Alaska Recap - Part 2

Monday, May 12th was one of those days that you look outside at the windy, miserable weather and head straight back to bed. We had sailed overnight down Frederick Sound to the mouth of LaConte Bay. Our plan was to get into the maneuverable little Zodiacs and boat around all the icebergs calved off of the nearby LaConte Glacier then head to the small fishing village of Petersburg where some of us would take a flight seeing trip in a float plane over the LaConte Glacier. As the weather got worse, however, those plans quickly changed. The water was too rough to do the Zodiac trips through the LaConte Glacier ice burgs (quite the bummer), so instead, our ship headed across the bay to the small Ideal Cove where hiking was offered. Now, I am not much of a hiker so I elected to stay on board the ship while everyone else went out and hiked in that miserable rainy weather.

After the rain-soaked hikers returned from their adventures, we ate another delicious lunch while the boat headed north to Petersburg. As we approached this cute little Norwegian town, we noticed about 20-30 eagles lining the shore. Apparently, these eagles were looking for easy pickings as this area was downstream from a cannery. Heh. Smart eagles. We walked through downtown Petersburg which really was only one street about a quarter-mile long. There were some nice little artsy stores in between the obvious tourist trap stores. Mom and I had fun window shopping and mom did find this beautiful drawing of eagles and totem poles which she said was what Alaska was to her so far. I stopped by a grocery store and picked up some snacks for the room and bought a few Alaska trinkets. After the quick walk through town, I grabbed the camera, covered it with a shower cap (makes for a great rain cover) and headed out along the numerous fishing boat docks. There were all sorts of neat things to photograph amoung all the various fishing boats, but to cold and rain starting soaking into my bones so I headed back to the warmth of the ship.

Before dinner we noticed two Stellar Sea Lions right off the ship. I am not sure what they were doing…. Either they were playing, fighting, or they were in the throws of some weird sea lion mating ritual, but they were splashing about all over each other occasionally coming up for air. We had fun watching & photographing them for a long time and eventually the sea lions headed off for other waters. For dinner, we had fresh Alaskan King Crab Legs! And whoa boy, were these things large and fresh. They kept bringing plate and plate piled high with this gigantic crab legs and we enjoyed cracking them open and eating the delicious crab meat inside. That was one of the best and most memorable meals we had that week.

Here are more photos.