Charlie

The morning started out somewhat cloudy and the helicopter trip to Mendenhall Glacier (with TEMSCO which we had booked through the ship) was cancelled due to cloud cover and poor visibility at Mendenhall Glacier. They offered to reschedule for later in the day, but we already had other plans. We went over to the tour booth by the dock and fortunately ERA Helicopters had an immediate opening on their 4 glacier flightseeing tour. They picked us up at the dock and we were on our way. We flew over the Taku, Hole in the Wall, Lemon, and Norris glaciers, and landed on the Norris Glacier. It was an incredible trip - I can't think of any words to describe it. (And I got to sit up front with the pilot.) When we got back to the base, they drove us back to town and we asked to be dropped off at the Red Dog Saloon where we had lunch. The Red Dog Saloon is quite a place. I would recommend stopping by, even if just for a drink. After some obligatory shopping, we returned to the ship and sat on our balcony watching a few eagles flying over Mt. Roberts. At around 4:30 PM, we went whale watching with Dolphin Tours (booked through the ship). They use an 18 passenger jet boat so it wasn't crowded and everyone could see pretty well. We traveled around Auke Bay and it didn't take long to spot several Humpback whales. The real big treat was when one of the whales breached 6 times within about a 10-15 minute span. Seeing that alone would have made the excursion worthwhile. (a few of my pictures even came out ok) Then the radio crackled with word of a pod of Orcas a few miles away, so we took off for the site. We weren't disappointed as we got to see 4 Orcas and another Humpback. Eventually we had to turn around and head back in, and we returned to the ship around 8 PM (just in time to get ready for our late seating dinner).

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