Today was a really pretty day although when we first got out of bed, it looked like we weren’t going to see anything, the fog was so thick. It did burn off and the morning, at least, was very mild. The ship sailed up to the Bay while Park Rangers narrated on the scenery, the history, the native peoples and answered various questions.
Lia found some more humpback spouts and then we sort of drove through a bevy of sea otters – some obviously fishing, some laying on their backs relaxing and some with just their noses out of the water. If you didn’t see them moving, a lot of them could be mistaken for sticks!
We reached the one remaining tidewater glacier in Glacier Bay, the Margerie Glacier, and the narration stopped along with the boat just holding it’s position for an hour. There were a great deal of broken pieces of ice in the water and I’m not sure if that’s why but we didn’t get very close to Margerie’s face – just rested a good distance from her. The “blueness” of her ice was only partially obvious. The other major glacier at this location is the Grand Pacific Glacier, over 40 miles in length but it no longer comes down to the bay as snow/ice. It’s “front” is all the rocks, dirt and debris that has built up over the years and it doesn’t actually look much like a glacier anymore.
Devon took Nora to a Teen Ranger Program while Lia and I attended two presentations – a Glacier Bay Park Ranger Program – an affirmation of how building and maintaining a sense of community both in nature and in people is essential to survival; and Stories of the Tlingit people presented by a member of the Eagle moiety (matrilineal tribe lineage), Brown Bear clan of the Tlingit who happened to graduate high school the same year as Devon! He gave a wonderful talk about the tribe’s history, how their culture and traditions are resurging starting with his generation but really hitting their stride with the next i.e. bringing back the tribal language, garb, traditions etc. He also spoke very emotionally about the relationship between the tribes and the National Park Service. He admitted that he was groomed to hate the National Park Service because of how they moved in on tribal territory, made rules that conflicted with ancient traditions and were basically considered the enemy. He has since learned by working alongside them for the last 18 years that that is not the case at all. It was a very heartwarming story with, for a change, a happy ending.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful – little work (Devon), reading (me), whale and otter watching (Lia) and playing IPad games (Nora). Little napping in the afternoon and then dinner. Lia and Devon went off to paint an evergreen forest on canvas and then Nora and I will meet them for the Mentalist’s second show.
The painting was a great success – quite the artists!
And the show was astonishing again. Lovely way to end the evening.
Tomorrow is more sailing and glacier sighting along with “Last Day on Board” stuff plus getting things in order to disembark on Sunday morning.
Looking for a nice sound sleep tonight.
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