June 24: Tracy Arm Fjord/Sawyer Glacier

This morning was billed as the "highlight of the cruise" by our Cruise Director, Patty. And it would be hard to surpass what we saw and experienced today. We had been told last night that the captain anticipated our arrival around 5:30 a.m. It was explained that we would go up the fjord and arrive near Sawyer Glacier around 7:45 so you could sleep in until that point, but we all thought......who would do that!???!!!! And we all agreed at the end of the morning that the trip up the fjord was at a slower pace, and with better scenery than the way back. I was up and out of bed by 5 am and Kim joined me around 5:30 to go upstairs to get two cups of coffee and bring it back to the cabin. For the first 45 minutes to maybe an hour we saw exceptional snow covered mountains, waterfalls, and valleys; very little ice - at least from what I had remembered from our first trip here (on our first Alaskan adventure).   But around 7 to 7:30 the on-air narrator, Brent - the naturalist who'd given the whale talk - made the announcement that ".....if you have family who are not up and on the balcony, you need to get them up now......" We rounded what was called "The Big Bend" and we could see alot more ice; then we went through the famous "S curves" which were two near-90 degree turns and we got our first glimpse of Sawyer Glacier. Even if you watch the video or see any of the nearly 150 photos I took (or 57 video sequences I shot) you cannot appreciate the spectacular vistas. Nor can you truly understand how the captain navigated this massive luxury liner through the water which was literally "invested" with large, massive chunks of ice.   When we were here the last time I recall being told there was too much ice to get close to the glacier, and it was still spectacular. But today we got "up close and personal!" Check out the pics......we also saw seals swimming around! And the near total silence of the fjord allowed us to hear the roar of the waterfalls as they tumbled into the fjord from the top of the mountains. Just an amazing day!

Tracy Arm Fjord Video Recap