Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve is arguably the crown jewel in America’s national park system. It’s beautiful beyond the human capacity to articulate in words. It’s also colder than any other place we visited on the Alaska cruise. All of these things can be attributed to the prevalence of glaciers in Glacier Bay.
Glaciers are beautiful masses of snow and ice. That snow and ice is capable of massive destruction when it decides to move. As we made our way through the park rangers pointed out an oddly shaped set of hills near our boat. The odd shape we saw was from a glacier’s movement that damn near obliterated a huge mountain range when it decided to descend.
Beauty coupled with the tremendous potential for destruction. That’s the best way to describe a glacier.
This was the morning my nine-year-old son woke me excitedly yelling “DADDY DADDY WHALES WHALES!!!” We’d gone whale watching in Seattle for my daughter’s birthday and he knew what to look for when we got into the park. The three we saw in Seattle were apparently enough to prepare my eagle-eyed boy for service as the family’s unofficial whale-spotter.
In addition to whales, we viewed sea otters and bears. The sea otters were cute and happy to show off for our boat as we floated by. The bears were best experienced as we did—from afar with telephoto lenses as they explored land.
Next week when we’re in Ketchikan I’ll explain why if you’re not familiar with our ursine friends and what they can do to humans. That’s foreshadowing, folks!
The highlight of Glacier Bay’s natural beauty was seeing a glacier “cap.” That’s the moment part of the glacier separates from the rest of the body and rejoins the sea. As much as I wish I’d gotten a photo of the event, it was very much “a blink and you’ll miss it” moment. I will not forget the sound, though—the crash of the ice hitting water echoed for what had to be miles.
Another highlight of the Glacier Bay day was seeing magician Elliott Hunter’s close up magic show with my son. Elliott is a wonderful magician with both a stage and parlor/close up show my son and I took in after he was technically supposed to be in bed.
Yes. I snuck my nine-year-old son out of bed for a couple of hours to go see a magician in his PJs with Grammie and Grandpa watching on. What can I say? I’m a pushover for my children.
We decided on sushi for lunch this particular day from the ship’s in-house sushi bar. This was a “specialty restaurant” on the boat everyone heard good things about. Naturally everyone wanted to eat there which meant an ungodly long wait time for a two-top table. I swear my nephews only got seats before us because one of them has a grade-A mope face when he doesn’t get his way.
The sushi was great though.
At the end of the day, my family retired to our stateroom to watch the latest “Super Mario Brothers Movie.” I’m old enough to remember the one with John Leguziamo and Dennis Hopper but this was good enough for stupid kid fare. Plus a couple of drinks made it more entertaining.
We were treated to a reminder that nature can kill you before we left Glacier Bay when a ranger informed us the captain made an executive decision to not take us around the entire park as the fog made visibility in those narrow waters very difficult. When you’re one cruise ship of several angling for the best views your passengers demand, I guess it gets difficult maneuvering at times due to human stupidity too.
So that was Glacier Bay: Beautiful, untamed, cold as balls and best experienced from the comfort of one’s stateroom. Next week is the last stop on our tour of Alaska—Ketchikan. The land of bears, seals, whores and a healthy hatred of Juneau.
See you next week, everyone!