Glowing in Glacier Bay

The question I got from just about every single one of my women friends before we left for vacation was, "WHY are you going to Alaska?"

It was said as if such a thing was incomprehensible. The implication, or so it seemed to me, was why would we choose to go where it's cold and snowy and, well, cold. Well, that's not exactly right. They seem to understand why Jim would want to go (moose, bears, caribou, bald eagles, whales, sea lions ... and moose ... and bears). But they didn't seem to get why I'd want such a thing.

Truth is, I wanted to go to Alaska. Jim did too, don't get me wrong. But I wanted to see moose and bears ...

And I wanted to go to Glacier Bay.

I wanted to take a boat into a bay surrounded by walls of ice, with chunks of that ice breaking off and crashing into the water. I wanted to see it -- with my own eyes -- before it no longer existed, due to global warming, climate change, whatever you want to call it.

So I was jazzed for Day 6! I hurried and got in 3 treadmill running miles and a little strength training and was ready to hit the deck with all the other looky-loos around 9 a.m.

This is how it began:

On the way in, we could see where the glacier melt (blue)
meets the ocean water (gray). 

Then we began to see hunks of glacier floating in the water. 

Glacier Bay National Park is a place that you can't get to by road ... because there isn't one. You can fly to it and stay there, go hiking, etc. Or you can arrive via cruise ship, as we did, and as about 400,000 other people a year do. The National Park Service limits the number of vessels that can sail in each day to two cruise ships, three tour boats, six charter vessels and 25 private vessels.

As soon as we pulled into National Park territory, a park ranger boarded our ship and served as a tour guide for the day's events. We were in the bay from about 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., with the boat "parking" in front of the Margarie Glacier and doing a 180-degree spin so both sides of the boat had ample face time. (Get it? That's a glacier/jargon joke!)

The park itself covers more than 5000 square miles. The highest peak is 15,000 feet above sea level and the water averages 800 feet deep.

And, to be perfectly frank, it was kind of a disappointment after the previous day's adventure.

Yes, there was a big, blue glowing glacier:

It was taller than our ship, but not by much. 

To give you an idea of scale. This is a tour 
boat ... like three or four "stories" tall.

It was blue; that same glowing electric 
blue we saw the day before. Chunks did 
fall off and crash. It sounded like thunder ...
way louder than you'd expect. And when 
that happened, the crowd cheered.

It just wasn't as cool as I'd hoped it would be. The weather was crappy ... raining, of course. And so gray. I tried a hundred different settings on my camera and couldn't find one that did it justice. (I really need to learn Photoshop!) It was also cold and damp, noticeably colder here in the middle of snow-covered mountains with clouds hanging low.

Jim to the rescue!

My husband bought me a lovely hot chocolate drink, laced with
liquor, for the viewing. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
Note the layers and the glistening. It was just plain wet out. 

The rest of the day was spent onboard, heading toward College Bay.

So it wasn't a total bust. Just not my favorite thing. I did find this fascinating, however. If the clip doesn't work, use the link to go to YouTube. Note how little wake we create in this deep bay and how blue the water is:

http://youtu.be/w7Paz37QPyU

Exercise: 3 running miles on treadmill with a little strength training; no additional walking about town
Food Splurge: Hot chocolate with booze before noon! More drinks during a trivia competition in the Wheelhouse Bar (we did not win).
Hair Rating (1=worst, 10=best): 4, opted for headband and called it a day