May 14-18 May 19 May 20-21 May 22 May 23 May 24 May 25-26 May 27 May 28 May 29 May 30 May 31-June 1 June 2-3 June 4 June 5 June 6-8	Thursday, May 28 We slept in this morning! We ate breakfast, then hurried to the lounge where we just caught a lecture about glaciers. In addition to the glacier information, we found out that icebergs have different names depending on their size. For it to truly be called an iceberg, it must extend at least 16 feet above sea level. We would not see any icebergs on this trip. Floating ice from a glacier that's more than 3 feet above sea level but less than 16 feet are called bergy bits. 99% of what we'd see today are classified as growlers, pieces of ice that extend less than 3 feet above sea level. As the ice releases the gases trapped in it, it will pop! The lecturer refered to this type of field as "Ice Krispies", due to the constant snap, crackle, and pop. And, yes, we would hear this many times in the hours we cruised along this bay. The ship entered Yakutat Bay about 11:30am. Everyone rushed to the bow of the ship for early views of Hubbard Glacier, our goal for the day. We stayed for a while, then grabbed a quick lunch at La Veranda as the ship approached the upper end of the bay. These three photos were taken near the mouth of Yakutat Bay. The photo on the left shows Mt. St. Elias, which guards the entrance to the bay and rises over 18,000 feet in elevation. The center photo shows some of the other mountains surrounding Yakutat Bay. The photo on the right also shows some of the other mountains surrounding Yakutat Bay and one of the stairways on the ship. These three photos show our early glimpses of Hubbard Glacier and some of the growler ice in front of it. At this time, Hubbard Glacier is about 75 miles long and close to five miles across at the "nose". We'll only be able to see about half of this width because of a point of land blocking the rest of the glacier from view. As we get closer, the glacier is even more impressive. The photos to the left and center show Hubbard Glacier as we near it. The photo on the right shows another glacier flowing into this bay and the mountains around it. Both are reflected in the ice filled waters. As we sail slowly along, we're passing through some really nice growler ice. The photo on the left is one of the first pieces we encountered after entering the bay. The center photo has some interesting parallel lines running through it! The photo on the right shows a piece of growler ice that was just interesting with some nice reflections. The photo on the left shows some growler ice that had managed to start bobbing in the water, generating some interesting ripples. The photo on the right shows a growler that has a story behind it. As I was watching the field of ice flowing placidly by, this chunk of ice suddenly shot perpendicular to the ship, moving at a pretty fast clip for floating ice. If you look closely, the lower right edge has blue paint on it! Yup, our ship ran over it! The blue paint was from the hull of our ship. As we floated along, the commentator on the bridge kept trying to point out wildlife that others had spotted. They must have been using some binoculars, as they were very hard to see with the naked eye. However, I thought I saw two growlers that might have harbor seals on them, so I cranked the lens to the most extreme telephoto setting it had and shot them both. Later, looking at them on the computer, I was able to magnify them even more. The first one actually had a harbor seal on it. That's the photo on the left. The photo on the right is a crop of the center portion of the image, enlarged to almost full size, confirming the harbor seal. The second one had a large rock riding the growler... We finished lunch about 1, as we kept nearing the glacier. What a sight! The reflections off the bay were fantastic today. There was almost no wind and we were just creeping along, generating no noticable wake at all. These three photos show some of the reflections. The photo on the left is a mountain reflected among the ice pieces. The center photo shows Hubbard Glacier and the mountains behind it with our ship in the foreground. The photo on the right not only has reflections and our ship's stairway, but shows two other glaciers which also empty into Yakutat Bay. The photo on the left above shows a side valley leading into the bay. This side valley was carved by an ancient glacier that has since disappeared. The center photo is another of Hubbard Glacier, the mountains behind it, and their reflections. The photo on the right is another side valley with the mountains that tower over it. We slowly approached the glacier until almost 2:00 when the boat started circling for the view before heading back to the head of the bay. Between the thick ice in the water and the time involved, that's as far as we could go. This is about as close as we could get to Hubbard Glacier. We were spinning at this point. The right photo has Carl in it... The pieces of growler ice that floated past us as we eased back towards the entrance to the bay would continue to fascinate me. These are three of them. Three more growler ice photos. The photo on the left looks like it has sharp teeth. The center photo is looking straight down the side of the ship at the ice particles we're moving through! As we made our way to the mouth of the bay, another cruise ship was entering. This is a Holland America ship. There's an informal agreement among the cruise lines that no more than one ship at a time will enter Yakutat Bay. For one thing, it's too dangerous. The channel is narrow, but deep, and usually full of ice. So we grabbed some warmup coffee and tea on the pool deck before the ship's speed crept up and it got chilly. Later, we had another good dinner. We had a really dumb dvd this evening – Hansel and Gretel, Witch Hunters.... I rolled over and fell asleep before the end.... Next...