Day #3 Mendenhall Glacier

This morning we did not make it to the gym. We gained an hour overnight and we were thrown off enough to either get there before it opened or too late- after breakfast which was at The King’s table, an exclusive setting for the Deluxe Veranda guest. We dressed warmly and in layers today as the forecast was for rain and more rain.

Our first tour was to the Mendenhall Glacier by way of a helicopter ride. John and I were given assigned seats in the front with the pilot. We had a super view out all the windows including the one by our feet. The ice is so dense that it looks bright blue in all the cracks. It is a shame that these glaciers are receding so quickly. When we got to the dog camp we found over 300 dogs neatly arranged, each with his own little dog house, in rows by their owners. Most owners have around 30+ dogs they train and then pick the best ones for the races as they come up. We were fortunate enough to get a team and sled all to ourselves, along with a musher of course. After getting to know the team we went for about an hour ride on the glacier stopping every now and then to switch places. One of us sat in the sled while the other stood in the back. It was awesome. When we returned to the heliport back in civilization we found out that all other tours had been cancelled for the day as the weather had gotten too rainy/foggy. We snuck our trip in under the wire. Apparently last year 52% of the trips were cancelled.

We scurried back on board our ship for a quick, very late lunch, which we should not have bothered with, before heading out for the evening whale watching tour. The tour boat was verily new and loaded with all sorts of goodies for us to snack on. We were fortunate to see two different kinds of whales. We followed a pod of about six killer whales around for a while and then the skipper found us some humpback whales. Boy those mammals are big. As they make their terminal dive we got to see some wonderful flukes. The most exciting part was the show that we were given the last twenty minutes before heading back to shore. We discovered a mother and her six-month old calf swimming around. Just seeing them surface every now and then was great but the calf must have know we wanted more of a showing because he started breaching over and over again! Unfortunately I forgot our camera in our stateroom. Fortunately there were some amateur photographers on our tour that have said they’d be glad to send us some of their pics.

The Amsterdam was patiently waiting for our group to return at 8:30 PM so that we could set sail for tomorrow’s sighting of Hubbard Glacier. It is interesting how each time you board the ship it is pretty much mandated that you sanitize your hands. Porters are standing on each side of the gang plank with their oversized bottles of Purell ready to plop a doze on each passenger’s hands before letting you precede further. After putting away our binoculars we walked around the ship for just a little while before heading to bed. Tonight’s towel art display on our bed was a stingray.