whales with nary a one in sight. So, nap time for me now.

The salmon hatchery trip was interesting, but not as interesting as the bears making a meal of nearby salmon. Hidden Falls Hatchery is situated on a point of land near a small inlet caused by a hidden waterfall from Hidden Lake in the mountains above. Salmon can't spawn here because there is no river, but they can imprint on the fresh water falls and inlet when they are born here and return to spawn. All the hatchery has to do is let them in and harvest at spawning time, then incubate and wait for them to mature enough to release into the wild. There is no farming here. So, Hidden Falls. They really were hidden, behind a small island and then behind a stand of tall trees. Lynette said it was a sheer falls. Adam, who showed us around, said their freshwater supply was from the falls and from a surface water and deep water pipe running down from the same glacial lake, Hidden Lake, that supplies the falls. They also had a turbine installed in the water pipes to generate their own electricity. He said they only go into town, Sitka, about 4 times a year and they home school the kids that live there. It would be a strange life.

There was a mother and a cub nearby and they fished from shore and swam in and fished some more. At one point we were standing near the fish weir and a mink (or river otter) darted out from a hole at the bottom of the dam and it sneaked along and across and down the other side. Clay did not get a photo because he was too small and sneaky. 

Clay had salad and prawns for dinner.  I had salad and pork. I had cheesecake with raspberry sauce and Clay had chocolate ice cream. We sat with a couple from Beaumont, TX. After dinner Jon did a presentation on the life of humpback whales.

During dinner we entered Kelp Bay and anchored in Middle Arm. Tomorrow we will move to the windier Portage Arm because there are more animals. We will have DIB tours in the morning there beginning at 7:45am. We are in the 3^rd group mustering at 8:30am. In the afternoon, we sail to Lake Eva (or near there) for group hikes. We signed up for the medium-paced group. We have 3 hours to hike and the pace will determine the distance. The fast-paced group will go 1.9 miles to Lake Eva and turn around and come back in 3 hrs. The medium group is not expected to see the lake. The regal or stately-paced group will get more flora talks as they stroll. Most are expected to walk along an estuary and salmon stream. Social hour and dinner will be later and that final dinner the will be the Captain’s. Jon also said the evening’s after dinner events would be special and run later than usual. He suggested we start packing tonight since we’ll have a long busy day tomorrow and they’ll want us off early the following morning. I think we will save our packing for tomorrow or Saturday morning anyway.

It’s not a cruise until Clay has fallen. Just fallen down, slipped, tripped, missed a stair and gone down. He slid down the last few stairs right outside our room. He carpet burned his elbow and bruised it and bruised his butt. There were witnesses, a passenger and our room steward. Clay was asked if he was alright later by the safety officer, so there was a report. I honestly can’t figure out what is up with Clay’s cruise falling. I can’t think of any ship we’ve ever been on that he hasn’t fallen. It’s a miracle he hasn’t really hurt himself. All I can do is ask to him to be more careful.

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Day 5 Admiralty Dream in Hobart Bay

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Wednesday, September 4, 2013

I think we slept better tonight because there was no engine noise or motion. We were still up early. Clay made a point of showing off how awake he was first today. We went to the lounge to ask for boots before breakfast because it was pouring rain and we have Zegos first. The foot wells on them were already full of water and we only had 30 minutes for breakfast. Our room steward/dinner waiter was in the lounge and he opened the 2 benches and found a mixed up jumble of boots in no order. He put together a pair of 4s for me and then balked at sorting through them for Clay’s 11s because I had interrupted him clearing the early risers breakfast from the bar. I realize they are spread thin, but this was a management problem and he should have notified someone above him rather than close the benches and tell us to come back later. We wouldn’t have time later and there weren’t enough boots in there for everyone on here. We left but Clay pointed out he would be bootless with wet feet and he only had the one pair of shoes because Alaskan Dream Cruises told us we didn’t need to pack them as they would be provided. So, I think I upset our room steward but I reopened the bench and Clay and I dug him out a pair of 10s that fit him. We only ever found one size 11 boot. Other people saw and came rooting for their own sizes and the waiter/steward guy gave me the hairy eyeball, but he was wrong and there was no excuse for not providing those boots to people who needed and requested them. As we were leaving for our Zego, I heard what sounded like the Captain’s voice over the radio requesting someone available to get to the lounge and straighten out those boots so passengers could get what they need. Finally, but literally an hour too late for the first Zego group.

We are back from our Zego ride. Our group was small enough (I think a lot of people just didn’t want that early of a start.) that we could each have our own ride if we wanted. Clay had told me I was the designated driver for the day so he could take photos. But, when they offered this he volunteered us to each drive our own so we did. The single passengers got 9.5 engines and the pairs got 20 engines. I know I had to go full throttle to keep up with Adam our leader. It was pouring rain and about 55 degrees F. So it was very wet but not terribly uncomfortable. Clay’s camera was getting very wet on the dock as people were getting on lifevests. I had offered him a gallon Ziploc bag last night and again this morning that I had in my suitcase, but he said no. As he stood there with his mitten over the camera and he was going to drive, I offered again and he said OK. He would never find it though, so I bolted back in and got it without any delay. Unfortunately he did not put his camera in it. He told me he was taking pictures of me when Adam sped off and he didn’t have time to put the bag back over the camera and so he drove the Zego for an hour with rain soaking it. We have used the hair dryer on it, but unless the works dry out on their own he may have just ruined his latest $1000 camera. Oh well, what’s done is done. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that the works inside dry on their own eventually and it goes back to normal with no lasting ill effects of its soaking. Anyway, Adam was speeding almost all the time. I saw a kingfisher, a salmon, 5 little black diving birds, 18 bald eagles, 12 of them flying or soaring, more gull type birds than I can count and some of them were diving from the air. We saw one old eagle nest. Right after we got docked and back onboard there was a black bear walking along the shore at the tree line. The first people on the RTVs said they saw a bear too. I think the Zegos were too noisy and scared away everything but the eagles. Lynette led a 1-hour hike after we got back but that was exactly how much time we had before our next activity and we had rushed out mid-breakfast and needed some time. Plus it was still pouring rain and we will hope for an opportunity to do the afternoon hike. I want to kayak but Clay is still saying no. We’ll see.

