Endicott Arm, Day 5

(This is from July 24. Still catching up...) Today's stop - actually a cruise-by - was Endicott Arm, 

 

part of the Tracy Arm-Fords Terror Wilderness.(Tracy Arm is here) (see Fords Terror* below... I had to look it up)

 

Endicott and Tracy are two deep, narrow fjords, both over 30 miles long, just south of Juneau. 

 

We had a naturalist onboard for the entire cruise, giving talks most days on a variety of topics in the Royal Theater, 

 'Shore' excursion tour boat had the closest views of the ice

and she also narrated via the ship's PA system almost the entire time we were in the fjord. She was excellent and entertaining.

  

Pop got the last 2 wool blankets Cunard put out for guests - 

 

and we were very glad to have them 

 

since it was windy and cold out on deck.

 

The area where we were, on Decks 5 and 6, is usually closed off and used only by the crew for leisure,

but they open it to guests a few days each trip since the pointy end of the ship has the best views.  

  

Our ultimate goal was Dawes Glacier, 

 

a 1-mile long, 600 foot tall block of gorgeous blue ice at the far end of Endicott Arm. 

 

See that little red dot? That's the tour boat from above for size comparison. The glacier was huge! 

 Balcony view

The captain was very good about 'spinning' the ship so all sides got equal time at the glacier... 

  More balcony views. Curved rocks are fascinating. How much pressure did it take to bend granite???

which also meant we could sit on our balcony and have 360 views of the glacier and fjord. 

 

Definitely a highlight. 

 

Once the tour boat docked and 

 

unloaded passengers

 

(fascinating to watch!)

 

we headed back up Tracy Arm on our way to Juneau.

 

How to celebrate such a great day? 

 

A visit to the pub for Guinness (can you tell Rachel's reaction??), soda and chips.    

 

*  "Ford's Terror is named after the naval crew member who, in 1889, rowed a dinghy into the narrow entrance of the fjord at slack tide. The tide began to rise, forcing its way through the bottleneck entrance into the fjord, and Ford was trapped in the turbulent currents for the next "terrifying" six hours."   

 

Sitka, Day 4-Part 2

(Playing catch-up on our trip. This is from July 23.) Allen Marine Tours (here) took us out for almost 3 hours of whale, seal, otter and bird watching. 

Living close to the ocean, we’ve been on numerous boat excursions 

 

and I can safely say this was one of the best.  

  Rafts of sea otters

We saw a bunch of animals and Connor, the naturalist, was a great speaker who obviously knew his stuff and enjoyed his job.

 

The tour boats are custom-built in the company's own Sitka shipyard. 

 

The bios for the employees on our tour made it sound like this was a fun summer job for most of them - their 'real' jobs were Dr this and professor that. Very knowledgeable, professional group.  

 

It was rainy, gray and foggy so most of my pics look like this ⬆️. Thank goodness Rachel had a 'real' camera and got some great shots. 

  Seals on the beach, using my iPhone camera Seals on the beach, with Rachel's "real" camera. Just a little bit of difference...

  Humpback whale

 Bald eagle is so not impressed with you. And also? Keep away from his babies ⬇️

Truly some of the most gorgeous scenery I've ever seen.

  Almost home again

 So glad we signed up for this tour!

Cake Designer Boy

Me: hey Donovan, want to make a cake for your dad’s birthday?

Him: yes!

Me: ok, his favorite cake is…

Him: we’ll make chocolate cake with vanilla icing, then chocolate chips on the icing and strawberries like a cap!

Me: …

Him: and cupcakes instead of cake. 

So that’s what we did. I measured, he poured and stirred. I mixed, he held his ears (electric hand mixer is noisy.) He put cupcake papers in the pan, I poured in the batter. I washed strawberries, he did all the decorating. 

And they were very delicious (and he was very pleased with himself). The end. 

There’s a lot of icing left, so tomorrow I’m going to try melting chocolate chips and combining them with the icing to make a sauce for angel food cake. Wish me luck!

Chocolate cupcake recipe: add a pinch, Best Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

Old-fashioned no-dairy (delicious!) vanilla icing: Food.com, Grammie Bea’s Special Vanilla Frosting 

Formal Night, Day 3

The ship’s internet flat refused to cooperate with blogging so I decided to give in and wait til we got home to post. Hoping to get the backlog posted this week. 

We had pictures taken on the first formal night. Turned out to be a good decision since Pop was sick on the last formal night and I’d have been very sad not to have these. (Pictures from dinner are here.)