Why, I Otter…
We had one excursion for today - the 26 glacier cruise out of Whittier. We didn’t have to check in until 10:30, so it was a casual morning. We had breakfast, and packed up our layers to make it through the cold, rainy cruise. If you’re in Alaska, and its not raining, you’re probably not in Whittier.
We got all checked in, and just waited in the car, since the weather was wet as usual. Emma was not thrilled to just be sitting in the car, especially since she had used the last of the decent data available while roaming here, since T-Mobile doesn’t have coverage here at all.
Once on board, we were surprised that they had seated a solo traveler at the same table with Les, Pat, and Emma. It is a bit odd, with the whole Covid changes, to have a stranger in our bubble.
The cruise was great. There were tons of glaciers (literally), and lots of wildlife out. While I didn’t go quite as crazy with photo bursts as the Seward cruise, I did end up with 1400 pictures today. There were some cute otters, harbor seals, lots of birds, and a bear (allegedly - I am halfway convinced that a teenager saw a rock in a snow patch and called it a bear). There were some minor calving of a couple of the glaciers. Being that close to a mile-wide glacier was impressive.
I did get some flack over my lunch choice. There were 2 meal choices - Veggie Chili (with beans - blasphemy!) and Seafood Chowder (salmon and clams - no thank you), so I chose the kids meal of a hot dog. Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.
We did enjoy some hot chocolate, which took the edge off of the cold. Once back at the dock, the ladies stopped into a gift shop to look around. Les and I listened to Beatles, and waited in the car. Thankfully, nothing appealed to them ;), and we went back to our condo.
We had some warm soup and reheated pizza, and sat down to work on photos and journaling. We have to make the 9:00 tunnel entrance in the morning, so it won’t be as relaxed a morning as today. So, probably an earlier night tonight. Goodnight.
