Day 5 Morning, Scenic Cruising

This was the beginning of my favorite day. We knew we needed to wake up early, that we'd be sailing through the Tracy Arm Fjord beginning at around 6 a.m. We weren't really sure what that meant, except that it was supposed to beautiful, there would be ice, and the mouth of a glacier involved.

So we got up at around 6:30 and saw waterfalls outside our window. We rushed to get ready, luckily we dressed warm. I had on fleece, my lined windbreaker (hey $9 S&B jacket!), a fleece stocking cap, gloves and thick socks with my shoes and I was still pretty cold!

Turns out the ice was pretty bad in Tracy Arm, we'd been warned by another cruise ship. So our captain made the decision to take us up to Endicott Arm. We stood on the deck all morning and awed in the beauty. I know it sounds cheesy, but all we said that morning was "wow" and "that's amazing" and "look at that" and "wow".

I was mostly amazed at how still the water was. Here was this gigantic cruise ship sailing through, countless waterfalls all over the sides of the valley, even seals and sea lions in the water, and yet it was as still as glass. We could see reflections of the mountains in the water, it seemed like we were on top of glass.

There were huge chunks of ice in the water, which had broken off from the glacier and floated along. We saw seals on top of the ice, and Bald Eagles watching us pass. Some ice chunks were white, some were the bright blue glacier water tends to be.

We got right up to the mouth of the glacier (3rd photo down) and then we turned around and sailed on out.

What a way to start your day!