North to Alaska, Part 3

Got that song out of your heads yet?

The two days after we boarded the Ms Zaandam in Seward were spent cruising into fjords and bays to view tidewater glaciers (i.e., ones that end at the sea) and nearby mountain areas. The first day was spent mostly in College Fjord in Prince William Sound, which has a number of glaciers named after women's colleges and eastern universities. For example, here are the Harvard and Yale glaciers.

The ship moved forward very slowly during these glacier visits, because there is a considerable amount of ice floating near the glaciers. This is, of course, the result of ice calving from (falling from) the glaciers.

There were beautiful mountains nearby, lots of mountains throughout the panhandle of Alaska.

The icebergs varied from ones that were pure icy blue to those striated with pulverized rock that the glaciers had ground free during their paths to the sea.

I couldn't resist trying to capture one of the gulls that swooped constantly about the ship as we lazily coasted along.

Glacier Bay National Park was our destination during the second day at sea. If you don't know much about the park, I urge you to read about it here. I was not previously familiar with the park, which can only be reached by sea or air. The most amazing thing about the park to me is that the entire region was created during only the last 250 or so years. If you go to the web site I referenced just above, click on the "Nature and Science" link to read more about this. When the glacier was first discovered, it was very near the coast. Its advance had decimated lands which were home to the Huna Tlinget peoples. As it retreated during these recent years, it carved out an immense bay. During our cruise that day, we were privileged to have a Park Ranger and a cultural interpreter of the Tlinget peoples join us for narration and presentations.

At the far north end of the bay, our ship sat quietly about 200 yards away from this glacier. It was quite cool outside. The sounds of the glacier were impressive as it kept creaking, groaning, and cracking.

Kathie was able to capture a number of little videos of calving ice, although it was always difficult to know where the next chunk might fall. I like this little clip because of the reactions of the nearby observers.

Meanwhile, the ship's Cruise Director had organized a "polar bear dip" in the aft pool for anyone brave enough to step outside in a swimsuit. I guess getting into the warmed pool wasn't such a big deal, but getting out into the very chilly air was!

After two days of cruising the glacial areas, we visited Haines. I spent a part of my morning walking through the little town of about 1500 folks.

Naturally, I couldn't resist this photograph of The Hammer Museum. I didn't choose to visit it, but I understand it is filled with nothing but hammers that some guy had collected for years.

Kathie and I did different things in the afternoon. She did a river tour of a bald eagle preserve.

I ventured out with a professional photographer, who took me to a number of interesting and scenic sights while he helped me work on camera skills such as composition, lighting, exposure, etc.

Below is a sample of some of my favorite shots from this outing.

Every year, after the snow plows have destroyed his prior year's efforts, a Haines resident creates a sizable display of rocks stacked in various ways. They were all fascinating with many looking like they should tumble apart.

These are shooting stars.

At the Haines Fair Grounds, a series of structures once built by Disney and used to make the movie White Fang were in use for various events and fair activities.

In part 4, we will visit Juneau and Ketchikan.