There are calm days at sea, and then there are incredibly calm days at sea, today is one of those incredibly calm days. As all of the guests woke from their slumber and made their way onto the outside deck they could not believe how flat the surface of the waters of Glacier Bay National Park were. The calmness was infectious and it was a particularly quiet morning out on deck. The first sighting of a sea otter was met with meditative awe instead of the normal clamor of rushing to see it and to point it out to everyone else. Today we are joined by two National Park Rangers instead of the usual one. Because this is a family trip we have a larger contingency of children, and one of the Rangers specializes in interpretation for kids. We also have with us Alice Haldane, a native Tlingit interpreter to give us the native culture history of the park.
Breakfast was finished just in time to let everyone prepare for South Marble Island, the home of so many seabirds and Stellar Sea Lions. The sea lions are always the most noticeable residents. Their constant barking and arguing among the individuals gives them away even before we reach the island. Soon however, we were seeing our first puffins, guillemots, and murres. Watching the puffins take off from the water is always one of the favorite sights to see. Evolution has not made them the best fliers, and with filled bellies, it takes a long running start before they can active flight. It looks as if they prefer to run along the surface of the water, rather than take flight and escape our approach.
Our travels up the bay bring us an encounter with a brown bear foraging along the coast and a few mountain goats resting on the cliffs, safe from any predator that might be thinking goat would make a tasty dinner.
Just before lunch Alice did a program on her native culture. From her we learned about the way of life she was raised in. With traditions that run deep in family values, and oral history. She brought with her samples of art, traditional musical instruments, and best of all, a story about how the Tlingit came to live in Glacier Bay. We also made an attempt to learn some of her language, a bit more difficult than we thought.
After a warm lunch of hot chili, we once again took to the deck to watch and discover the land we were traveling in. Our final stop is at Margerie Glacier, the most impressive of all of the things we see on this day. Towering 245 feet above us, the massive wall lets go of her ice in smaller amounts than we saw on our day in Tracy Arm, however it is no less majestic. We stayed with the glacier for no less than an hour watching in wonder, and hoping one of her towers of ice would come crashing down during our time with her. The glacier was not the only thing this place would show us as we motored over to a colony of thousands of black-legged kittiwakes. The sky filled with birds and their cries as they took to the air in defense of a Bald Eagle passing near the nesting birds.
Although we never left the boat today we still used the time to motor out of the bay to rest, drink some warm beverage, and just think about all we had saw today. Tonight we will get the chance to stretch our legs at Bartlett Cove, before retiring to our bunks to prepare for tomorrow.
