A whale of a time

Whales, alas, are not known to pose for photographs. They often surface too far away to make it worthwhile pressing the shutter button. Your captain sees some half a mile away and by the time you get over to them they are at the spot you just left, probably laughing, which they like to do.

Zoom lenses and tripods on a bobbing boat holding only 7 people and a lot of snacks aren't the answer either. Point your camera and hope for the best. Take lots of photos and video and trash what failed to make the cut. Fully-charged batteries are essential as you won't turn the camera off often as you may miss Willy the tap-dancing whale if he is in the neighborhood.

So here's a few minutes of video out in Auke Bay. Even if we saw no whales it would have been a nice couple of hours on the water in good weather....

I kept the camcorder on that last whale for a long time as I had never seen a whale behave that way before (certainly not in downtown Chicago).

The Harv 'n Marv minibus makes a stop at the local glacier-Mendenhall, on the way back to the ship.
You can stay there after the bus leaves or after a 20 minute break get a ride back to downtown Juneau and thence the ship you are on. We went back to the ship with Harv' Marv's driver.  Local buses or taxis can get you back too. Bears can be sighted at the viewpoint across from the glacier and there are bathrooms too (hopefully bear-free).

Another afternoon tea followed and that brought on a nap in the Sanctuary. Our next important engagement would be the nightly Suites, Elites and Platinum card holder cocktail hour from 5 to 7 pm in Skywalkers. The ship wouldn't leave until about 9 pm when darkness was falling and we'd have dinner as we sailed back down the channel we had sailed to get here.

Off to Skywalkers again.....