Monday morning, we woke up early after a good night’s sleep. Downstairs in the hotel, we fueled up with yogurt, an English muffin, fruit and hot tea. Then we walked across the street to a beach and did some birdwatching, seeing a couple different species of gulls on the shore. About 9:30 a.m., we left our cruise-tagged bags in the lobby to be picked up by cruise staff at 10, and we checked out of the hotel to walk into town, taking a path through a large wooded park into Sitka. The park had a nice forest, shoreline, and several Tlingit totem poles with interpretive signs. There were lots of cruise passengers from two large cruise ships in the park with us.
When we reached town, we stopped at a recommended food truck serving fish, and I had some great halibut tacos for lunch while Stephanie enjoyed a bowl of chowder. Then we walked to the reception room for Alaskan Dream Cruises and relaxed for a couple of hours. About 4:30, all of the 46 passengers on our cruise boarded a small day boat to be taken to our cruise ship, the Baranof Dream. Once onboard, Kevin, the captain gave us a safety briefing while we sat in the lounge. Then we were taken to our staterooms where our luggage was waiting for us.
The ship left the harbor and sailed for about 30 minutes to small Fin Island, still very close to Sitka, where there was a restaurant waiting for our group. There we enjoyed our choice of prime rib, salmon, Tanner crab legs, vegetables, soup or chowder, and dessert. After dinner the staff lit a bonfire where we could make s’mores if we wanted (I passed up that option). We were taken in the day boat back to our ship, where we were briefed by two naturalists, Liana and Natalie, about the next day’s activities while the ship got underway. We returned to our cabin to go to sleep.
Tuesday morning, Stephanie and I woke up really early, about 4:30 a.m., after sleeping well. It had been choppy for a bit during the night, but the beds were comfortable and warm, and when we woke up it was relatively smooth outside. We took our time getting up and getting dressed, then about 6:30 we walked up to the bridge to see the view and ask the captain some questions. From the bridge, we spotted a humpback whale and spent an hour there. At 7:30 we went to breakfast in the dining room, where there were several menu choices including omelets, pancakes, oatmeal, yogurt, etc.
The morning activity was a hike in Tongass National Forest, where we could choose from an energetic, intermediate, or leisurely hike. We chose the latter so that we could enjoy the birds and plants. The staff took each of the three hiking groups to the beach in a hard-floored inflated pontoon boat powered by an outboard. It is brown bear country, so we were told we needed to stay close to each other and talk, and one or two staff members armed with bear spray went with each group. On our short, leisurely hike, we walked about a half-mile, spotting and hearing a few birds, identifying plants, and seeing quite a lot of bear scat on the trail.
The interesting thing was that the tidal change was huge, a 20 foot change over 6 hours. In the hour from when we were let off on the beach to the end of the hike, 60 minutes later, the wide expanse of beach nearly disappeared. It was about 50 degrees during the hike with a cold wind, but it didn’t rain. Everyone wore several layers of clothes, with hats and gloves, so we were comfortable. Once we returned to the ship, lunch was served in the dining room. Mine was a portobello mushroom burger, potato chips and berry crisp with ice cream. Then we returned to our stateroom for a short nap.
In the afternoon we spent some time on the bridge with Kevin, the captain. At 3 p.m. was cookie time in the lounge, accompanied by a talk on glaciers and volcanoes of Alaska by Natalie, one of the naturalists. I then spent some time in the room, reading a book on my iPad. Dinner at 6:30 p.m. was adobo rockfish for me and Stephanie, although there were other choices too, plus panacotta with blueberries for dessert. There was a beautiful sunset and view of some mountains, then we chose to go to bed shortly after the 9:30-ish sunset since we hadn’t slept enough the night before.
Wednesday was our day in Glacier Bay National Park and we woke up around 6 a.m. to the sight of small ice bergs and pieces in the water, as well as steady rain. Stephanie quickly dressed to go out to look, while I took a short shower in the “shoilet” (combined shower and toilet). After dressing I joined Stephanie outside on the deck to see two glaciers near the boat: Margerie and Grand Pacific Glacier. We also saw sea otters floating in the bay.
Breakfast was at 7:30 again. At each meal, we’ve sat by someone we haven’t met or talked with before, so we’re slowly getting to know our fellow passengers. After breakfast and cruising a little bit further, the captain alerted us to a brown bear on the rocky shore and we watched him for a while, as he turned over and scraped rocks to get something to eat. We also saw quite a few new types of birds in the bay. It continued to rain. About 10:00, Liana gave a talk about the history of Glacier Bay and the park, which is 100 years old this year. Then we cruised by a large rock knob called Gloomy Knob, with several mountain goats on it.
After lunch, we cruised to a small island named South Marble Island, home to lots and lots of sea lions that were hauled out on rocks, plus some puffins and cormorants. A humpback whale swam between us and the island as we approached. The rain had finally stopped so we got good looks at the sea lions and birds.
Lori's Travels 