What a great day for our 1st full day in Valdez, Alaska, as we boarded a tour boat for a 9 hour cruise of the Prince William Sound. This was another day of the Alaska we had hoped to see. Our tour boat was headed to Meares Glacier with lots of stops for animal viewing in between. Our captain would slow the boat and point out all the viewpoints, facts, history and current information but he especially stopped for the animals and that was the very best part. We saw many of the birds of Prince William Sound including several types of puffins and a Bald Eagle, but most exciting was when he slowed and idled the engine for us to watch a humpback whale. First we saw the stream of water blowing out of the water, next some of his body and then that beautiful tail. Talk about awesome – it actually takes your breath away and then the whole tour boat applauded. We saw two adult humpbacks and one baby on the trip. The animals were so entertaining too – the stellar sea lions argued over their place on the buoy until one just slapped the other off of his spot and they also rested on the rocks on shore. The sea otters just relaxed on their backs, some with babies on their bellies and didn’t have any concern for our boat or anything else in the world. The harbor seals found themselves a piece of ice near the glacier and seemed to be smiling as we went by.
The biggest and best moment of the trip happened when the captain cut the engines and we floated among the the ice chunks in silence in front of the Meares Glacier. Silence and then the sound of thunder and a huge chunk of the glacier falls and even makes waves. We observed the glacier for about 45 minutes with many episodes of calving, a very eerie feeling.
We all know a large amount of oil comes from Alaska and we passed many of the oil storage tanks on the way back as well as a fish hatchery where all at the birds and bears seem to gather to get their meals.
What a great day !!!!
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