We’re back from our RTV ride. That was an unanticipated adventure. We had 2 leaders in 2 vehicles again, one front and one back. We had 5 RTVs in the middle with passengers driving them. They were parked lined up facing the bay. The first 2 off the left side took off first. The woman alone parked right next to my left side backed out next. The woman to her left then backed out and gunned forward and rammed our left rear bumper and never slowed down, but pushed us around 90 degrees. Clay and I both thought we were going over into the bay and there was nothing we could do, but then she was free of us and t-boned the rear guide who was sitting as the last vehicle parked next to a big pile of gravel and that stopped her. She was understandably mortified and apologetic and said she thought it was a clutch and gas instead of brake and gas. I don’t know why because before we started them Jon went from vehicle to vehicle and pointed out how everything worked and if you were an experienced driver it would be intuitive. Maybe she is just used to driving with a clutch? She had both feet on both pedals when she went by us anyway. Their RTV didn’t have any brake lights so I had to work to give her space and our brakes were not very good. I really had to stand on the pedal to get any slowing at all. Any way, by the time we started out and up the hill, Jon was on his way back down to sort things out. A crew member from the ship came out and checked out the RTVs and amazingly we couldn’t see any damage. They were Kawasaki Mules and it looked like they had plastic bodies so we thought they might be cracked or scratched, but you couldn’t really see that anything had happened. Anyway, then Jon got stuck and couldn’t back up the hill again, so 4 of us had to back down to the bottom of the hill again until he got free and headed straight back up the hill again. I am afraid it seriously cut into our time. Jon told us we would drive quickly out to a chum salmon spawning stream and take some photos then turn around and come back more slowly and he would let us stop for photos. We got off the RTVs on a bridge over a stream full of black salmon and after Jon and the first 3 vehicles left I heard hollering and the guy in the RTV behind me and his driver were out taking photos on Clay’s side. Clay got out and just as he did a black bear walked out into the stream and started fishing.  Jon eventually reappeared and waved me off the bridge, I left Clay there and the last 3 of us turned around and we all stopped and got off on the bridge again and bear-watched for a couple of minutes as he ate. Jon told us we’d have to hump it back to make it by 12:15pm and we did. So, it was a pretty exciting morning of new things. I had really wanted to see a bear fishing in a salmon stream. So, check!

For lunch Clay had ribs and I had a hamburger without a bun and corn. For dessert we had warm banana bread pudding with caramel sauce. We sat with a couple from New Jersey.

In about an hour we are scheduled for kayaking and Clay sounds like he is going to do it now. We are both wanting something quiet and slower and Clay wants to be able to take photos. His camera seems to be working now. The view screen is messed up, but it seems to be taking photos OK. Also it seems to have stopped raining again. It seems to be getting grayer and cloudier and windier and colder though as the day goes by. Fingers crossed though since every one so far has mostly raved about the kayaking. They have a launchway for the kayaks where you load and unload on a ramp so you can’t fall or tip or get wet. Fingers crossed. We missed the morning hike since we had rushed out in the middle of breakfast. We only had 10 minutes to eat after we got served. We needed the bathroom and Clay was messing with his camera so we missed the morning hike. We asked Lynette and she said she planned the afternoon hike at 2:30pm. That is when we go kayaking, but she said she might be able to move it back to 3:30pm. We’ll hope so and then we can hike too. The morning hike people said they saw a deer and learned a lot about the plants from Lynette.

The dinner menu is posted. Onion soup, Caesar salad, potato crusted halibut, chicken breast or Portobello mushroom. They never post dessert; you just have to wait for them to tell you what it is when you finish eating. I just watched a heron fly across the water in front of me. A few minutes later a bald eagle soared to a landing in a tree top in front of me across some water. There was another eagle already sitting there and I hadn’t even noticed it! Amazing!

They just announced that there was a black bear mama with 2 cubs at 12 o’clock in front of the ship on the shore. Gotta go. Saw them and 2 herons, a kingfisher, and 2 bald eagles. Now we have to get on waterproof layers for kayaking. Back later.

So we joined Jon and another couple and a woman with our room steward for kayaking. We headed out along the shore and saw more eagles and 2 rainbows. One was the grayest rainbow ever. But we were headed to the mouth of a salmon spawning stream. Since it was high tide and still rising Jon said we should be able to go upstream some and look for bears. We found 5 bears! One was much further upstream than we could go and she was frantically splashing around fishing. Jon was first in the smallest, one-man vessel so he got furthest upstream and he said she had a cub ashore. The next bear was on the left bank and she stood up on her hind legs and looked at us and then came in the stream and eventually she crossed the stream on a log. Unfortunately, Clay missed the photo of that because he got a perfect close up of my blue kayak paddle in motion! My bad. On the right bank and back a little was the mama bear and 2 cubs. She had already caught a fish and had it up on shore eating it. She didn’t much like us being there, although Jon and the others had already paddled past her. Clay spotted them as I was trying to maneuver us so he could take photos of the other 2. Jon started paddling past us back to the bay and I was hand signaling him 3 and pointing right frantically before he got close enough for me to actually say 3 bears. He went in the tiny cove and was amazed. I think he got some good photos. He got very close. I did not go that close into the little side channel because I wasn’t sure I could maneuver us out and I thought I would be blocking anyone else’s photo op. We left then and paddled twice as far again and only saw birds and a few leaping salmon. Sadly then we had to paddle back to the dock and the ship and it seemed very far away. I was sore and tired and the whole trying to maintain a rhythm thing was causing my right foot to fist under and jerk. Plus now instead of the incoming tide pushing us, we were fighting it and the wind was against us. We both said we were satisfied if this was our first and last kayaking adventure. We got soaked but it was mostly from the pouring rain! We got back after 4pm and missed the afternoon hike as well. In the good news department though Clay’s camera seems to work fine now, it just has a Swiss cheese pattern on the viewer. Oh well.

