Tour of Tracy Arm Fjord: YOU Asked for More Pictures...

Tracy Arm Fjord was my favorite part of the cruise. Four hours of traveling a box canyon of startlingly tall and steep mountains, in water of Caribbean blue, while playing the name the ice-berg game. Haven't played it? It's like name the cloud.

Well, not quite. You've got 350 balconies whose conversations you can hear who are also participating. That might sound annoying, since sound carries well on water and certainly bounces off mountains that look so close you could reach out and touch them, but it wasn't annoying. It was one of those bonding things, and the guys on the balcony next to us let us borrow some of their binoculars, we lent them our corkscrew, it was all great. I'll let the pictures tell the story.  

Balconies to our stern.  

iPad guy - NO iPAD! (see last post for story) 

We have to make that narrow turn and not do a Titanic...

For scale.  that's a fairly good size fishing boat. 

Out of which these guys got into a motor boat...

We passed a LOT of icebergs.  I'd say this one was the size of a Kia.  

The icebergs that calve from the bottom of the glacier, the ones that have been scraping along the bottom, next to the ground for thousands of years, aren't as pretty...but wow, totally cool to learn about.  

So here's one of those streams I talked about in my former post, and you can also see that it isn't just big icebergs.  Some of those are dinner tray size.  

Our first glimpse of the glacier at the end of the fjord.  Somehow, I hadn't wrapped my brain around the fact that a fjord ends at the glacier which formed it...and we have to somehow turn this giant boat around...

So here we are at the end.  You can't see it from any of my pictures, but with the binoculars from next door, we could see a colony of seals living on the ice which floats a bit away from where the glacier calves.  It's a pretty flat sheet, and they lay around on top like little sausages (until you get binoculars) and were really amazing to get to see.

So how did we turn around?  We pivoted.  He kept us in place, the center of the boat not moving, and just spun the ends around.  Then we went back out the way we came, only we got to see all the cool stuff on the other side!

Wanna play the name the iceberg game?  I just have two for you since this is getting so long, but let me know what you see in these, and next time I post, I'll tell you the 350 balcony consensus.  Ok, there was no consensus.  As there cannot be.  Beauty of this magnitude is in the eyes of the blessed beholder.  

#1 

#2 a and #2b (foreground)

If you're still reading, bless you.  I know vacation pictures aren't popular, but two people asking was enough for me to want to share this amazing experience with you.

Alaska: Obsevations, and only 3 of 250 pictures!

As I write this, some of God's most amazing creation is in view from this fabulous balcony. Rugged, tree covered mountains are dotted with snow-caps melting, causing waterfalls of cascading, individual pearly ribbons on their way down to the sea. All of this glory is peeking out between the hovering, misty layers of cloudy bands, so strand-like I want to wind them into a ball of fluffy whitish-grey yarn. 

We're approaching Juneau, though still three hours away, there are power lines, fishing boats, sailboats, houses dotting the shoreline. Birds. An otter poked his head up to say “Hi!” about 50 yards from the ship! Yesterday, I saw a “teenage” whale breech four times as it traveled the length of our ship and disappeared astern. Reminded me of a skateboarder showing off. “Let's go! You know they want a show! I'll do my twirling breach – they'll go nuts!”

During my breakfast - fetched from the sumptuous, varied for all cultures buffet and brought to my balcony - the onboard naturalist gave us a brief glacier lecture, as we passed a hanging glacier. I didn't learn about this type on my last trip. It's a glacier the ends part way up the mountain and doesn't move much. Thus the hanging, I guess. Took me a while to spot it, until I saw a baby-blue dragon's head and followed it up the mountain. I know it's weird, but the dragon was wearing a princess dress, spread all poofy in it's hoop, with the hem at the top of the mountain. I didn't have my camera, and the iPhone photo is horrid so here's a link to a wiki article with a goodpicture. Mine was bluer though!

The water has changed color dramatically, from “ocean” to a gorgeous green-turquoise color. 

I think it's because it's shallower. Glad that there are 350 balconies on this starboard side because I was writing, not looking, when a little girl alerted me, “Daddy! Come quick! The water just changed color completely!” Sure enough. Thanks for the info!

We totally scored getting the upgrade to a private balcony stateroom. We have a roof that extends past the railing by a whole balcony width, so we can sit out here in the rain and not get wet, and we can sit out here in the sun and not get burned. We could also throw things at the three levels of balconies below us, which are staggered like a terrace.

I want to throw a ping-pong ball at the guy in the front row of balconies who has barely put down his iPad since we boarded. Seriously? You don't want to see any of this? Did you get dragged here? Probably. A dad type guy is out a lot with his binoculars.

If you had the chance to see all of this natural beauty, would you be sitting there in the virtual world, for a mighty stiff price I might add, or would you be taking in the scenery? C'mon, be honest. Ping-pong balls don't really hurt. That much.

Have you been to Alaska?  What's the best trip you ever took?