Day Three, Heading North Toward Juneau

The second full day of the cruise, Tuesday, was mostly on the water.  We were heading toward the farthest north we would go, to Juneau, Alaska. Juneau is quite a ways from Seattle, as the boat sails.  But we entered the passage where there were islands and the sea was less rough.

By this day we were sailing off Alaska on US waters.  Most of the land adjoining the sea was national park.

Out on the deck, the air got rather chilly.  This was north.

The sun was different than it looks in the middle of the US.

The land was largely unpopulated.  It was just wild land.

From a distance I thought this was a boat, but as we got closer it was an ice flow.

The mountains didn't look so big, but the summit is above the tree line.

I wondered from which tidal glacier this ice flow was calved.

Mountains and sea, that was the view for the day.  I couldn't get enough.

Think of the power of the sea that just the night before had tossed around this huge ship and that had thrust these mountains toward the sky. God's power.  This day I pondered why I had come to Alaska and what I was learning from this trip.  Over and over again I heard. "God loves me."

Layers of mountains and a glacier at the top of the farthest one.  The ice on that mountain is never coming to the sea except as melting water.

I wonder the name of this mountain and glacier.  All the glaciers seem to have names.

I pulled it closer with the zoom lens.

The sort of amazing thing to me was that our ship sailed mostly alone, not another ship in sight.  Maybe it was because it was September, late in the season for Alaska.

More ice flows.

I think I would call this glacier "cow face."

Just our ship and ice, sea and mountains.

It took us a long time to pass this glacier.

It looks to me as though the cow is sniffing a daisy.

Too many pictures of this glacier, I know.  And I blame the angle on the ship rocking.

So much nothing, or everything.  But look at the shiny spot on the sea.

And finally the land got closer and closer.  We headed up the inland passage.  This is the dining area of the buffet which was almost always open.

The mountains were made of rock.  There were gorges and waterfalls where the streams brought water down from the tops of the mountains.

The tress changes and disappeared as they went up the mountain.

The Great Outdoors, the restaurant on the back of the ship.

The water became so smooth.  Like a lake.

The water turned green closer to the land.

There were little settlements on the way toward Juneau.

Someone says there was a whale over there.  I see ripples, not a whale.

Our Norwegian Pearl headed up the fjords to Juneau.

We got closer and closer to the trees. and finally sailed up the fjord to Juneau.