When we got back there were fresh baked peanut butter cookies and I felt like I had earned the carbs. It has been an exhausting yet exciting day in beautiful Hobart Bay.

We sailed from our dock in Hobart Bay about 7pm. Dinner started at 6:30pm. Clay had Caesar salad and potato crusted halibut. I had onion soup and chicken breast which came with bleu cheese gratin and I got it with the saffron rice instead. Before they could serve crème brulee for dessert, we managed to sail into the midst of about 30-100 feeding humpback whales at Pt. Hobart as we exited Hobart Bay into Frederick Sound. It is evidently a krill-rich environment. It is after 8:30pm and as we laid in our beds in the now strangely choppy seas, we heard a whale blow through our open window. There were 2 big humpback whales breaching right below our window. Both of them nearly scraped the side of the boat with their tails as they went back under. We have never seen that many whale tails in that concentration. It was crazy! It really has been the most amazing day. The sheer number of animals we have seen today is astounding. Sadly we have no photos of the huge pod of feeding humpbacks because it was too dark and Clay’s camera seems worse now than it was before.

Tomorrow is Red Bluff Bay with DIB excursions like yesterday. It is another protected inlet with a tricky entrance and lots of wildlife to see. We are in the 3^rd or green group at 9:15am. Tomorrow wake up is 6:15am and breakfast is at 6:45am. In the afternoon we will visit Hidden Falls salmon hatchery.

It is really rough now and I feel a little sick, so goodnight.

Photos

Day 4 Admiralty Dream in Tracy Arm

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Tuesday, September 3, 2013

We entered Tracy Arm before 6am. I was awake or dozing between 4am and 6am and there was always land close by outside. There were a surprising number of boats out overnight until we entered Tracy Arm. There is not much animal life in here. We’ve only seen one gull-like bird and one small or juvenile seal curled up on an iceberg.

Wake up was by Lynette today at 6:30am and breakfast at 7am. Clay had a bagel with cream cheese and lox. I had raspberry yogurt and oatmeal with a banana and maple syrup. They also have something called spruce tips syrup but we haven’t tried it. The oatmeal was a mistake I won’t repeat. It came with a ball of stiff oatmeal sticking up out of a small bowl, like ice cream. What the heck? She sliced the banana before she brought it. I ate it.

We arrived at South Sawyer Glacier during breakfast. It was spectacular and only a few, no more than 2 dozen, people got out to see it. Then as people were coming out from breakfast, they called us all to the lounge for the safety briefing. So, at the most scenic spot we’ve seen yet, here we’re sitting in a room that we can’t see out. While we were watching it calved 3 or 4 times, though it was remarkable how long it took the sound to reach us and then how much longer it took the big wave to reach us. Distances and size are difficult to gauge here. Everything seems larger and farther than you think.

In the briefing, they told us how we would do the DIB rides today. We are divided into 4 groups. Clay & I are in C, or 3. So, we won’t go until 10am, no 11 to 11:45am, no finally it was 11:15am to 12:15pm. Oh, DIB. Demaree Inflatable Boat. It is like a zodiac. While we were in the lounge, they moved the ship. It was really a cold wind coming off the glacier, so I went and put on extra layers and headed back up to watch glacier calving while the others took their DIB rides, but the glacier was gone! We’re in a dark green little cove, around the corner I suppose. We’re bobbing here like in a tender and I feel awful. Hopefully I won’t get any worse before our DIB turn. They are also sending out 2 kayak groups today, but experts only today. Not that I want to do it, but no beginners today. Oh, we were told that cold wind is a glacial katabatic wind.

It is 9:15am and they haven’t serviced our cabin yet. I wish they would because I would take a nap here is this dark, bobbing cove with nothing to see before 11am. Oh well. Here comes the first of the tour boats up the Arm. More later.

We finally nosed around and out enough to see the glacier again, but not enough for the wind to blow the bugs off. It is nearly 11am and the 2^nd DIB group is nowhere in sight yet, but the good news is our cabin has finally been serviced. Our washcloths are back. If ever a morning begged for a nap this was it! But, we tried to stay out as a courtesy to keep from delaying him, but he was delayed by something anyway. Also, they have new info sheets posted by Orbridge that takes away the 2^nd day of Hobart Bay. Lunch is posted. Lentil soup, beef stroganoff or curry chicken salad. There is always the option of a hamburger or a veggie burger.

