Day 4 – Hubbard Glacier
Today would be another day at sea. The main excitement was that we would be going past Hubbard Glacier around lunch time. Hubbard Glacier is North America’s largest tidewater glacier and is set within Disenchantment Bay. As we pulled into the bay at around 10:30am, all 3000 passengers on board the ship headed to the various outdoor decks to get a good view. It was pretty crowded!
Andrew and I headed to the Sky Lounge, which had perfect views of the glacier, and found ourselves some loungers right by the window to sit in. We watched as the ship pulled closer to the glacier, until it was 3km away. This is the closest that large ships can get as there are icebergs constantly carving off the end of the glacier. We watched (and listened) as several huge chunks of ice thundered into the water below.
For then next half hour or so, the captain rotated the ship so that people on all decks could view the glacier so we headed to our room to watch from the balcony. It was much more relaxing being away from the crowds. We also spotted many harbour seals floating by on the larger icebergs in the bay.
The rest of the day was much the same. We visited the gym and the spa, skyped with my parents, and then prepared ourselves for dinner. Tonight there was a Captain’s drinks party in the Sky Lounge and we somehow found ourselves in the middle of it, with many canapes. I’m unsure how we’re not obese yet. I’m trying to exercise self restraint but it’s hard. Especially when you get offered perfectly cooked coconut crusted shrimp and fresh arancini constantly. Life is hard.
It was then time for dinner. Andrew and I both had the largest leg of lamb I’ve ever seen, followed by peach clafoutis, tiramisu and cheesecake. Again, how are we not huge.
Day 5 – Juneau
Juneau is the capital of Alaska, even though it’s pretty tiny. Just 18,000 people call this home in the winter and around double in the summer. Today we would be in port from 7:30am to 7:30pm so we ordered room service for breakfast. Andrew then decided he wanted a muesli parfait so we rushed to Blu restaurant and asked for a very speedy breakfast. They rushed to serve us, with the Maitre d’ personally bringing us our breakfast to get it to us sooner. It was quite impressive. The waiter who usually brings my pot of breakfast tea even brought me a tea without me asking and was quite shocked that I wouldn’t be having one today as I was in a rush! The waiters in the restaurant are super nice, Huan is from Honduras and Alfonso is from Orizaba, Mexico. Both of which are places we visited on our Central America road trip so they now greet us in Spanish and rush to wait on us.
Andrew then realised he’d left his shoes in the spa so had a kerfuffle trying to locate them at Guest Services, but finally, with some packed lunch from the buffet, we were ready to depart!
Our first stop was the Mendenhall Glacier. We got the public bus to the closest bus stop which was around a 1.5 mile walk away and then hiked up to the visitor centre. On arrival, I tried to find a postcard (I have one from every US National Park I’ve been to) while Andrew read all the information, and then we watched a film about the Glacier. It’s crazy to see how much it’s receded in the last 100 years, and we saw evidence of this later as there were lines marked on rocks with the glacier size in the past.
Fully informed, we first hiked up to a large waterfall with stunning views of the glacier across Mendenhall Lake. This area was still quite busy though so we decided to do a longer, more peaceful trail. Our hike took us up into the forest above the waterfall and it was nice to get properly outdoors again.
After about a 15km hike, we then took the bus to our next stop on the itinerary, Auke Bay, where we rented sea kayaks and paddled out into the bay. Again, we enjoyed being out in the peace and quiet and were the only kayaks around for most of the paddle. We went in a big 11km loop around the far edge of some islands and it was so pretty, with clear blue ocean and snow capped mountains in the distance. This was one of my favourite things I’ve done in a while and we chatted a lot about buying a kayak for back in Vancouver. We’re unsure if it’s allowed to just store it in the bike shed at home though?
Finally, it was time to head back to the boat for dinner. We were pretty exhausted having walked 30,000 steps and gone for a long, hard kayak so were very ready for food. Tonight I had the best starter I’ve probably ever eaten. Seriously. It was aubergine and goat cheese napoleon. I was considering cancelling my main course and ordering another 3 starters but main was lobster tail and I wanted to try that. Then for dessert we each had a chocolate and praline slice and shared a baked Alaska, mainly because everyone else was ordering it and it looked super pretty.