Today we docked at Icy Strait Point. It’s a town developed solely for the cruise industry. The program director likened it to “Disneyland of Alaska”, but I think it’s more like Mandrogy in terms of scale and feel. We didn’t spend that much time in ISP though - our excursion was for a whale whale watch - ICP is supposed to be one of the best places to see whales.
The tour started right where the ship docked - we didn’t even have to walk up the gangway. The sight-seeing boat docked next to the cruise ship. It took about 40 minutes to sail to Point Adolphus, which is a known area where humpback whales feed, and sure enough, as soon as we arrived, a group surfaced near the boat and swam towards us before diving in front of the boat. It wasn’t as close as the time in Antarctica where a whale surfaced right next to the ship, but we were closer to the water and the sun was brighter, so we could clearly see the markings on the whale’s back. Still pretty awesome. We stayed there for an hour or so and watched more whales feeding, some eagles and sea otters. The captain would steer the ship slowly towards the wildlife (but keeping her 50 yards distance) so we’d get a good view. The whales didn’t seem to mind.
Whales at Point Adolphus
Then we sailed from Point Adolphus back towards the ship for the “mammals” part of the excursion. This one was much lamer. We just looked at a navigation buoy where sea lions hung out. Really, Pier 39 at fisherman wharf had a larger collection of sea lions. We did at one
point see a large group of sea otters. But when the ship inched near them, they scattered and swam away. I guess 50 yards wasn’t far enough for them. I could only see them with the binoculars; they were very cute though.
La Prof and I didn’t take many pictures so we hope LPCR and her family got some good ones. We got back from the excursion in time for lunch on the ship. We were almost delayed to lunch because the cabin stewards had decorated our cabin to celebrate our anniversary. At that point we didn’t know how the cruise line knew - I vaguely remember answering a questionnaire saying this cruise is for an anniversary, but I don’t remember telling them the date.
After lunch we immediately went back out to Mandrogy-lite. We took the transport Gondola to Ocean landing, and proceeded to walk along the boardwalk. I’ve seen this area on several youtube videos but it was never sunny there - but today it was sunny in the mid 70s, practically a heat wave. So that made for a nice visit. We spent some time with the exhibits at the museum - some on Tlingkit culture, some on Salmon canning history. Because the weather was so beautiful, I was tempted to take the Gondola up the Hoonah mountain for a view, but that is expensive. I figured there’s a trail up on the mountain, so maybe it’d be worth it. We went up and the view was gorgeous - LPCR and co. were impressed. However, there was a giant warning sign explaining how we must travel in groups of 10 or more because of bears in the area, which worried La Prof. We ran into a ranger there, who explained that the sign is just there for CYA, and that groups of 3 or 2 routinely take the trail (which takes 40 minutes), and that there’s another ranger (a Bear ranger?) is up there and may be happy to escort us (the mountain top was practically empty at that point). We deliberated and decided it wasn’t worth it, not just because of the bear threat, but because the pictures of the trail didn’t look all that pretty. The hidden lake looked just like a pond behind La Prof.’s childhood home. So we took some pictures and soon came back down. So, I’m not sure it’s worth the price to go up there, but at least the proceeds go to the Tlingkit tribe maintaining the place, so I feel good about that.
Because we didn’t do the hike, we went back to the ship 40 minutes early, which we spent in the observation lounge, where there was a string quartet first, and then a jazz band. We read while I looked out for bald eagles that were fishing near the dock.
We had dinner at the French restaurant, where the wait staff made a show of bringing us an anniversary cake. The decoration used our nicknames, which the cruise line didn’t have, so at that point we knew La Professeure’s mom must have tipped them off.
Icy Strait Point from mountain top
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