Pacific Northwest Trip, Part Ten

We spent two more days aboard ship after the day at Mendenhall and Juneau. One night we had a presentation by one of the passengers, a retired college professor, on reforestation ecology. Another night we were scheduled to have a presentation by one of the naturalist-guides, but this had to be rescheduled for the most wonderful reason! We were all settling in at the Forward Lounge when someone called "Whale at nine o'clock!" We hurried to look and that is how it began -- for the next hour or more at least fifty whales were swimming and diving and generally putting on a show for us, right next to the ship!

One day we had a land excursion where some bear scat was sighted. Some people were very excited about this. We sailed around just soaking up the views because we knew all too soon we would be back in Sitka and leaving Alaska.

Another day we had an excursion to visit a fish hatchery where we learned a great deal about salmon and saw a mother bear catching fish for herself and her twin cubs. Again, these little bears need to put on a great deal of weight during this summer in order to survive/hibernate through the coming winter.

The color of Dawes Glacier was astonishing to all of us. In the area we saw icebergs, some with seals piled up just waiting for a piece of glacier to break off, or calve. When that happens, the glacier makes an odd and eerie sound that is called "white thunder;"; it causes a swell and ripples, and pushes fish closer to the surface and the seals leave the berg and feast.

The coloring of this particular landscape was in contrast to the grays and blues we had become accustomed to.

I love this picture. There were so many different colors of gray combined to make such beauty.

A playful whale.

And another.

We saw eagles everywhere.

These small rubber boats called DIBS were used to take us to shore

Mrs. Bear catches a fish at the salmon hatchery.

This picture shows the immensity of the glacier. That's a great big cruise ship in front of it!