One of the perks of working for Rose and Mike is that they are friends with Stan Stephens and his family. Stan Stephens started a successful cruise ship business a number of years ago, and then he tried to sell it. The folks he sold it to couldn’t make a go of it, so he got the business back. Now his kids run it. Since our boss is friends with them, they let workers at Tok RV Village take the cruise for free. We’re taking an extra day off work this week for this trip, and today we got to go on the cruise.
There are two cruises: A six and a half hour cruise to Columbia Glacier and a nine hour cruise to Meares Glacier. We took the nine hour cruise to Meares Glacier. Mark’s big concern was his motion sickness but he took Dramamine and he was fine, even when we hit six foot swells! We had a really nice lunch of chicken and sauce over a bed of rice, mixed vegetables, and a bread stick. Toward evening they gave us clam chowder, and Mark and I even got a second helping! But the crew’s hospitality was only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. We were privileged to see one of the largest calvings of this year, as well as many wonderful sights. Rather than describe everything we saw, I have lots of pictures:
The red dots show our route
Our ship – Valdez Spirit
Spectacular weather!
Sea otter
Stellar sea lion on a buoy
Bald eagle
Big blue iceberg
Fluke of a humpback whale
Approaching Meares Glacier
Us in front of Meares Glacier
Meares Glacier
See the cave to the right?
The glacier calves
This is where the cave used to be…Now it’s a new, big iceberg!
Us with an ice block fished out of the sea
Stan’s daughter, Colleen, who fished the ice block out of the ocean
Steering through the ice debris in the inlet
Fish hatchery (that’s why there are so many birds hanging around)
Black bear on the beach
Hitting rough water
Orca whale
The RV park where we’re staying (as seen from the ship)