LeConte Bay and Petersburg
Today was a day of contrasts and delightful sensory experiences. The morning began with bright, warm sun while we cruised among huge icebergs that had calved off Le Conte Glacier just days before. The deepest blue ice looked like ripe Maine blueberries, but not quite as inviting. Colors changed from each new angle. To get a closer look, we found a tiny bit floating by that we could pull into the Zodiac. This tiny piece that looked like the size of a pineapple from above was many times bigger and took two of us to get it out of the water.
Once in hand, the ice looked more like newly sculpted glass than the iceberg remnant it was. To ensure that it was truly what our naturalist claimed, some of us did some taste testing. It tasted of pure crisp Alaska. The ice tasted colder than normal, and a tad salty, but it came out of the ocean after all! Tuned into whale sounds from last night, heads turned when we thought we heard a whale blow beside us. We were instead rewarded with the slow motion cartwheel of one of the nearby bergs.
By afternoon we were exploring the town of Petersburg with its fleet of colorful fishing boats and Norwegian heritage, hiking in the nearby bog, and finally flightseeing over glaciers. One way to experience a place is with sight. It was an even richer experience to use all of our senses. We ended our day enjoying the taste of Petersburg - Dungeness crabs!
Today was a day of contrasts and delightful sensory experiences. The morning began with bright, warm sun while we cruised among huge icebergs that had calved off Le Conte Glacier just days before. The deepest blue ice looked like ripe Maine blueberries, but not quite as inviting. Colors changed from each new angle. To get a closer look, we found a tiny bit floating by that we could pull into the Zodiac. This tiny piece that looked like the size of a pineapple from above was many times bigger and took two of us to get it out of the water.
Once in hand, the ice looked more like newly sculpted glass than the iceberg remnant it was. To ensure that it was truly what our naturalist claimed, some of us did some taste testing. It tasted of pure crisp Alaska. The ice tasted colder than normal, and a tad salty, but it came out of the ocean after all! Tuned into whale sounds from last night, heads turned when we thought we heard a whale blow beside us. We were instead rewarded with the slow motion cartwheel of one of the nearby bergs.
By afternoon we were exploring the town of Petersburg with its fleet of colorful fishing boats and Norwegian heritage, hiking in the nearby bog, and finally flightseeing over glaciers. One way to experience a place is with sight. It was an even richer experience to use all of our senses. We ended our day enjoying the taste of Petersburg - Dungeness crabs!
