It’s Glacier Bay day you say? Ohhhhhh ***h-e-l-l-o*** to my very favorite “Scenic Cruising” day! The feeling that I’d always gotten after visiting Glacier Bay National Park on each of the 4 previous times we’d been lucky enough to visit was one of complete and total satisfaction. The words that I have used to describe how this place made me feel are numerous and may sound a little gushy, but, pristine, gorgeous, breathtaking, soulful, perfect, and sweet describe just how I had felt when we had been there in the past.  I could sit here all day and tell you how I’ve felt about this place in the past, but, now, in this post, I will be showing you more than telling you about our day. Here was the sunrise that morning:

Here is a video that Chris took as we were getting ready to sail into Glacier Bay:

 

Here is the Princess Patter for that day:

I was up way early and dressed in anticipation of the day we were going to be having, this is the outfit that I started out the day in…

See that cape?  I love that cape, but, that cape drove me crazy! It was pretty windy as we were sailing into Glacier Bay, and I had a camera in my hands pretty much constantly, and well, let’s just say that I was doing more pulling down and yanking around of that cape while cruising along.  It quickly found a spot on a hanger in the closet and I donned one of my new “Alaska” jackets, the purple one reversed to the navy blue side, here I am much more ready to have my hands at the ready and on my camera instead of wrestling with that lovely cape:

And here was Chris, standing pretty much where he stood for the entire journey:

We had a lovely surprise that morning.  A great friend of ours had given us a gift of a “Balcony Breakfast” and we’d chosen to indulge on this morning.

We had some good eats that morning, a Princess crew member came into our room and set the breakfast up inside of our room because it was a bit damp out on the balcony (AND just to say, it would have been damp if we’d had a covering over the balcony, the rain was coming in side-ways for a time not just dropping from above). ANYhoot, here is what our breakfast looked like that morning–We asked if we could switch out the Champagne for something else because we were not going to drink it–Unfortunately, according to that Princess crew member, that wasn’t an option.  Oh well…we also had hot tea, coffee, and juice to drink.

YUM!! That was delicious!!!

Here came the Park Rangers, because Glacier Bay is a National Park, Rangers are brought on board so that they can commentate on and educate us about Glacier Bay (you can hear their commentary on the outer decks, in the Horizon Court, and through the stateroom tvs on channel 41).  They also hold a Junior Ranger program for the kids on board. They give “Ranger Talks” in the Theatre, anyway,  you can take a peek at the Patter above to see what all they do while with us.  Here are a few pictures of some of the information that they bring on board with them…you can purchase items as well.

I walked around by myself for a little bit of time and saw that they set up their table of information on the upper deck of the inside pool area.

And while I was out and about being nosy, Chris was catching some gorgeous pictures as we were sailing into Glacier Bay…Like I said, I’m going to be showing you more than I tell you in this post. 🙂 Get ready for some gorgeous shots moving forward from here:

We were starting to come up onto Lamplugh Glacier, first I’ll show you some pictures of this beautiful glacier and then I’ll put in a little video that I created while cruising up to it and while sailing passed it.

And here is my video:

 

We saw some hanging glaciers as we cruised as well:

I will admit that this day was not the sunniest day that we’d ever seen in Glacier Bay and it did drizzle on us pretty much the entire time we were in the Bay…But, y’all know what? It didn’t bother us one iota, trust me, *nothing* can ruin Glacier Bay Day…If someone did complain about the weather, and I over-heard them…well, if they looked my way, they’d see the disdain all over my face…get over it people! You are in Alaska, and you are in a place that not everyone gets the privilege to experience…so what, you’re a little wet…dry off and look past yourself and enjoy where you are and what you are seeing!

Anyway, I digress, we were now ever so quietly cruising up to the main attractions of the day. The Grand Pacific Glacier and Margerie Glacier. The Grand Pacific is nick-named the “dirty” glacier for obvious reasons (wait till you see the pictures that I will share with you from our Southbound voyage when I get to that Glacier Bay day, the Grand Pacific will look totally different):

Margerie Glacier sits to the left of the Grand Pacific, and the Captain will sit and allow one side of the ship to view it for 30 minutes and they he will pivot the ship and allow the other side to view it for the exact same amount of time, we were on the Starboard side of the ship, so we were 2nd in the queue to view.  When it was our turn…my oh my, it took my breath away just like it had done every time I’d seen it.  I will hush now and just add some pictures of the magnificent Margerie Glacier—Watch for the calving pictures, she really performed for us that day.  And then I have a video of me commentating that will morf into that gorgeous ice flow’s calving events that it was kind enough to share with us that day.  Here goes:

And here is my video of me commentating and giving some “Fun Facts” about these two amazing glaciers–And watch for the calving events at the end!

Wow, well now, that was something huh?!  Here is a picture that I caught as we were ever so slowing pulling away from the beautiful Margerie Glacier–As I mentioned in the video, I wasn’t too, too sad this time as I knew that we’d be back again the very next week…how lucky were we?!!

Chris and I were pretty hungry by this point, so we skipped on off to the Horizon Court for a late lunch:

We walked around the ship for a little while, here is what the outdoor pool looked like on that day:

We headed back to our stateroom just in time to see the boat coming back to pick up the Park Rangers, they disembarked when we got back out of Glacier Bay…bye bye girls, see y’all in a week!

Right after we exited Glacier Bay the Naturalist started commentating from the Bridge, as with the Park Rangers, her voice could be heard on the outer decks, in the Horizon Court, and via the stateroom tv, channel 41.

We chose to stand on our balcony for this wildlife spotting event.  Here is what we saw floating on by our ship…I was thrilled!!!

Let’s try to zoom in on one of these little dudes:

Would you look at that?!  It was Sea Otters!! They were SO cute, they floated by on their backs like they didn’t have a care in the world…and they looked at us like as if to say, “Are y’all crazy?”.  “*This* right here, where we are, is the LIFE!!”  😉 Of course, our bodies might not be quite as adept at handling the water temperatures as these little (that aren’t so little…they are about 5′ long!) tykes are! 🙂

And then as Gloeta was just finishing up with her commentary, we spotted a humpback blow and three little seals as well. I took this picture below…I was completely lucky to catch that whale blow…haha…and you can see the three seal heads bobbing in the background.

I remember that evening, the rain had finally moved out and we were enjoying standing out on our balcony and drinking in the sights…Honestly, we had no desire to go to one of the shows, we’d much rather watch the show that was going on right outside. 🙂

As our light started to fade, we caught one more glimpse of one more humpback whale that evening…

And our day was done, again, this day in Glacier Bay did not disappoint. I was again amazing, humbled, and blown away by the beauty and grandeur of that place.  I was extremely happy that we’d be back once more before we returned home. I remember saying a prayer of thanks for that fact.  Again, when my head hit the pillow that night, I was just about as content as a girl could be.

The next day, we’d be cruising in College Fjord, here is a sneak peek:

***If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me…Psalm 139***

~~Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn ❤

And here is a link to Episode #9!