Glacier Bay

9/2

This morning we sailed into Glacier Bay, a National Park area that is a long, narrow bay that was originally one solid ice sheet. As the glaciers receded, the bay filled with glacial runoff, which in turn filled with floating icebergs which have fallen off the glaciers as they “calve”. We ate breakfast watching the shear mountain cliffs flow by, and were out on the cold, windy deck by 8:30, as we started to sail into Tarr Inlet, a small arm of the bay, and right up to the face of Margerie Glacier. We stayed up there despite the cold and the light rain beginning to fall, because the view was incredible. We were quite close to the glacier, chunks of ice would float by with seals sitting on them, there were sea gulls soaring past. 

But best of all, every few minutes, you’d see a bit of movement and a chunk of the glacier itself, sometimes pretty small, but one or two absolutely enormous,  would crack off and crash into the sea. The bigger chunks were followed by a water fall (ice-fall) of smaller chunks, dislodged as the big one fell) It was a 3 step process: first we saw the chunk split away and crash into the bay, a split second later we heard the crash as the sound of it hitting the water reached our ears and then eventually we felt the rocking of the ship as the wake generated by the splash reached where we were, and saw the rubble of ice that had fallen into the water by the glacier.

 

After over 2 hours, the captain began to turn the boat around and it was raining a little harder, so we decided to come in and drink some hot chocolate to warm up. We realized that the gym is in a prime place on the ship—right at the front at the very top level, so we thought it would be a great time to run on the treadmill while looking at the magnificent view as we sailed back out of the bay. We had a great workout, and showered and headed in for lunch. We rested for a while in the room—by this time the clouds were pretty low and it was raining quite hard. We were heading out into open seas and it was getting rough. We went for tea in the dining room, and the heard a “briefing” about what happens next for the land portion of our trip. Who know it could all be so complicated! Some luggage goes with us on the buses and trains, some gets dropped off at our hotel room every night, some we won’t see until our final stop in Fairbanks—all needs to be out by midnight on Saturday (we don’t get off the boat until noon on Sunday) so don’t forget to leave out clothing for Sunday (“we’ve seen people on the buses in their pajamas and kids without shoes because they packed everything”). I guess for us it won’t be a problem, because we were so freaked about having enough “smart casual” stuff to wear that I only packed 1 pair of jeans 2 t-shirts and 1 sweatshirt (Yoram has a little more, but not much), so we’ll be traveling really light for the 5 days of the land trip!!

Dinner was formal again tonight, and the food was really amazing—another chilled fruit-based soup, apple this time (I think one of the top 10 things about this trip for me are those fruit soups!!) filet mignon and lobster (surf and turf), and for dessert, little white chocolate chef’s toques filled with light chocolate cake and milk chocolate mousse. Delicious!! 

But poor Yoram was feeling really pretty bad by this time, so he just went down to bed without eating anything. He doesn’t even feel up to the chocolate dessert extravaganza tonight!!! (more about that in a minute.) They had an internet “Happy Hour” (the clock on my ridiculously expensive 100 minute plan ran twice as slow as usual) so I went up to try to get some more scheduling done for work, and indulged in a quick email to Roni. Later I’ll probably check out the show (An Evening at the Symphony) before visiting the dessert fiesta and bed. I was so sorry I hadn’t brought the camera with me for the dessert event—it was amazing! There were two long tables, the entire length of the pool, filled to the brim with every variety of artistic desserts!! It looked like one of the cooking shows the girls watch—baked glazed good in the shapes of lobsters, crabs, turtles and fish, huge ice sculptures surrounded by extravagant, lush floral arrangements, and cakes decorated with intricate garnishes of chocolates of all types and colors, and every flavor imaginable. Along the other end was a huge chocolate fountain and fruit kebabs to dip into it. The bakery staff was introduced, and came out carrying more gorgeous cakes, dressed in costumes, and added their bounty to the already full table. Everything was delicious, the highlight being the chocolate cakes and the most incredible light, rich coffee cake. Wonderful…