We went on our DIB turn to the glacier from around 11:15am to around 12:15pm. Now allow me to feel sorry for myself. I was 7^th in line to go down from the 4^th deck staging area to the 1^st deck swim platform where the DIB was tied up. I want to say that every one of the Alaskan Dream Cruises staff and crew I have encountered really work to do whatever they can to ensure that every person is having an enjoyable experience all the time, but I suppose sometimes it is just impossible. This was one of those times. They loaded 6 people on the starboard side of the DIB. As 7^th, I was asked to go to the back of the port side to start filling it. There was a rope on the seat and a battery on the floor in front of it, so I thought it was the driver’s area. I stayed forward of it. I was asked to slide down as the last passenger and Lynette boarded and I did. I was sitting on the rope with my legs to the side of the battery. Then out over the battery. When the driver came back to start us off, he told me to move my feet so he could stand in that space by the battery to drive the boat. I tried to shift my legs to the forward side again but as we set off everyone in the line ahead of me turned sideways to face forward and I was shoved even further back. The good news was that there was an angled metal bar welded at the very back sticking out by the side of the outboard that I was eventually supported by as I sat on the wet coil of rope with my feet on top of the battery and my knees as close to my chest as the life vest would allow. All that sounds uncomfortable and it was. But then the glacier started calving. The guides were ecstatic, it was the most active calving they had ever seen, no exaggeration. I couldn’t see a thing. Lynette was in the middle of the front of the boat, so no view there. There were at least 7 people in front of me all leaning either left or right and I could not lean  further than them because the driver was there and I was clinging to a pole standing up off the back of the boat trying not to get crammed all the way off as everyone in front kept resituating themselves for optimum views. The driver understood that I couldn’t see anything and told me he was sorry  but he had to keep the nose straight on to the glacier as the big waves came. He was woo-hooing as we rode about 6 or more big rolling waves created by the ice displacement or splash. The waves must have been at least 10 feet high, maybe more, probably more, they were well over our heads as they came at us. (When I asked him later, Ken said they were about 6 feet high. At least, I could see they were over his head as I saw them coming at us from behind him!) The driver radioed back to the ship to warn the galley staff to brace for the ride. I still probably would have been okay, but by this time I was getting sick from sitting 15 inches from the outboard engine’s exhaust. I sucked exhaust fumes for the better part of an hour as we maneuvered around to see things and to stay clear of ice and head on to waves. I was sick and not just motion sick, I think I got a carbon monoxide overdose. I needed help to get in bed when we got back and I was still trying not to hurl. I passed out for about 2 hours. Clay was upset because they were serving lunch when we got back. He wanted me to go but there was no way I could sit up much less sit up and eat while we continued to bob around. I just wrapped a blanket around myself and laid in the buggy open breeze from our window and knocked out. At some point Clay came back in and said he couldn’t eat in there by himself and I said I’m sorry but you’ll have to. He came back again and said he would go sit out front, I said OK. He asked if he could have my kettle corn and I said take it with you and go watch the glacier. He did. When he came back about 2 hours later I was awake and needed to pee. He said he hadn’t not seen any more calving activity. I saw some out the window. I guess our DIB group still won the award for best viewing. All but me, and I saw only one calving. When we got back to the ship, it was positioned so that the port side and front had a perfect view of the whole event, including our DIB bronc-riding. I told Clay if I get seated out over the engine again, I’ll just refuse the ride and stay onboard. The other passengers that were onboard and outside viewing gave us a round of applause as we tied up the DIB to reboard the ship.

There were a lot of harbor seals out there near the glacier floating around on the pieces of ice. I guess that was a young harbor seal that we passed on the way up here. The closest one we saw was rolled over scratching his belly, ho-hum another day at the glacier. The kayaks were out there. Another DIB or zodiac from our sister ship, Alaskan Dream, as well as Alaskan Dream were all out in front of the glacier when it was so actively breaking up. The sun has continued to shine brightly with brilliant blue skies to go with the brilliant blue ice.

Alaskan Dream showed up about 4 hours after us and left around 2pm I guess. They were gone when I woke up from my recovery nap. They must have had lunch right in front of the glacier and given all their 40-some passengers a ride in their inflatable and then left. It has been a beautiful and amazing day, what I have been able to enjoy of it. I may try to get on my feet again soon and see about a snack in the lounge and if they have the dinner menu up. While still a little queasy and headachy, believe it or not I am a little hungry. I did eat a handful of cinnamon almonds when I got up to pee though so I should be fine. I have a full view of the glacier now from my bed and there is no one else out there. All the other boats are gone, including our DIB and kayaks. I am guessing that must mean it is about time for us to sail out of the Tracy Arm.

I’m back. I got to the lounge right after the fresh baked chocolate chip cookies did! I brought back a little plate of goldfish and 2 chocolate chip cookies. A big warm one for Clay and a little one for me with the goldfish. For about the next fifteen minutes the water was perfectly calm and glassy and reflecting all the colors of the rock mountain side with the sun shining on it now instead of behind it and it was magical. Now though the wind is back and the water is too rippled to reflect, at least for the moment though the rolling and bobbing has stopped. Clay asked me what was for dinner. I stuck my elbows out and explained how I had gotten the cookies and goldfish and had to call that a success without making it over to the posted menus. Maybe next trip when I return the little plate.

Clay wanted another cookie after Jon’s voice announced them so enticingly in our cabin. Dinner tonight is seafood chowder, and seared duck, scallops Provencal or sesame crusted grilled tofu. There is an always available menu of steak, chicken breast (which I had 2 nights ago and it was better than expected), garden salad or baked potato.

Jon is now on the intercom explaining the “time machine effect” of the landscape and flora of the 32 miles of Tracy Arm.  Jon’s joke was about lichen. A symbiotic hybrid plant of an algae which takes a likin' to a fungi. I love puns!

We are well underway back out Tracy Arm and we had a forgotten bumper from a small orange boat that spent the day tied up under our window. I was on my way up to the bridge to ask them if it should still be dragged, bouncing along there when someone pulled it up and I found the bridge closed. It is too bad because that and outside are the only forward viewing spots. As we left, a small HAL ship assumed our position. We also passed a small Allen Marine Saint-something tour boat making a fast run up to the South Sawyer Glacier.

