Noon Report:

• Location: N 58° 54.47′, W 136° 59.75′
• Speed: 7 knots
• Course: 10º
• Weather: Patchy Clouds
• Temperature: 13º C; 55º F
• Wind: SSW 6 knots; 7 mph
• Sea: Calm

Today was a bit unusual.

• It was a sea day.
• We were cruising Glacier Bay National Park (one of only 3 ships in the park and the only one with more than 200 passengers)
• We had a park ranger presentation at 8:00

So we were up at the normal time, but instead of exercising we highed ourselves up to Mamsens for an early breakfast before the presentation. We were not alone. The whole Explorer’s Lounge was particularly busy this morning.

8:00 found us in the Theatre where Interpretive Ranger Han gave an excellent presentation about the park.

She was one of two rangers on board for the day to answer quesitons and provide commentary over the ship’s PA. Also along was a representative from the National Parks Foundation. He set up a ‘store’ in the Explorer’s lounge and did a great business all day selling t-shirts, books, magnets, and such.

Following the presentation we returned to the stateroom where I suited up for a deck walk and Cheryl settled in for a nap.

Walking the deck was interesting today for a couple of reasons. First, there were lots of people out gawking at the scenery, and second because too often I was one of them. Here are a few photos.

Eventually I did complete my 4 miles and returned to the room just after Cheryl arrived from a treadmill walk. (She wasn’t able to sleep because of all the scenery passing by.)

We decided that the best place to hang out was the Aquivit Terrace (behind the World Cafe). It was sheltered from the wind and lunch was right there.

It put us in a great place to view the Johns Hopkins Glacier at the head of the inlet of the same name.

We hung out there for a bit longer – long enough to see two women hop in the infinity pool to have their pictures taken with a glacier in the background – and, well…

Then it was naptime.

Following naps (and doing a bit of sea otter spotting from our veranda) we attended a lecture on the four ‘rocky planets’ – Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars. Most of it we knew but there were several intersting new things we learned.

Following the lecture we briefly stopped by the Explorer’s Society reception (for people who have sailed with Viking before. Over 60% of the passengers on this cruise qualified so it was pretty much a “y’all come.”

The interdenominational church service was at 6:00 but we had reservations at the Chef’s Table at 6:30 so we skipped the former in favor of the latter.

The Chef’s Table menu was an Asian Fusion spread – 5 courses with wine parings for 4 of the courses. Cheryl and I had the same menu in January 2020 and it was still excellent. The main course was Peking Duck.

Sated, we retired to our staterooms to sort thru the day’s photos, blog, and read.

Tomorrow we visit the Hubbard glacier – the second of two sea days.

We agree that this is definitely the best part of the cruise.

So…onward, R