Black legged Kittiwake rookery and another walk

Our last stop on the glacier cruise was within sight of the Island Princess, but it was the kind of thing I wouldn't notice unless it was pointed out to me. Thousand of kittiwakes come to here each year to lay their eggs on the warmth of the rock walls. We watched as the babies tried to fly...without much control they would swoop dangerously close to our boat, but within the next couple of weeks they will be able to fly south with their parents to a warmer climate.

While we were on the 5 hour tour, we met a couple from Pittsburgh who had stopped by a river just outside of town earlier in the day to watch salmon jumping upstream to lay their eggs. G was intrigued and wanted to see this for himself. Luckily they offered us a ride to the river after our cruise (luckily, because after our morning walk and 5 hours in the water, we were starting to drag a bit). They then left to get through the 6pm tunnel opening (going toward Anchorage, the tunnel opens on the hour) and we walked the two miles or so back to town.

It was still surprisingly warm; the air temp was probably only in the high 50s by then, but the sun was still strong and hot. We happened on one of the pedestrian tunnels that run through this funny little town...when you get 15 feet of rain and (last year) 44 feet of snow, have a railroad run right through the middle of town and all live in one building, pedestrian tunnels make quite a bit of sense.

We returned to the ship about 6:45pm. One final train bringing additional passengers arrived shortly afterwards, so, while things were quiet in the terminal, they were still prepared to check people in for the cruise. We didn't even change, but went straight to the dining room dressed as we were. Muster drill was at 8pm for those people required to go (those people boarding today), but dinner service continued for in transit passengers, which was nice. Right after muster, hoards of people came for dinner, but luckily we were just finishing up and returned to our cabin to watch sailaway from our balcony. By 9:30pm we were asleep. It had been a full turnaround day.

Photo 6: the tall building in the background is where everyone lives; the Princess cruise terminal is the hanger-shaped building in the foreground.

More glaciers from Prince William Sound

Photo 1: sea otters at play

Photo 2: Serpentine Glacier

Photo 3: Surprise Glacier up close

Photo 4; another kind of ice fishing

Photo 5: a Glacier Margarita

Phillips 26 Glacier Tour

Before we left home, we had considered booking a 5-hour 26 glacier small boat tour, but wanted to wait until we saw what the weather was like before committing to it. Well, the weather was perfect, so at 12:30pm we boarded the Klondike Express docked right next to the Island Princess. The boat was a high speed catamaran that held 300 people, but there were less than half of that on it today, and we cruised all around Prince William Sound, into College Fjord a bit, but particularly into Harriman Fjord to see its eight glaciers.

Almost right away we saw humpback whales spouting and diving, harbor seals, Stellar sea lions and sea otters. The glaciers came fast and furious and we stopped in front of several of them so we could hear the sounds of their advance into the water. The glaciers creak and groan every step of the way, and we were rewarded by seeing the them calve time and again.

In front of Surprise Glacier, two members of the boat's crew used a large net to pick up some of the small pieces of ice floating all around us. They then proceeded to make Glacier Margaritas with chunks of 150 year old ice in them. Of course, I had to have one. It's not every day that I get a margarita made from a glacier.