We just passed an NCL ship in Tracy Arm! I would guess that is where the St.-something had picked up its passengers.

Lee has just announced that Social hour has begun. It is 5:30pm. The drink special tonight is bergie bits martini. We knew something like that was coming because as I returned from the bridge door earlier, I passed Jon struggling out of the restaurant and down our hall to the lounge with a big clear growler in a large plastic tub. No thanks after the display of glacier worms we saw at the Glacier Bay Visitors Center. Lee announced the hors d’oeuvres tonight is shrimp & avocado and is going fast. Jon is now announcing a contest for an undecided prize. You have to go to the lounge and fill out a slip with your guess for the date and time the ice berg on the bar will completely melt. Lynette on the DIB told us that a bergie bit was defined as being over 18 feet long and 6 feet tall (which I had never heard before) which she said made most of what we were seeing growlers. Jon is calling the torso-sized bit of ice he hauled to the lounge and placed on the bar a bergie bit, which by Lynette’s definition would be an impossibility. Clay went to the lounge to try to place his entry and came back disgusted. I told him he could make 2 entries and use my name and have the prize no matter what it is. He said there 20 people around 3 sheets taking 20 minutes to decide and write their guess. He said several people had already guessed the 2^nd and we had a good laugh about the competition for the prize being reduced since today is the 3^rd! He went out again as Jon said we were passing a big bend and the chum salmon spawning stream. Earlier we passed a perfect green u-shaped glacially carved valley with a river and an unseen glacial lake that he said was sockeye salmon spawning territory. It is a wonder we didn’t see any eagles here. Clay was back pretty quickly. He said he found an undiscovered sheet in the middle of the lounge and only put his guess not mine. He said he might go back later and put a guess from me on a different sheet. He put me down for 7pm Thursday and himself down for noon Thursday. I’ll keep you posted.

Clay has hat envy. I made him what we both thought was the perfect hat. He doesn’t like hats much, he says his head gets too hot. So I used a relatively fine wool and a size 7 needle to make what I thought would be a mostly waterproof but breathable hat with no cuff to turn back. My hat is a chunky wool/acrylic knitted on the same size needle with a cuff to help keep my ears warm as well as my head. Clay for some reason had my hat and complained that I that made myself a better hat than him. I explained my thoughts and he said he needs one like mine with some of that chunky black acrylic yarn that is left over from the sweater I left knitted but unconstructed at home. I promised him one. So, this is proof that there is no perfect hat. Only the hat you don’t have. I let Clay wear my hat today out on the DIB and he proclaimed it far superior to his once perfect hat and I wore my Kmart earband with my fleece hood and at one point my rain jacket hood as well. I was never too cold and had layers to knock back as I got increasingly nauseated and distressed. It all worked out.

We sat at our usual front-facing, rear of the dining room seats again. This time we sat with the couple from Jackson, MS again. They are in the cabin directly across the hall from us, too.  I had feta and Greek olive salad (not so much) and sesame crusted tofu with wild rice pilaf and it was good. I liked it. Clay had the salad as well and duck. He liked it. For dessert they had chocolate pot de crème with a spoon outline dusted on it and it was very good. Everyone liked it, but Clay had a bowl of chocolate ice cream.

We had a mandatory safety briefing in the lounge after dinner. It was about our recreational day in Hobart Bay. This is a facility privately owned by Goldbelt, a Tlingit enterprise, that also owns the Mt. Roberts Tramway. Alaskan Dream Cruises has an exclusive contract for the use of the location. We arrived at the dock in Hobart Bay after the meeting and woke up docked there. They made everyone sign a waiver accepting personal responsibility for themselves on account of themselves and all heirs, descendants, etc. Then Ernie handed out color coded lanyards for everyone that had your scheduled rotation of activities on it. As well there was an extra dawn kayak run and a morning and afternoon hike. We got assigned to the red group and our rotation is 7:15am Zego. This is a personal watercraft or 2-person watercraft, but not a JetSki. It is like a go cart on pontoons. 10:30am we have RTV which like a cross between an ATV and a golf cart. 2:15pm we have kayaks. Good because we are most iffy about that one. Lunch is I think from noon to 2pm as an open self-serve buffet. Wake up is 6:15am instead of 6:30am and breakfast is 6:45am instead of 7am. The questions included about the promised onboard boots and Jon said he had never used them here but they were under the benches in the lounge if people wanted or needed them. He thought no one would need them except for maybe on Zegos. Lynette said that in about 2 nights there was a higher aurora forecast and if we wanted Adam to wake us up if there was notable activity we could sign up for that and we did. Jon also explained that the waitstaff/cabin stewards also work to lead expeditions tomorrow and so if we could give them a break and tidy our own cabins it would be appreciated and to let them know by leaving our no knock knots on our door handles. We put ours out and went to bed.

Photos

Day 3 Admiralty Dream at Juneau

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Monday, September 2, 2013

I woke up a little past 5am this morning and saw some blue and pink sky out the window with a bright crescent moon visible. I was so pleased to see sky, moon and mountains that I got right up. Clay was not far behind. We seem to be much nearer civilization than we were yesterday. It looks like it might be a beautiful day today. The sky is clear and there are snow-capped peaks in the distance. Lovely. We’ll keep our fingers crossed for a beautiful day (or a row of them here). Well, we can see Mendenhall Glacier in the distance so I’ll sign off for now and be back to report on the day.

