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In Glacier Bay, we did not disembark. We just cruised around the glaciers. Rangers from the National Park System came aboard to give information, get a stamp in your NPS Passport, and gave a description, over the intercom, about the glaciers, its history and future of the them, and the two different types of glaciers. I don't remember what the different types were, so please don't ask. They also talked about pollution effects. The rangers told us that the black streaks in the ice is due to pollution from the cruise ships. Makes me wonder why we were there. I don't remember the name of this particular glacier, as we did pass several, but stopped only at one.
It was pretty amazing. I don't recall the dimensions they gave us, but it was something like 70 feet high (possibly higher since it was taller than the ship) and several miles back. It takes a few decades for snow to turn to ice. It looked a lot like my backyard this past winter. The differences: the ice was blue and there was a heck of a lot more. We did see some pieces/hunks of ice fall off and splash into the
water. Prior to falling off, the ice would make this loud cracking noise, almost like the sound of a loud, deep rumble of thunder. When I first heard it, that's what I thought it was: thunder. The sky was overcast, so why not have a thunderstorm?
Since the glacier was on the port side and everybody was on that side. I decided to stay on the starboard side where no one was. Took some photos from that side of the ship, as you can tell from the people on the bottom of the picture. Dean and I had someone take a picture of us with the glacier behind us. After I had taken some photos, I grabbed a chair and sat down. Then the captain turned the ship around. Now, everybody was on my side of the boat. I did not like this, but I did have a front row seat of the glacier with the ability to take some great pictures and videos.
The only animals I saw were some birds, not sure what kind they were. Maybe Alaskan sea gulls. I did see a bald eagle skimming over the water, which I manage to take a
picture of it. The picture of the eagle isn't the best, but you can see its white tail.
Once we were out of Glacier Bay, we saw some humpbacks. We were headed straight for them. Dean and I decided to go to the fore. We stayed here as long as we could. It was freezing up there and we weren't properly dressed for a long stay here.
The Park Rangers were disembarking at a certain time. However, we were no where near a port. Dean & I were curious as to how they were disembarking, until we saw a motor boat coming towards our ship and then we noticed their flag. It was the National Parks flag. We were watching them pull up along the ship, staying up with the ship (so the rangers can disembark), was interesting.
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