The Joneses Go Cruising, Part 4: A Whale Of A Day

After leaving Tracy Arm Fjord, we sailed into Juneau, capital of Alaska. I've noticed Alaskan have spelling issues--they spell "Ford" with an extra j: "Fjord" and "Juno" with all kinds of extra letters: "Juneau". I could hardly complain since as a Montanan, I spell "Beaut" in this nonsensical way: "Butte". 

We got cozy with the other Joneses  and headed off to our next adventure.

 Our first stop was Mendenhall Glacier. It is not a big glacier, but it is easily accessible.

Hundreds of years ago, the glacier used to extend clear into the heart of the city (which must have been inconvenient), but like everything else in the world is rapidly melting.

Pieces of the glacier break off and float in the water below on a regular basis.  

One of the things that makes Alaska beautiful is the way dazzling green plants grow all around the snow on the mountains.

A view opposite the glacier.  We saw people swimming in this area, but my official toe test deemed it "are you kidding???--too cold".

This waterfall is right next to the glacier.  Note the people at the bottom for size perspective. The sand on the beach almost made it feel like Hawaii. Almost.

More of those beautiful turquoise icebergs.

The fam.

 The glacier was quite dirty looking.  Our bus driver told us that it takes about 150 feet of compacted snow to make 1 foot of glacier

 ice. That dirty look is apparently a feature of all Alaskan icebergs. You can see both the waterfall and glacier in this shot.

Beautiful Alaska!

The rocks showing the scraping of the glacier when it was big enough to still be in this area.

Next we boarded a boat to go look for whales.  The cost of our expedition guaranteed a whale sighting or a sizable refund.

We looked and looked. Boat rides are windy affairs and standing out in the wind for what seemed like hours looking for a whale proved to be less than thrilling.

I was beginning to be pretty confident we had a refund coming our way when...

we started spotting spouts of water in the distance.

Thar she blows!

We came upon a group of 6 or more whales--a very unusual event.  Humpback whales are solitary and seldom are seen in groups.

They come together when they find an especially large group of fish.

 They create bubbles in the water, causing the fish to panic and draw into a tight circle. Then the whales encircle them and dive in a spiral pattern, feeding as they go.

A humpback whale's throat is only as big as a grapefruit, so they are constantly eating large amounts of small fish.

Generally speaking, you only see two whales together if one of them is a baby. After eating and eating, these Alaskan whales go to Hawaii in the winter and give birth after a one year pregnancy. They do not eat until they swim home 4 or 5 months later. Meanwhile, their calves are nursing and getting fat for the journey back to Alaska.

That's quite the diet plan.

Although generally alone, whales will reunite with the same whales in a group to do these large feedings. We were lucky to have been able to see this relatively rare behavior.

We also saw a couple of seals hanging out on this buoy.

It was an amazing experience to see these whales in the wild--well worth the windy wait!

The Joneses Go Cruising, Part 3, Fjords And Fun

On the morning of day 4, we came on deck in the morning to find ourselves in an incredible place: Tracy Arm Fjord. The mountains rose sharply from the sea and the water was full of chunks of ice.

The views in the area were my favorite of the trip.  This is a valley formed by a glacier.

There were waterfalls everywhere.

The ocean was full of chunks of ice in all sizes.

Many of the pieces appeared to have a bright turquoise underside. It was such an intense color, it almost looked fake.

Some of the chunks were huge: note the size of the birds covering this piece of ice to get a perspective.

The family, minus Mark and Cathy. This was the only place on the cruise where I needed a warm jacket. I love how we are all looking in different directions.

When not on deck admiring the view, we continued to eat.

We had Baked Alaska at one of our fancier meals. I wonder where they got that idea??

Waiting to be fed....

Everyday there were various shows. The ship had a naturalist who taught us all sorts of interesting things. I learned, for example, that I shouldn't have taken pictures of that black bear yesterday. Flashing cameras can be interpreted by bears as an invitation to come and eat you. Oops!