Clay had pancakes for breakfast. I had raspberry yogurt, one fried egg with bacon and English muffin. We sat with a couple from the South Island of New Zealand and we heard again about our visiting the wrong island. Maybe one day in 2015 we’ll make it right.

The bus to Mendenhall Glacier was to depart at 8:30am and it was late leaving. Clay and I went out early to have a look around, though the boat’s staff really didn’t want to let us. Several people onboard blew off the included activities and did their own thing by flying somewhere for the day. I am not sure if Lee drove them where they needed to go or if they waited for cabs, but only Jon and Lynette came with the bus. There was quite a bit of confusion as Marge our bus driver had orders for one bus and 46 passengers and her bus would seat 52 but we have 62 ship passengers. It turned out that the people who went off to do their own thing left a seat or 2 empty. But by the time we left Mendenhall we had a 2^nd bus anyway.

We only had 1.5 hours at the glacier. We walked first to the bear viewing platform across the parking lot. As we arrived we met a local woman who said she stopped every morning on her way to work and she led us along and told us about the red Sockeye salmon that had arrived in the Mendenhall stream on August 1^st. She said she had only really seen one bear around there each morning since and not every day. Anyway, the stream was really full today and everyone told us that yesterday was a terrible day in Juneau with very heavy rain. You could see how high the stream had been and she pointed it out. We looked with her but no bears feeding.

Marge had told us there was a baby porcupine hanging around the parking lot for the past week and to look up in the trees. We found him. Who knew porcupines climbed trees? He was sitting up there in the skinny branches pulling off leaves with his little paws and stuffing them in his mouth. Adorable.

Then we walked over to the Visitor’s Center and took photos of the lake, glacier and roaring Nugget Falls. I also used the restroom. We really had to race up and back to make the 2-mile trail round trip in 40 minutes or so and did not have time to see the film. Marge advised that it was really well done about the life of a glacier. We know all about them so hopefully we didn’t really miss anything.

We had 5 hours in downtown Juneau. Our next included option was the Mt. Roberts tramway. Alaskan Dream Cruises provided us with wristbands for the Mendenhall Glacier visit, with tickets for the Mt. Roberts Tramway and $20 vouchers for lunch. We had a choice of Baranof Café, Zen Asian (which was closed today) and The Hangar which is where we ate. There were 4 mega-ships in town today. A Princess ship was already docked and unloading when we arrived at 11am. We went up to Mt. Roberts in the first tram up when they opened at 11am. We shopped, watched a film on Tlingit life, saw an eagle in a big cage and walked a .5 mile Alpine Loop trail that wound up being almost entirely vertical up and down. There were some amazing views from up there today with the blue skies and bright, hot sun. We saw a bald eagle gyring overhead and watched it for a while. Clay decided to put his big lens on his camera and we both had our heads down for about 20 seconds to get it changed and when we looked back up the thing was just gone! We could see 10-12 mountain goats on neighboring Mt Juneau. We were up there almost 2 hours.

At the bottom again, we bought some kettle corn, watched seaplanes taking off and landing in competition with Celebrity's tendering operation and then went to lunch. I looked at another yarn shop with insanely expensive yarn that I did not buy and then we had lunch. Clay had a reindeer brat and sauerkraut sandwich and an Alaskan Brewing White Ale. I had a teriyaki beef rice and salad bowl and water. For dessert I had a flourless chocolate cake with fresh raspberries and Clay had vanilla ice cream. Our tab was $40.89 so we used up our $20 each. We weren’t even expecting that from ADC and it was a great gesture. We really appreciated it. After lunch we shopped a bit more. I haven’t found what I was looking for at a price I would pay. But I got another great apron today at the top of Mt. Roberts Tramway. It is covered with totem faces. We had planned to spend the bulk of our day today at the Alaska State Museum, but our bus driver to downtown, Smokey, said it was closed for Labor Day. Oh well, we are sorry to have missed it but we had a good day.

We were to meet the bus where it dropped us off at 4pm. At 4:15 or so we finally left missing a couple of people. Evidently they arrived in a cab a little before the bus did, no idea what happened there. We are on our way to Orca Point Lodge now for our dinner on private Colt Island. I am still full from our 2pm lunch so a protein bar should serve me just fine. I hope Clay gets his salmon and has room for it after our big late lunch. We should be there in about another half hour and I have no idea how long we are staying or what time we are leaving. We haven’t heard anything yet about tomorrow’s plans and since we’ll be off the boat for dinner I’m not sure how or when they’ll tell us. We have never gotten a daily sheet in the cabin as was promised. Oh, today when we got back to the cabin there was a 2012-2013 Alaska photographs calendar on the bed. Another nice gesture.

I packed 6 sweaters that are not coming home, 1 got left behind in Sitka, 2 so far onboard with 3 more to go. That should buy us all the space we need in the luggage for the trip home with souvenirs. I had put the sweater in the trash 2 days ago and it got removed and left on the floor. I put it back in the trash yesterday along with the one I had worn yesterday. Today they are gone, so I guess we got that figured out, thankfully.

That kettle corn I got in Juneau is awful! I wish I had only gotten the small bag. It has an overabundance of big hulls that gag and choke you and get caught in your throat. I think I accidentally inhaled one all the way to my lungs in a fit of coughing and sneezing and yakking to get a big dose of them freed up! Yucky!

We are back from Orca Point Lodge. They had a gift shop and I found what I was looking for at a much better than expected price! I was looking for some kind of artwork with a face or faces on it like the Tlingit traditional art that was made by some one local. We found the same exact artist’s work in downtown Juneau for double the price and I balked and didn’t buy it. Now I have what I was looking for at a good price!

