Our next adventure on our No Parents Allowed trip was going to be all about scenery of a national park that can only be accessed by boat. We crossed our fingers that the weather would cooperate and wow it did with an almost perfect day.
The night before Glacier Bay, we dressed up abit and went to the Manhattan Restaurant. We enjoyed the Choir Man in the theater and ended the evening with a late night snack of macaroni and cheese and ice cream.
The next morning, the sunrise was amazing as we neared Glacier Bay.
As we entered Glacier Bay, the national park boat dropped off the rangers who would give commentary throughout our visit.
We headed to breakfast…Wyatt had fallen in love with the made to order omelet station, Whitney got a bit of everything.
Every morning these ladies would walk around and sing while handing out pastries.
The National Park Service set-up a presentation area and “mini” gift shop in the Observation lounge on Deck 15 of the ship. We watched the Morning Chat from our room.
After the chat we headed to the gift shop, as items sell out fast. We looked at the schedule for the day, learned about the area wildlife, met the rangers, and stamped our national park books.
We headed back to our room to enjoy the scenery and look for wildlife. Wyatt was “Living the the Life” on the balcony. It was a bit chilly so the balcony was nice.
Poppy spotted a total of 14 mountain goats from the balcony.
It was a beautiful calm day.
We had been to Glacier Bay before and the cruise ship normally goes to Margerie Glacier, but we skipped it, as the rangers said they had a surprise. Normally the cruise ships have to stop at the beginning of the inlet to John Hopkins Glacier, which is 5 miles away due to the area being a seal pup “nursery”. We were the last cruise ship of the year and the seal pups were gone so the ship sailed right up to the face of the glacier. This was very rare, with even the rangers excited.
The ship spun in a slow circle for over an hour. It doesn’t get any better than this moment.
Gilman is a small glacier that joins John Hopkins at the water. It was so beautiful and peaceful that we could hear the ice crackle and saw a few chunks fall into the water.
Due to the cold weather, there were only small ice bergs that had calved from the glacier.
We saw seals on the small ice bergs and watched the sea otters play in the water.
Wow what a cool experience to be that close to the glacier. Sadly the time had come for the ship to leave. We had a great view of the glacier from Ah Ha Corner.
As we rounded Ah Ha Corner, we got another big surprise…a pod of Orcas. The ranger announced that it is an extremely rare sight as Orcas rarely venture this far into Glacier Bay, which makes this area ideal for seal pups.
Next up was Lamplugh Glacier. It is known for it’s incredible blue hues.
The captain did a slow spin so we took advantage and had lunch
There was a recent landslide on the right side, covering the glacier with rock.
After leaving Lamplugh Glacier, the national park service had a Jr Ranger class onboard the ship. You earn a badge for attending the class and a patch for completing the booklet.
We had one last look at Glacier Bay…
The National Park boat came to pick up the rangers for the last time in the 2023 season. We wished them a Merry Christmas as they left 🙂
Sunset as we were leaving Glacier Bay. The weather was perfect, we saw lots of wildlife, and we definitely Built A Memory!!
Since it had been a successful day, we went to the Local and had appetizers…lol…there actually was one more plate of sliders!!
At about 2am, we passed the area where our daughter and son in law work during the summer…Point Baker, Alaska.
We went back on deck around 4am and caught a brief glimpse of the Northern Lights. As the ship made the corner around Prince of Wales Island, the Northern Lights went behind the mountains and we could only see the top blue color. We only got a few hours of sleep and even though it wasn’t intense and dancing, it was still very cool.
It had been a very eventful day!!
