Glacier Bay et dux

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With a day of scenic cruising in Glacier Bay ahead of us starting later in the day than three weeks ago, Sharon went off to 8AM mass. I met her up in the Exploration Lounge and we went to breakfast in the Dining Room. She enjoyed her scrambled eggs and I tried the mushroom and spinach Eggs Benedict. We entered the National Park with a pilot and Park Rangers onboard. Traversing the once ice covered channel leading to the glaciers we passed the Eurodam who was leaving after their morning visit.



There were lectures prior to reaching the spectacular glaciers on this day with patches of blue shining down. We had good visibility three weeks earlier; but, today the weather had something special in store for us. The park ranger was enthusiastic in her coverage of the history of this area, going back a million years, and going back just a couple hundred years. When the entrance Glacier Bay was first visited by Europeans in the late 1700s, they witnessed a wall of ice some three hundred feet high. At the time Vancouver was seeking the Northwest Passage; which, if he were to try today he just might find! But not in Glacier Bay! When John Muir came here one hundred years later there was now a channel and bay to sail into, and the most significant evidence of Global Warming ever to push back a glacier. Her talk was followed by a native Klingket who talked about her heritage and customs and way of life.



After the lectures we headed to the Dive-In to have burgers and fries before we reached the first glacier. We decided to stay on the outside of the Lower Promenade, and picking our side based on the view. The view and the lighting were spectacular, illuminating massive columns of aqua blue ice. Extensive calving has occurred here since we visited just three weeks ago where we saw a relatively flat wall of ice facing us. Today, it almost seemed like a sequence out of “Frozen” with columns of ice leaning at angles against other columns. And the formerly flat wall was waffled where large sections of ice had fallen into the sea. And clearly the ice was under stress as the sounds of grinding ice under presser inundated our ears. Sharon was kept busy trying to snap pictures of the ice sections falling and splashing into the sea.



The main viewing came of Margerie Glacier around 1PM to 2PM as our ship rotated to give everyone a view (who chose to remain on their suite’s balconies). We shed our cold weather gear and headed for dinner around 5:30PM. We sat at a table for six on the starboard side. Sharon enjoyed the prime rib and remembered to order a baked potato this week (something she kept forgetting on the first cruise). I enjoyed my halibut entrée.



We had plenty of time to get to the 8PM show to see the comedian, who was different that the one we’d enjoyed three weeks ago. As we sit down, we noticed that Ann and Sadie are seated across from us. After some coaxing, they agree to join us in The Mix after the show for “Name That Tune”. Tonight’s comedian, Ralph Harris, did not disappoint. His family friendly show was void of politics, and he seemed to be having a good time and we couldn’t help but laugh thru most of it.



I should have left the show early to reserve seats for the four of us in the Mix Piano Bar area. We were forced to sit outside the bar and there were others seated by the window who were talking, and as the piano player started playing, they started talking louder, and eventually they got up and left; but, not before one of them blurted out the answer to the first question for all the bar to hear (just in case anybody was uncertain about the answer being Lola). Four people sat down in the spot that they left, and they felt like showing off I guess, and blurted out the next three answers for good measure… I finally hushed them, saying “It’s a game.” Sharon and our new friends were able to come up with the first four answers on their own; and, then miraculously, I came up with the answer. That’s right, Sharon’s tone-deaf husband got a music question right. That’s akin to Sharon and me winning a Sports Trivia game! The piano player would first play the score on the piano; and, then would play it again and singing the words. Most of the answers are a single name (often a woman’s name but not necessarily). Sharon knew Delilah. And everyone knew Sweet Caroline. The one that I got, began with the words, “Starry, starry night…” The words of course refer to the famous painting “Starry Night” and address that the extreme tortured soul of the artist. The piano player offered one point for the name of the song, and then, one point for the name of the person the song is about. The song: “Vincent”. The person: “Vincent van Gogh”. We came up with a respectable 14 points; but, not enough to win. When the game was over we decided to call it a night.

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