Clay did not get his salmon, contrary to the pre-cruise descriptions no salmon was served. But, he did find that he really likes king crab and he ate his fill. I had some salad and got a couple of kabobs they had grilled. Unfortunately they were not still hot, but close to room temperature and with my fear of food poisoning I couldn’t eat them. I ate some salad, a protein bar and had a glass of Riesling. Clay had an Alaskan Brewing White Ale. It was the same beer he liked at lunch today. He got a t-shirt for it today in Juneau. We were sitting at a long table alone by desserts and the bar when the Captain came along with a plateful of crab and asked to join us. He had a Diet Pepsi. It was an enjoyable evening.

They had fondue for dessert with brownies, strawberries and marshmallows unfortunately they put Grand Marnier in the melted chocolate and we both hated it. The good news is that they did have a fire going outside and had extendable forks to toast the marshmallows. They had the graham crackers and Hershey bars as well as Reese’s, Twix and KitKats! Clay expertly made himself a huge deluxe with 2 whole grahams, a whole Hershey bar and 3 marshmallows. I ate 5 toasted marshmallows alone, no s’more. That was the best part of the evening. When Jon was telling us what to expect this evening, he told us that we could order whatever we wanted from the bar and give our room number and it would be billed to our shipboard account. Clay & I were a little surprised because ADC told us that beer & wine was included at lunch and dinner. Lynette corrected him when he gave her cabin number and told people to bill it to her. Beer and wine were still included with dinner ashore. But, we are thinking that this was another difference between the Orbridge charter and the regular cruise. We have also realized as Jon talked that we are overnighting at Hobart Bay and spending a 2^nd day there were we are expected to kayak, atv and Zego play. We have never done any of those things primarily because we wouldn’t choose to and this explains what happened to our ports of Petersburg and Kake. Oh well.

Tomorrow we spend all day on the Admiralty Dream as we sail Tracy Arm up to South Sawyer Glacier. Jon says we may take some trips around the glacier or the falls in the inflatable, but we’ll have to see when we get there. That would be cool. He said that there were usually no whales in Tracy Arm. Well that’s about it, so I’ll stop for today and be back tomorrow with more to report. Southeast Alaska is beautiful and grand and spectacular. It is a special part of the world. The people are warm, friendly and welcoming. What more could you ask for?

Photos

Day 2 Admiralty Dream in Glacier Bay

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Sunday, September 1, 2013

We were up about 5am today as we came into Bartlett Cove to pick up Stephanie our Park Ranger and Faith our Huna Tlingit cultural interpreter for the day. Jon came on the intercom with our wakeup call at 6:30am. There was fruit and Danish in the lounge from 6am on. Breakfast was at 7am. We went to the dining room. I will wish for yogurt and coffee with hot cocoa mix in the lounge from now on and that would be perfect. We’ll see. We shared our table with Lynette, the Orbridge expedition leader onboard with us as the leader of the half-chartered sailing. Clay and I were out front as we set off from the Glacier Bay Lodge dock and saw some sea otters, a horned puffin and a humpback whale. Sadly, it was too dark yet for any photos but it was very exciting. Horned puffins have white bellies and tufted puffins have all black bodies with little colored tufts on either side of their heads.

We sailed up Glacier Bay and spent about a half hour at South Marble Island which was covered with Steller sea lions, kittiwakes, cormorants, pigeon guillemots, common murres, murrelets and then at sea some tufted puffins and horned puffins. There was also a humpback whale and an orca. As we left we passed a raft of cavorting sea lions porpoising and jumping and rolling around.

Stephanie and Faith gave talks in the lounge and then we pulled into Tidal Inlet to look for bears. We saw more puffins and lots of other birds, 3 bald eagles, one grizzly bear and a handful of mountain goats on Gloomy Knob as we exited.  Also on Gloomy Knob we saw a juvenile bald eagle fledging from the nest to the ground and then to a lower tree’s top where he stretched his wings. Good stuff.

Now we are sailing past Jon Hopkins glacier in the distance heading for Margerie Glacier, before we start back down Glacier Bay. Jon just announced that lunch would be delayed 30 minutes so we can go into Russell Cut to look for more wildlife. This evening they hope to get us back to the Glacier Bay visitors’ dock in time to let us off for an evening hike before sunset at 9pm or so. We’ll see. Back outside into the cold for me. The good news is that it stopped raining and though there are still lots of low clouds the sun has come out!

We had a very substantial lunch. I had creamy tomato soup that I really liked and chicken parmesan with fettuccine. It was too much. Clay ordered a hamburger with chips and another Alaskan Ale. He really likes it better than any of the 6 beers he had at Baranof Island Brewing. Alaskan Ale is brewed in Juneau. For dessert they had sour cream blueberry pie which people really seemed to like. We didn’t have any. They had wild berry sorbet and Clay got it. I didn’t because I was sure it had blueberries in it, but Clay said he only tasted raspberry and lemon. Anyway, I skipped dessert. Just as well since midmorning during the ranger and cultural talks, I had a hot chocolate/decaf coffee/French vanilla creamer concoction that I mixed up for myself. After lunch, the skies cleared and we had brilliant sunshine and blue skies until we had sailed most of the way back out again. Then, we got back in the grey low clouds again. 

When we arrived in our cabin yesterday, we had a very dirty and very wet open window. I touched it and found it was drippy and foggy from the inside. So, I took a washcloth and cleaned it. I completely saturated the wash cloth from the window and sill of, I guess just condensation. It got the white cloth very dirty and soaked so I put it on the floor of the showerlet. Today I had to do it all over after we slept in here and the crew very nicely washed and squeegeed the exterior of the window. I put that washcloth on the floor too. When we came back after breakfast the washcloths were missing entirely. So when they told us if we didn’t want to reuse a linen to put a card on it or put it on the floor, they didn’t mean they would replace it! The next time I used the bath floor mat to clean the window and just hung it back up over the showerlet door. We only have 2 hand towels and 2 bath towels left. 

