Day 5- Tracy Arm Fjord:  You skip, I kick! 

Today we had to do the thing that nobody wants to do on vacation…set the alarm for 5:30 AM!  UGH!  However, in my research before this trip, I had learned that you have to get to the railing early in order to have a place to see the glacier or else there would be no room to stand.  I figured we’d be the earliest up but I forgot who the other people are on this boat…older people and families with young children!  We were lucky to find seats in our favorite lounge (once we determined that it was too cold to be at the railing!).  We were upstairs by 6:00 and it was a good thing because we got to the glacier by 7:00 and the approach was beautiful.  It was a narrow fjord and the mountains surrounding it were full of steep waterfalls and craggy, colorful rocks.  The water was the same teal blue color that we had seen at the lake of the Mendenhall Glacier, because of the minerals in the sediments that are part of the glacier.  There were “bluebirds” or big chunks of bright blue ice floating all around us, and seals lounging on some of them.  We went down to the deck to be outside to see the glacier and had no trouble getting our spot.  There was a large section of water between the ship and the glacier that was full of icebergs, most of which had seals and sea lions too, and then the glacier.  I have to admit that my mental image of what we were going to see was very cartoon like:  tall, clear/blue ice that was smooth and that we drove up along side.  They said we would see it calving and hear the popping.  However, in reality the glacier is made up of uneven blue ice and looks like it is spilling down from two mountains.  We weren’t close enough to hear popping and didn’t see any calving.  The ice is beautiful, though, and it was very peaceful as we sat in our spot and the captain turned the boat in a very slow 180 so that everyone could see. 

A first, beautiful iceberg. 

Looking out behind the ship.

Looking ahead.

Out to the side.  A cascade or water runoff and a beautiful iceberg.

A few brave souls ready for some ice.

Another cascade/runoff.

Seal!

There it is!

A close-up of the ice.

We were there for about an hour and then we started to head out of the fjord.  We (along with everyone else on the ship!) were ready for some breakfast.  We managed to find a table and enjoy our morning eggs and sausage before heading back up to our favorite lounge to enjoy the view.  We claimed our chairs and Rich stayed there to keep them and I spent the morning running up and down the three flights of stairs to the deck to take pictures.  On one such trip I got up the courage to ask a man with two fancy cameras hung on his arm if he could give me a tip as to why the sky is always white in my pictures.  I have this fancy, beautiful, expensive camera and I can’t get a blue sky?!  Since the class I was supposed to take to learn to use my camera had been cancelled, I’ve been at a loss about how to figure out some things about the camera on my own.  He gave me a few ideas of things to look up (the aperture, the shutter speed, and a histogram, which is a graph that shows up on the display window after I take a picture and shows distribution of light, for instance if there is too much or too little).  I went back upstairs and Rich and I read about aperture and the histogram in the manual and I went back down to test some things out.  The difference was amazing!  Especially because, as part of the display when the histogram shows up, the image blinks to show if any part of it is overexposed or all white.  This is a great feature because I often think the picture looks great when I first take it and then when I put it on the computer, the sky will be bright white and I will be disappointed.  I’ve been keeping my eye out for that guy because I want to thank him very much and tell him that his giving me a place to start and something to work with was very helpful! 

Too dark, aperture setting is too low.

Too light, aperture setting is too high.

Just right!

Vivid colors with the settings all regulated.

A rainbow!  

The beautiful water and mountains.

How to take a picture and have a blue sky...we made it!

The view for the rest of the day.

After we left the fjord (along with our last chance to see a mountain goat in Alaska…darn!  Hopefully nobody realizes that the Hankses took away their opportunity to see any goats by buying some really cool binoculars, therefore jinxing the chance to see any more!)…  Anyway, after we left the fjord, we both needed a nap.  We’ve decided that it’s stupid to pay extra on a ship to get a balcony or a window.  Especially a window!  Who’s going to kneel on their bed and look out a window at a small slice of a view when the entire rest of the ship is open or has big windows to use?!  And I’m sure the balcony is really nice to have but it is SO much more expensive, we wouldn’t have been able to do anything else the entire time…and no souvenirs!  Besides, when you get up at 5:00 AM to see a glacier, you are tired and having a nice, dark, inside room for a nap is really the way to go!  I usually can’t nap because it feels like it is a huge waste of time.  However, on this ship we have lots of time where we are out on the open ocean, I have already seen lots of whales and expect we will see some more, and there aren’t any chores that I should be doing!  Nap it is! 

I spent a good portion of the afternoon going through the pictures and deleting the extras (I’m getting really good at getting rid of ones that are not very good or are duplicates now that my hard drive is almost full!) and catching up on the blog.  Luckily, I did all of that sitting in a comfy chair overlooking the ocean and stopping periodically to see a humpback or spout.  I missed the pod of orcas on the port side, though, because I was busily looking out the starboard side at a humpback close to the horizon (see, those binoculars DID come in handy!) that was slapping his tail and flukes and even breached a few times.  Dinner was supposed to be the second of two formal nights.  We did pack formal-ish wear, although it’s nothing to some of these people!  No tuxes or evening gowns for these two!  It was also lobster night in the main dining room.  However, neither of us has felt up to eating in the main dining room where the tables are very close to one another and you have to get all dressed up.  So we skipped lobster night, along with some other people who wished to stay in their casual and comfortable clothes, and stuck to the café where we have been eating pretty happily through the whole cruise.  The food has been pretty good, although it begins to feel like it is the same thing over and over, and for some reason they feel the need to make every chocolate dessert (yeah, the low carb eating went out the window by about day three…whoops!) have run or whiskey in it, which is just a waste of a good chocolate thing!   Anyway, then it was off to complete the evening routine we’ve created for ourselves to sit at “our” table in the indoor pool room (which nobody uses in the evening because they are all busy doing music triva, listening to lounge music, or watching the comedians) to play some wretched Phase 10.  I HATE that game.  Rich is too lucky with his drawing and has beaten me at all but two games.  But, I’m a good wife and I know my husband enjoys playing (obviously, since he almost always wins!) so I make the sacrifice and play along…  However, there is a new tagline that goes along with the game.  Whenever he uses a skip card I say “You skip, I kick!” and kick him in the shins!  I’m not very effective, though, because he always laughs at me…