Excursion at Valdez...

This post includes many pictures of our glacier and whale watching excursion leaving from Valdez.  Although very rainy and 48 degree temps it was a most excellent time!

Here is our most excellent captain and tour guide.  What a fantastic job he (and his crew) did in keeping us around the main attractions for as long as possible and giving us so much entertaining and accurate information on the many things we saw.

Proof of the fact I did have my trusty hat when we left.  Who knows which lucky sea creature owns it now :)

Our departure commitee seems uninterested ...

These pictures of a humpback whale are not the best due to all the fog and rain we endured today.  No complaints though, we had the time of our lives on this 8 1/2 hour excursion :)

The beauty of the Meares Glacier is hard to describe.  This glacier is still advancing and as it does its massive size and weight just picks up and so much material and carries it along on it's journey.  As the advancement proceeds, much of the face breaks off and crashes to the water below.  This process is called "calving" and it makes a tremendous, thunderous noise when the ice breaks off and comes tumbling down!

This one made the captain start up the engines and turn into the huge wave it created.  The crew said it was the biggest calving of the season so far.

A crewmember netted this ice from overboard and Wendy takes hold for a few seconds...no gloves!

We're on the way back...

So Wen takes a nap... (there's a song in there somewhere).

One more meal at the Fat Mermaid before we leave tomorrow.