So we wound up seeing no more wildlife other than some birds in the Russell Cut. We had lunch as we sailed up to Margerie Glacier. We could see the Grand Pacific Glacier as well. But, Margerie is the big tidewater glacier at the end of Glacier Bay. The sun was shining brilliantly and it was blue. We sat at the face of it for about an hour and got one pretty good calf. The captain wisely turned the nose to the glacier and rode out the big waves it caused. Unlike our glacier falling experience in Antarctica!

We saw HAL’s Volendam going in and out of Glacier Bay. We saw HAL’s Amsterdam going to Margerie when we left. We saw HAL’s Oosterdam in Sitka. They have a large presence here. We saw 4 kayaks in front of Margerie as well! Lee, our other expedition leader, who is a local Tlingit told us that the closest they could have paddled from was 2 hours away and that they would have to go back to camp overnight because that was the closest that camping was allowed. That is crazy. We sailed through so much floating ice to get here that we really expected more calving. Even now sailing back down the bay and looking at all the ice, I would have expected to see more calving.

On the way out, we stopped briefly at 2 more tidewater glaciers. We saw a brilliantly sunlit Lamplugh Glacier with Mount Cooper behind and Russell Island to the side. It has an ice cave with a river flowing out of the center at water level and there was a muddy water/blue water boundary at some distance from the ice. We sailed across it and into the brown water area so there must have been a whole lot of melt water coming out of there. Stephanie, the park ranger, called it a melt water river. The last glacier we saw was Reid Glacier, it was the least impressive as it was smaller and you couldn’t get as close to it.

Margerie Glacier was a mile across the face and 200 ft. tall above the water with another 100 feet below. Lamplugh Glacier was about ¾ of a mile across and about 200 ft. tall again. The Grand Pacific Glacier is receding into Canada and you can see Canada from where we sat at the top of Tar Inlet.

The day is still chilly especially in the wind on deck, but the sun is shining brightly with clouds clustered around the mountain tops. It is spectacularly scenic.

I went and looked at the dinner menu. Not good for me! First course is cream of broccoli soup. Second course is roasted pepper, mushroom and asparagus salad. Choices for main course are grilled lamb chops, rock fish and grilled lentil cakes. I hope dessert is not blueberries!

So, we just had an announcement that Faith, our Tlingit guide for Glacier Bay, was going to give a PowerPoint presentation in the lounge. We went and Clay got a cookie but I missed the window of opportunity. It seems to be getting cloudier out there the rain is still holding off. Hopefully, it will continue to do so, so we can get our hike this evening. It is now after the talk and Jon is announcing that there will probably not be a walk because we will get there too late. We really slowed down during her talk, almost to a stop and we crept along on glassy water. We were trying to figure out why and now I guess we know. Anyway, they are setting up tables in the lounge for snacks and Social Hour which I assume is the same thing as cocktail hour, so we cleared out of there. Dinner should be around 6:30 to 7pm. I didn’t understand what he was saying and it was a convoluted explanation about why they haven’t told us the plans for the day because they don’t know and we’ll have to wait and see, but not to expect a walk now and maybe not even to get off because they can use the skiff to take Stephanie and Faith back ashore. Anyway, whatever happens I will report it here later. It has been a pretty amazing day.

For dinner, I had creamy broccoli soup and a chicken breast with roasted potatoes. Clay had rock fish and roasted potatoes and cauliflower. We both had a warm apple dumpling with vanilla ice cream. It was good but I had to pick out walnuts. We sat with an Australian woman and had a nice chat. She is traveling alone across Europe and now the US for 6 months by herself. That is a big trip! Right before we finished our meals, Lee one of our expedition leaders came in and announced a big pod of orcas off the starboard side ahead. We mostly stampeded out there and it was a really good sighting. I actually saw one breach enough, close enough, that I could see the white part and tell it was a black and white whale and not just a huge black fin.

After dinner we did have about 45 minutes to walk ashore but it was full dark so there was no forest hike and it was so dark that we could hardly see to walk. But, we did walk up to the Glacier Bay Lodge where the interpretative center upstairs was open and the gift shop downstairs. They were both very tiny and we were only ashore maybe 30 minutes. It gave everyone a chance to use the magnet board of checking on and off ship though before Juneau tomorrow.

 Juneau is our only actual “port”. We should go ashore at 8:30am. Wake up at 6:30am, breakfast at 7am, all ashore at 8:30am. They will bus us from Auke Bay to Mendenhall Glacier and around 11am bus us to downtown Juneau. They will give us vouchers for the Mt. Roberts Tramway and for 2 open (& 1 closed!) restaurant for lunch. I think we will go to The Hangar. We were also given another option to take a whale-watching tour for 2.5 hours instead of the Mt. Roberts Tramway. You had to sign up for that right then if you wanted the boat. We figured we had enough boats and had enough whales too even if we don’t see any more this week.  All aboard is 4:30pm. I guess they will tell us where to meet the bus back from Juneau to Auke Bay. Admiralty Dream will then take us to an Allen Marine-owned private island called Colt Island where we’ll have all you can eat king crab legs at Orca Point Lodge. I already know how many I can eat = 0! Our documents say salmon and crab, but onboard they just say crab. Clay was looking forward to the salmon, so I guess we’ll see. I’ll be having a protein bar. Followed I hope by the promised campfire roasted marshmallows or even s’mores.

Then we went to bed. What a day!

Photos