Today, for a change of pace, we stopped in Juneau. Big city, big ships, big crowds! To avoid the masses, we scuttled out to the Mendenhall Glacier as early as possible. There, we saw the enormous tongue of ice still in the process of giving the capital city a great chilly lick. A short trail led to the point from which we could easily view the glacier. We strolled past bedrock sculpted into sinuous undulations, and striated by the recent passage of the ice. From the thickets, songbirds issued tentative cheeps and whispered faint autumnal versions of their full-fledged vernal songs. Photographers studied ice, stone, reflections, and foliage, “slowing the moment” in search of the perfect image. And all of us enjoyed grand scenery in fine dry weather.
Later, we headed back into town to visit the Alaska State Museum. Here we saw a fine collection of art and artifact from Alaska’s five native cultural groups. Then, most of us walked through the tourist district of town, looking for that certain something to complete our shipboard constellation of necessities – perhaps toothpaste, a t-shirt, or a totem pole.
By afternoon, the Sea Bird had returned to her natural habitat. In Stephens Passage, separating Admiralty Island from the mainland, conditions were nearly ideal. The water was so calm that it seemed that the more virtuous of us might easily stroll ashore. The sky was flecked with just enough clouds to provide visual interest, and we basked in the sunshine like a tangle of iguanas. And all around were whales. They swam alone or in coordinated echelons, they gathered and dispersed, they arose near and far to stun us with sudden proximity or tease us into pursuit. From all directions came the sounds of their deep breaths like heavy, heavy sighs. Spouts hung in the air, sometimes in regular rows from several surfacings. In the distance, some spouts refracted the brilliant sunlight, and glowed variously in lemon or tangerine hues. We spent the whole afternoon with the humpbacks, watching all sorts of behavior, including the usual lifting of tail flukes – indescribably graceful- as well as lunge feeding, tail lobbing, and a few breaches. At last, as sunset brightened the horizon, we too raised our flukes and dove below to dinner.
