Early in the morning, some forest rangers joined our cruise ship, so they could narrate the trip through the bay. Jennifer got to see the boat with the rangers come up right next to the cruise ship, and then she saw the rangers jump from their smaller boat onto our cruise ship.
We spent the whole morning on the decks just taking in the views. Our turnaround point was the Margerie Glacier. It was an enormous glacier - 21 miles long. It is one of the few glaciers that is advancing rather than receding. We spent an hour at the glacier just listening to the sounds of nature - the birds, the calm water, and the groaning and creaking of Margerie, and at times, the splashing of ice breaking off of the glacier and falling into the bay. It was amazing.
After the ship turned around, we returned to our cabin and sat on the veranda to enjoy the opposite view of what we had watched in the morning. For anyone considering an Alaska cruise, I highly recommend spending the money to get a cabin with a veranda.
As we sat there, we soaked in the last minutes looking at the Margerie Glacier. Although Katie noticed the "big ice," the thing she was most excited about that day were all of the seagulls she saw. She loved them and tried to call them over to her. She was really impressed when a couple of them decided to rest right below our veranda.
Once we left the bay, we went back up to the fairly empty top deck, and Katie discovered the joys of lounge chairs and played a long time on those.
That evening, we spent some time in one of our favorite places - the Lido Deck. It was an area that was glassed in, had a pool, and tables set up by the windows. That evening, Katie got to play on the stage. Jennifer had put her on this small stage that was for the band when they were playing. Katie danced and danced. Jennifer told me later that Katie had brought the bar to a standstill as both bartenders and their customers stopped to watch her dance. I'm glad she didn't see them watching, or she would have probably stopped. I don't have pictures of Katie on stage that night, but there are pictures of her shortly before as she played next to the table.
Aunt Jennifer saw the forest rangers jump off this boat onto ours.
This is one of our morning views.
I loved hanging out by the windows to look out at the water and mountains.
The water was like a mirror.
All of the mountains looked much larger in person.
The views kept coming.
I fell asleep, but I did wake up for the glacier.
There were a lot of people trying to get a picture of the Margerie Glacier. Can you spot Grandpa?
I had to get my picture taken, but I was still trying to wake up.
We got a much better view of the glacier when we were on our veranda.
We got to see ice fall off of the glacier into the water.
I liked to see all of that ice,...
…but when this seagull landed close to us, it was even more exciting.
I tried to call the seagulls over to me the same way I call Chloe, but it didn't work.
Look at that water!
We were on our way back out of the bay.
There was something exciting over there. We tried to get a closer look through the binoculars.
Can you see the bear?
Everything was beautiful.
We saw lots of waterfalls.
I took a small break to play with a water bottle.
What?
I decided I liked mountains.
Aunt Jennifer spent the most time outside. I went back and forth between standing with Jennifer and watching the views from inside our cabin.
When we were out of the bay, I got to go down to the lounge while the adults played Bingo. Every time I heard the word, "Bingo," I thought people were saying, "Bingle." It made me miss my pets.
In the distance, a whale was splashing its tail in the water.
When we went back to the deck, guess what I decided to do?
Dance, of course!
I decided the lounge chairs were very relaxing.
You should try one if you haven't before.
I'll just do one last dance move before we leave the deck.
After dinner, my dinner napkin became many new things - including a hat.
I was excited to meet another girl who was adopted from China and her brother.
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