Everything is pushed back today due to our timing at the far end of Glacier Bay
National Park. We have a 24 hour permit that starts at midnight. We picked up
a ranger that we picked up onboard at the Visitors Center at the Park entrance.
We then sailed 65 miles to the Glacier end of Glacier Bay and woke early in the
morning at John Hopkins Glacier where we stayed until 8 AM. I was up at 5:50
and walked around the boat at 6:15 enjoying the glacier. There was coffee and
croissants available at 6. We enjoyed the glacier and all the ice floes. There
was loud roars of white thunder but it was coming from glaciers behind John
Hopkins. I saw a small calving and timed the sound at 8 seconds which indicates
it was about 8,000 feet away. We had a wonderful breakfast of bacon and
hotcakes with berries at 8 AM. We sat with four other people from the ship
including the 2 guys from Asheville and a couple from
A little later we had a talk about glaciers and the area from the Park Ranger.
Outside the scenic was the classic Alaskan scenics. I took hundreds of photos
and videos and actually ran the battery down. I had to put it on the charger
before lunch so I could photograph our journey as we exited the park which I
assume will be later today.

We had lunch of a Salmon crab cake accompanied by a glass of
Cabernet. Daniel the bartender said the Cabernet tap was out so
I had the Cabernet out of a bottle. Each wine tap is fed by a
keg which holds approximately a pony keg size wine barrel. I'm
not sure what a pony keg is. Our lunchmates were Dottie and the
87 year old guy from Waco, TX and a couple from Phoenix. The
Phoenix couple said they booked through their travel agent. I
was surprised to hear people still use travel agents. Lunch was
the Salmon Crab cake on a bed of Caesar salad. Strawberry
shortcake for dessert. After lunch my battery was fully charged
so I dropped it back in just as we were passing Fairweather
Peak, one of the prettiest mountain ranges in the Park and also
the highest peak in the park. Next a brown bear was walking
along the shore on the port side of the boat. We watched him for
quite a while. This animal was huge. I shot some movies and a
number of stills which did quite well surprisingly at 30x zoom.

We listened to Captain Shep talk about other uncruise adventures
and all about the Uncruise loyalty program. Annie covered
tomorrow's activities which will include forest meandering,
skiff tours and independent paddles. During the afternoon
Ranger Daniel gave a bird talk. We passed Marble island but we
were going too fast. There were thousands of birds on the island
but i thought we were going too fast to really see anything
which is too bad. We had the cocktail hour food which was
ceviche and salmon chunks. Yummy. i had two mixed drinks, an
Alaskan Coffee and a Martini before switching to wine for
dinner. many glasses of Merlot later and dinner was done. We
had Alaskan halibut with a salad and berry tort for dessert.
Libbie got a chocolate cake we all shared that had a candle in
it. They sang a group happy Birthday which was pretty nice.

The boat was able to find dock space which they said they are not always able
to do. We went ashore and visited the Glacier Bay visitors center then took a
short walk in the woods along an interpretive trail. We talked with a park law
enforcement officer who was outfitted with a bullet proof vest and gun. Our
conversation was about needing the vest. He said he was required to wear it.
The officer was from Washington State.

The girls on our ship are pretty strong woman and all beautiful. We watched
Heather put on a hard hat and start working the boom to fetch the gangplank. On
the front of the boat I did a movie of Lindsey pulling in the rope that tied us
up while Heather unhooked us on shore then jumped onto the boat grabbing a
hanging buoy. She was wearing a swimming life preserver. These ladies all seem
to be beautiful and quite capable of handling things. We watched a beautiful
sunset from the sun deck while the boat was delayed searching for the couple
from 308 who did not check back in on the magnetic board. It was about 9:30
before we got underway. I lay in bed catching up on my journaling until about
11 PM. We both noticed a choppiness to the ride that we had not experienced
before in addition to the occasional rolls of swells and wakes from cruise
ships. I peeked outside and did see a rather large wake so a cruise ship
probably did pass by.