Our day started with a few of us bypassing the buffet for breakfast and going into the dining room. The experience was much better as the buffet is amazingly crowded on this boat. The goal was to be done eating and up on deck securing our set of seats to watch for whales and the beautiful scenery as it passed by. But before we did this, I mentioned to Denise that we were in Alaska waters and maybe it was possible we would get an AT&T signal...and by golly she did! She then got a bunch of texts telling us that Karlie was in labor back home. Good and bad news as we're glad she is delivering...but we're sad we're not there. Anyway...we had a nice skype session with her and Ashley at the hospital and all was going well.
We spent the bulk of day up on deck watching (and seeing) whales as we passed through the waters and up into the Fjord. At about noon our time, we turned into the Edmonton Fjord and headed to one of the large glaciers. The passage became much more narrow and the scenery amazingly beautiful with mountains going up from the water with myriads of waterfalls coming down them. While traveling, Mike shared his wifi account and we were able to Skypeing Ashley while Karlie actually delivered her new born son. Yes...we were present. Kind of a minor miracle. All went well which made us so glad.
We continued our travels up to the huge glacier where we parked the cruise ship for about an hour while people took pictures of it from a far. Many times the ice 'calved' off big chunks of ice into the waters. That was really cool to see and hear. For $200 per person, one could get on a smaller boat and travel even closer to the glacier. It is kind of interesting to be traveling up these fjords dodging ice in the water! I wanted to yell 'Ice Berg' the whole time.
As we traveled we did see some moose and few bald eagles along the shore. Later in the day, we heard that a Brown (Grizzly) Bear was seen. We never saw it though.
In between seeing the fjord and dinner, Denise and I once again Skyped with Karlie. We were able to talk with her and see our new grandson. He looks great...born at 4:10 PM (MDT) weighing 7 lbs, 8 oz's. He has lots of dark hair...he must have some Mexican blood in him!
Tonight was our 'specialty dinner' night. We went to the Steak House restaurant on the boat. Boy was it a feed! They normally charge $35 per head. But this was thrown in as part of the cruise. Very nice food...very fancy...large portions...too much! Everyone made a big deal about Dale and Julee and how much they mean to each of us. They are special to all of us. It was a really nice evening.
Pictures:
The crew hoping to see whales...our position for most of the day until the weather turned foul....
Dale and Julee keeping warm....
My beautiful wife handling the rainy weather...
Approaching the glacier....
Iceberg's along the way....
The glacier....you can see the tour boats in the distance and how small they are in comparison.
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