Alaska Part III - The Hubbard Glacier

The second day on the boat was a day at sea. Diane and I went to the exercize room at the bow of the ship and worked out. We liked the row machines. We ate breakfast in the Windjammer Cafe - The ships 24 hr buffet, then went to the Fun For Less welcome meeting at the Colony Club. It was designed like an old ship and the wood smelled like a deep smoked wood. They had drawings and then Carey Summer did a variety magic show. He did a lot of the same gags as Ron Lucas in the Buffalo Billy show we had recorded on VHS and watched over and over as kids, including the song "The Auctioneer".

That afternoon, they navigated the ship into the Yukatat Bay where the captain navigated the ship through the floating chunks of glacier and pulled our large ship fairly close to the glacier edge.

The glacier is a tidewater glacier, which means that it empties into the ocean. The mouth is over 6 miles wide. They spun the ship around 360 degrees so that everyone could see. I was out on the bow of the ship. It was cold, and there were tons of people lining the edges. I found a warm air exhaust grill and waited against it to keep warm until the ship spun around and I could see.

When glacier chunks break off at the base it is called calving. It sounds like thunder. I had fun watching for the chunks to break off.

Pulling out, they made an announcement that bears had been spotted on the port bow at the mouth of the bay. We waited 45 minutes in the Solarium (Green house-like space with a pool and lots of fake plants) in deck chairs waiting for it. They spotted something moving and we all crowded at the window to take pictures. The dark spot started moving, and then started doing jumping jacks. It was a crew member dressed in a bear suit and white tennis shoes.

They brought a chunk of ice up to the top deck and I was able to have my picture taken with said bear.

After dinner, we went to the 9:00 Temptations Tribute show. Those guys had so much energy. It was fun.