The day didn’t start out like the view in the panorama above.  At 6am, it was foggy and a little bit drizzly.  It was supposed to clear up, so we weren’t too worried.  Today we were going out on a hike and also doing an afternoon skiff tour.

We were anchored in Geikie Inlet, still part of Glacier Bay National Park, but not in the immediate vicinity of the glaciers.

The menu was always posted first thing in the morning, and you checked off the option you’d like for dinner each evening, so the Chef knew about how much to prepare of each entree. Today’s menu looked promising.

After breakfast, we made an executive decision to scratch our shore walk and just hang out on the boat – it looked like a good morning for a latte and a good book.

Those adventurous folks who braved the elements (it didn’t rain very much, although it had rained heavily the night before), seemed to have a very good time and enjoyed their hikes and shore walks, even if there was a stream to ford:

The kayakers didn’t have it quite as smooth as the day before, but they gave it a go:

The weather cleared up shortly after lunch and we had some good views from the boat:

We were ready to go for the 2:30pm Skiff Tour, and got a chance to talk with Ranger Fay and some of the other passengers while waiting for our little boat.  Lou also spotted a black bear walking along the shore:

This was not one of our better Skiff Tours.  Lou spotted some Mountain Goats waaaayyyy up on the mountain, we saw a few eagles, some other birds, and the same bear we’d seen from the ship.  The scenery was also good, but the problem was the wind.  It was rougher than it looks out there, and we all (especially Ranger Fay) got sprayed as we moved along.  We can’t complain too much, given our run of almost perfect weather for the last 2 weeks.

 
Here is a shot of the docking platform – usually it was a simple hop on, hop off procedure.  Today, we had a “hot” landing coming in and we had to duck to make sure everyone was safe.

We enjoyed a quiet day until near the end of dinner, when Orcas were spotted. They didn’t hang around long, but we got another check in our whale watching journal.

During dinner, the crew brought up the anchor and we headed out – we needed to go back to Bartlett Cover to drop off our favorite ranger – Ranger Fay’s time with us was coming to an end.  She told us it’s not a requirement for ships to pick up a park ranger if they have a certified naturalist on board, but almost all of them do get to enjoy having a ranger on board while cruising Glacier Bay.  We enjoyed the chance to talk with her about life as a ranger.

We watched the sun rays come through the clouds as we cruised back to Bartlett Cove:

We also saw several otters floating in the water; this one is most likely a female.  The pink scars on her nose are a gift from the male otter during mating.

We didn’t dock at Bartlett Cove; Randall took Ranger Fay to shore in one of the skiffs.  There goes Ranger Fay, pulling Miss Elizabeth behind her in a large suitcase. You can see how light it is, even though it’s now after 8:30pm:

We continued cruising overnight towards tomorrow’s destination – we are going to Idaho!