Friday, June 1st

This morning, we entered Glacier Bay National Park! Thirty National Parks down, thirty to go!

What an amazing place! The National Park Service describes the park like this:

“From the bottom of the deepest glacial fjord to the summit of its highest peak, Glacier Bay encompasses some of our continent’s most amazing scenery and wildness. It is a land reborn, a world returning to life, a living lesson in resilience. If we ever needed a place to intrigue and inspire us, this is it.” Well said.

As one of the largest protected biospheres in the world, it takes a specially trained captain to navigate its waters. So, a small boat approached and said pilot boarded and took control of the ship for our time in Glacier Bay.

There are many glacier viewing options—behind the tinted glass in the Horizons dining room, on your private balcony (if you want to splurge for a private balcony), with Rose on a raft as Jack sinks to the bottom of the ocean, or on one of the outside decks.

Armed with a camera with a 200x zoom lens, I spent much of the day on the forward upper deck. I spotted various wildlife, including bald eagles, a whale blowing his nose, 3 moose, and some seals, and took pictures of the various mountains and glaciers.

There is blue plexiglass along much of the ship’s perimeter. This is great for blocking wind and general viewing, but not for taking pictures, unless you use a gap between the panels (which limits your field of vision) or go above the panel (which is only possible if you’re over 6 feet tall).

I noticed several short, grey-haired, older women (who comprise roughly 45% of the passengers on this cruise) struggling to get a good photo behind the plexiglass barrier…so I offered my 74” assistance. Next thing you know, a line of short, sweet gray-haired ladies formed to hand me cameras to get glacier shots over the blue panel.

I then asked one lady if she knew how to take panoramic shots on her iPhone. She didn’t, so I raised her phone above the panel and took a rather stunning pano glacier shot. She looked at it and nearly pee’d herself with excitement. She had no idea her phone could do that. She showed the pano shot to her 4 or 5 traveling companions and they, too, pee’d themselves, right there on the deck…and then handed me their phones. Tomorrow night, we’re meeting in the Crooners Bar so I can teach them how to access email on their phones. Good times.

As we stood in awe before the 40-story high, mile wide, 21-mile long block of ice known as Margerie Glacier, we heard thunderous cracks of ice calving into the ice blue water. I don’t know why they call it calving because, from my angle, it looked nothing like a bovine birth.

The only thing that could break us away from this magnificent sight was our assigned dinner time. Specifically, tonight was a special seafood night, and we feasted on King crab legs, rainbow trout, and other sea dishes. For the 4th consecutive night, I got Creme Brûlée for dessert. Why? Because the stuff just melts in your mouth—a process known as calving.

After dinner, our traveling party assembled in the Princess Theater to hear comedian Jeff Burghart, who was hilarious. After the show, Janet and I retired to our cabin.

“So, what song are you going with for The Voice of the Ocean finals?” I asked.

“Dancing Queen,” she answered. “They want me to get the crowd into it.”

Quite fitting. After all, we’re having the time of our life… (all together now) Can’t wait to see that girl… watch that scene… I’m diggin’ my Dancing Queen.