Road Trip 2010: Day 37 (Part 2) Evening Cruise

After a few hours of free time to do with as we please, we boarded the Major Marine Tours’ Star of the Northwest for a wildlife dinner cruise on the bay. Miraculously, the weather—which had been threatening to rain much of the morning, remained dry. It didn’t get sunny, but it didn’t rain either.

We had the entire second deck to ourselves. In fact, we had nearly the entire ship to ourselves! Besides our 42 people there were just 20 other passengers on a ship designed to hold well over 250 people.

Our group had tickets that included the all-you-can-eat prime rib and salmon buffet. And it was good! The prime rib was cooked just right and the salmon was nice and moist (although Terry and Peggy seem to have found the pieces that contained bones).

We saw plenty of wildlife. (Although, I must say, I'm getting pretty jaded by the Stellar's Seals and Bald Eagles. Darn things are everywhere. Glaciers, too.) Still, murres and puffins are a draw.

Murres and Pufins share the same ledges.

Common Murre

The sighting of a Mountain Goat was special.

Mountain Goat feeding on Goat's Beard

As was the scene of a whale showing us its flukes as it dove for food. Not once, but twice! And the fact that I was able to capture the first in a sequence of snapshots.



Whale's Tail Shots












We saw another glacier. Bear Glacier. Some 3 miles across where it ends in a small lake along the bay shore.

Bear Glacier

And lots of nice scenery. (Looks like something out of Goonies or Pirates of the Caribbean, no?)

Waiting for the Black Pearl to arrive around the headland.