There were several shows by this aerial pair. They were fun to watch.

Stan and I are practicing like crazy so that we can do this at the next ward talent show. 

The Jones Family
 Kent, Cliff, Mom, Mark, Dad, Stan, Konni.

This strings ensemble played around the ship, including during our dinner a couple of times.

There were several song and dance shows

and a very funny comedian who helped Stan realize he doesn't like whole milk, leaving the door open lets in exactly 600 mosquitoes, and how to tell how long a couple has been married.

The Jones Family With Spouses

A few of the dinners were dress up affairs.

Me and my dignified spouse.

The Joneses Go Cruising, Part 1

Several months ago my wonderful in-laws invited all of their children and spouses to come together and take an Alaskan cruise.  After a great deal of arm-twisting, Stan and I agreed to eat great food to our heart's content, enjoy the company of family members, and view the beauties of the state of Alaska.

Ok, so there wasn't any arm-twisting going on.

I made a fast run down to Idaho to drop Megan off at the Pearson's, then turned around and unpacked my overnight bag on the left into my suitcase on the right, then emptied out my closet to fill the dead spaces of my luggage.

 When I got to the airport, I was amazed to see the two teensy bags brought by my mother and father in-law.  Two of these blue things were it. Each of them were the size of one of Megan's smaller purses. They were slightly bigger than the case I put my sunglasses in.

This was my luggage for the same trip.  I needed a double team of oxen to move it into the airport.

 When my in-laws said to pack light, I thought they meant.....

Oh, never mind. Let's just say I could have saved myself the trouble of packing some of the things I brought.

 

The twelve of us flew in to Seattle from various parts of the west and boarded the Celebrity Infinity on Friday, July 8.

It wasn't long before we began to eat.  Over the week we cruised, I tried escargot (yum!), frog legs (meh), and vichyssoise (someone forgot to warm it).

We spent the first two days at sea. This allowed time for us to tour the kitchen and see what they could do with a lump of bread dough

and how they carved fruit into food so beautiful you didn't want to eat it.

I was impressed by the way this man avoided slicing off a finger.

We saw the huge and immaculate kitchen

the vast supply of china

and the clever food preparers.  This man was making marzipan roses.  I forced myself to eat one. Then I forced myself not to take a second, third, and fourth one.

We viewed the art around the ship. I'm pretty sure this object dah arte was made by the captain's five year old daughter. It was slightly disturbing.

We also took a tour of the room where they made sure we don't run into icebergs.

They showed us the 2 inch joystick that was used to steer the 2,000,000 lb ship

and the Plexiglas peephole in the floor to watch fish, enemy submarines, and people who fall overboard.

We committed the ship motto to memory.

I am now certain I could steer us home if need be. Kind of.

It wasn't long before we found ourselves surrounded by sea.

The food system was a little different then our last cruise. We ate dinner every night at the same time at the same table.  These were our waiters, Mel and Suigy from Indonesia.  They were a lot of fun.  I instantly became accustomed to having someone unfold my napkin, provide me with enough silverware for 13 people, place food in front of me, and whisk dishes off to the kitchen for washing. I really wanted to bring them home with me, but for some reason they declined.

If you've ever been on a cruise, it won't surprise you to hear that we ate. A. LOT. This is how much food was purchased and consumed for our cruise.

 You should know that 175 gallons of ice cream is the amount I personally consumed while on board. 

Any food leftover is never taken back to the kitchen; it is held and dumped at sea for all of the hungry fish who prefer gourmet food to carp.

Our room steward was also a fabulous guy.  All of our rooms were in the same area and he started creating interesting bed turn downs for us while we were at supper. Here's one from our room. Those are chocolates on our pillows.

This one was my favorite from Tim and Konni's room.

We got home around 1am on Saturday morning. Stan ran down to Idaho on Saturday to pick up Megan; I spent Sunday in Forsyth on church assignment. We are bushed. I'll leave the rest of the story for tomorrow.