Day 3: Glacier Bay

The third day of the cruise we were at glacier bay, which is a national park that is only accessible by sea and by air. While in a national park, a cruise ship is forced to not offer all the usual activities (like trivia) that they have on other days (our trivia skills were kept down by the man!). So, we dutifully looked out the windows to see what we could see. And behold, we saw an otter and a whale. I couldn't get a good picture of the whale, but that is actually its tail going into the water. And yes, I promise that is an otter.

We eventually left the top deck and went to the promenade because the sun was so hot. I got my first of many Alaskan sun burns (this time on my face) while watching the glaciers. We were not so fortunate as to see a glacier calf, but apparently the one in the background did while we were having our picture taken. Talk about bad timing. The first glacier is Margerie glacier, which is 21 miles long and the face of it that you can see in the picture is 100 feet tall. The second picture is of the Grand Pacific Glacier, almost the entirety of which is in Canada. The black stuff is just some dirt and rocks it picked up on the way to the bay. Apparently, the Grand Pacific Glacier is a boy glacier, because only a boy can get that dirty.

So what do David and Julie do when their activities are restricted by the national park service? We explore the ship, of course. On the top deck at the stern of the ship we found a giant chess set. The pawns were about two feet high. Julie was playing as white and decided that she should win, so this was our final board position. We also found a set for playing shuffleboard. I can understand why people enjoy it, because it is both easy and strategic.

In the evening, once we left the park, the ship was able to resume regular operations. So, after dinner, we participated in a game show called "The Weakest One" which was supposedly based on "The Weakest Link." On one question, he asked what country the US declared war on in 1941, but I heard 1841 instead, so I told him it was Mexico (which was actually 1846, and they declared war on us), and they made fun of me. I ended up winning and Julie got third, thus ending our losing streak. For our efforts, we both received Princess Cruise bags (which we will use for groceries in Nashville), and I got a bottle of Champagne, which I gave to another couple, because we don't drink alcohol.