Alaskan Cruise, Day 4 - Whales and Glaciers Galore

Juneau! Today was the earliest excursion we booked... at 9:30 LOL. We are not morning people, and Orion especially is not, and even moreso if he was up late the night before. I really wanted to see the Mendenhall Glacier, but we weren't sure how Orion would do on a tour like that, especially if it was raining. So we chose whale watching. I didn't think we were going to see the glacier at all, but lo and behold we went right past a great viewing spot on the way to the whale boat, and the driver even stopped to let us out and take pictures!Squirmy bug
Mom trying to be artsy. It really was stunning.

OK, enough of the glacier! (Oh, you just wait). On to the whales. The boat was a heated jet boat, and the ride out passed absolutely gorgeous scenery. We also got really lucky with seeing a bunch of whales, but, well, they just aren't too exciting in pictures. We got a whole bunch of series using the continuous shot mode on the camera, but I am only going to include one of the closest ones here.




Truly, the whales were awesome. At one point, we were so close to one that we could here the spouting really clearly. I think that was when it really hit home to Orion, although he probably still couldn't conceptualize the size of what we were looking at from just the backs and tails.

Some purdy scenery.
More native wildlife.
Could it be.... another glacier? Forgot the name of this one. :0
Back on the ship. Juneau was a fairly short port day because we are sailing into a fjord to look at another glacier! Aren't you so glad? They had a polar bear party at Kid's Club, so Orion was all ready!
Lotsa gorgeous sites.
That is a waterfall running down the whole mountain. These were everywhere!

A "bergy bit". That was the actual term the captain used. Not sure if it is a technical term or not haha. He made an announcement about going up the fjord and "avoiding the bergy bits with 1912 fresh in his mind"!
Wow, it just kept getting colder and colder. Imagine that. We headed back to the room for coats and hats. This picture is blurry but cute. Note the giant chess set at the top right!
Wow!
And then we gave up and went into the forward lounge with all the other cold wimps. But the curtain by the stage was great fun for Orion.
Our first view of Sawyer Glacier.
And zoomed in a bit.
This was the most surreal part. You can see out the window how close the fjord was to the side of the ship. And it looked just the same on the other side! Yet the captain just pivoted the ship 180 degrees when it was time to leave! The fjord seriously didn't look wide enough across to accommodate the length of the ship. Crazy.
More of the tourist lounge scene.
And this was close as we got. Again we were apparently really lucky with weather. The captain said the previous week it was so stormy he couldn't get nearly as close and they could barely see the glacier!
Mandatory dinner picture of Olivia in her fancy velvet.