More Alaska

This is a mystery picture. It is a harbor seal on a little ice berg that was floating near our ship. The seals are kind of shy and they would slip into the water almost before you could see them, so we had to look sharp and carefully with the binoculars to sight them. A lot of people never even caught a glimpse of them, but we saw several. This picture was zoomed in and blown up so you could see the seal. It wasn't near this evident in the real picture.

This picture is very unclear because it was taken telephoto quite a ways away, then I blew it up so you could see more than a few specks. These are puffins. We were thrilled to see this flock floating in the water. They are unusual looking birds with lots of color if you could see them in real life.

You may think I am trying to imitate a polar bear here. No, this is just what I came up with as the most suitable choice from my wardrobe (and the ship's) for glacier and whale watching on one brisk morning. It was pretty chilly with a breeze, so we were working to keep warm. It did warm up as the day progressed and I was able to shed a few blankets!

In Glacier Bay it was very serene, quiet and beautiful. The ship captain turned off the motors and we just drifted there awhile and it was truly peaceful. We could hear the ice popping and cracking. Some glaciers are like rivers, they move from the land to the sea, then lose pieces of ice that fall into the water, which they call "calving". When this happens, if it is a big piece of ice, it makes a loud report like a gun shot. We saw some pieces fall in, no huge ones - but never was able to get a picture of it as you didn't know when or where to have the camera focused, and it happened in a split second. These pieces of ice break up in the water and are officially called "bergy bits." Some are big and some are small. The harbor seals would lay on them - maybe enjoying the sunshine? As we went out of the bay, the ice got less and less - it melts pretty fast it seems.

There are a lot of glaciers that never reach the ocean. They are up in the mountains and valleys and grow and receed without breaking off into the water.

Of all the pictures we took the whole trip, I think this was my favorite. We met another cruise ship, the Norweigen Pearl, in Glacier Bay. Both ships were going very slowly so the water was calm and the reflection was so pretty. Everyone on the other ship waved to the people on our ship, so we waved back.