Back to College

July 7

Don’t know if I mentioned it or not, but I’m on vacation…not that you could tell by my daily wake up times.

Today’s alarm was set for 6:30, but due to excitement, I woke up well before 6.

The reason? The College Fjord. According to Wikipedia, fjords are long, narrow inlets with steep sides, created in a valley carved by glacial activity. And that’s what I was looking for -– glacial activity.

Our ship creeped into the fjords early, which is why I awoke early myself. I couldn’t wait to see them!

I’ve run Mark ragged the entire trip, and I knew he’d be bored after the first glacier, so I let him sleep. This was a major factor in getting a balcony for the cruise -– so I could sit out there and watch Alaska go by without leaving my room, or waking the kid.

Before I could enjoy the scenery, I had to attend to my guests. The first guest arrived at 6:15 -– the room service steward, bearing croissants, fruit, yogurt and coffee. He set it all up on the balcony, and then bid me a good morning. The next visitor was my cousin Kathleen, who helped me eat the room-service breakfast, and also basked in the glacial glory with me.

College Fjord was what I thought glaciers would be, at least partially. As we sailed into the bay, I saw bits of ice floating everywhere, both large and small chunks. There was still snow capping the mountains, and ice all along the shore.

Ice galore

I will admit my ignorance here, and state for the record that I thought glaciers were essentially giant mountains of ice. They’re actually frozen rivers of ice flowing between mountains, running down to the ocean. Because snow constantly falls, the ice compresses and packs down, and travels down the mountain. The glaciers move all the time, some up to 250 feet a year, as pieces fall off (called “calving”) into the ocean.

However, “river” doesn’t quite do them justice, because the section that ends at the shore can be 300 feet tall. That’s right, a 300-foot tall WALL of ice! And the most amazing thing about the wall is its color -– a deep beautiful blue that takes your breath away.

Our first glacier close-up

So there we were, 6:30 in the morning, watching the sun “rise” (it never really went down), and passing by these beautiful glaciers.

Sunrise in College Fjord

The glaciers in the fjord were named by the Harriman expedition for elite East Coast colleges, women’s on the Northwest side, men’s on the Southeast side.

That’s about all I learned, because the tour narration came over the T.V., which I didn’t turn on for fear of waking Mark. But the silence actually enhanced, rather than diminished, the time. It was the most serene sight, and Kathleen and I silently took it all in.

Well, Kathleen was silent anyway. In keeping with the theme of the trip, I was again in a state of constant over stimulation. I am truly surprised that my head did not explode from the excitement of it all.

The balconies surrounding us and below us were packed -– no one wanted to miss the view. They were all respectfully quiet, admiring their surroundings. I tried to follow their example, until I heard a large crackling from the glacier, and my excitement overcame me.

“IT’S CRACKING!” I shouted excitedly, and watched 200 pairs of eyes turn simultaneously toward me, who had ruined their peace. “Sorry!” I whispered apologetically to them, and tried to compose myself.

That lasted for all of 10 minutes, until we pulled up to the next beautiful glacier. Once again, I jumped up excitedly, knocking over my huge cup of coffee. This became a secondary theme of our cruise -– Heather spilling her drinks on all the decks in excitement.

I finally calmed down enough to enjoy the sights. It really was breathtaking. The sunrise made it even prettier, as the red streaks of sun shone down on the ocean, and the bright blue chunks of ice. It was like a contrasting “fire and ice” scene, and I couldn’t stop taking pictures of it all. (I probably took 200 pictures during our three hour trip into the Fjord.)

"Fire and ice"

The blue and red contrast colors

As the sun came up, we were treated to other cool views, too. We saw some harbor seals sleeping on ice chunks, and then the otter parade started. In a span of about 10 minutes, five or six otters floated right past the ship, right below us. That was pretty exciting!

We even set up a wildlife telephone tree. Edra and Amber also had a balcony, in the front of the ship. Whenever they saw an otter, they called my room, which was mid-ship, so I could see it float past.

Did I mention we got another warm, sunny day? This guy was watching the glaciers from his balcony -- in shorts, a t-shirt and flip-flops!

I kept waiting for Mark to wake up and take in the beauty, but he slept on. So I enjoyed it for him. As did Kathleen, who returned to her room after leaving the College Fjord.

Mark finally woke up an hour later, after we were far away from the glaciers. He had good timing too, because as I was standing on the balcony enjoying the view, I saw some fins cut through the water.

“Mark!” I yelled across the cabin (he was maybe eight feet away from me). “Come look! I see whales or dolphins!”

I grabbed my binoculars and zeroed in on the splashing fins. I counted five or six of them, and then, to my surprise, one of the animals popped out of the water. I got a clear view of its head –- white and black coloring! I grew up in San Diego, home of Sea World, and I recognized that coloring immediately.

“ORCAS!!” I shouted triumphantly, and my balcony neighbor cheered along with me (she’d been lured out by my shouting).

“It was awesome! And even better five minutes later, when I saw a flock of seagulls dive down toward the water, and then ANOTHER pod of orcas break through the surface. I couldn’t believe it! We knew there was a possibility of spotting orcas in Vancouver, but I didn’t expect to see them this far north.

I was beside myself with excitement, and if I’d had any more coffee near me, I’d have spilled it right then and there.

It was a sea day, meaning we’d spend the day on the ship with no ports of call. We made the best of it, attending a martini demonstration, a wine tasting, lunch and even a little more balcony viewing. (Mark spent his afternoon in the Kid’s Zone, which he loved.) It was also our first formal night, so we prepared for that as well.

Formal night was fun. Mark looked very dapper in his suit, and I dressed up a little too. I surprised my family and friends by showing up to dinner on time –- I didn’t know they were decorating the tables with birthday swag. (The trip was a celebration for my -– gulp -– 40th birthday.)

It was hilarious –- there were little 40 confetti pieces everywhere, and as soon as I sat, they presented me with a birthday girl sash, some 40th birthday beads, a button that lit up, and a Princess Diva tiara. I put it all on, then observed that we’d make a complete mockery of formal night!

We celebrated with champagne, a nice dinner, and multiple desserts and singing wait staff. I laughed a lot that night!

My friends had also written up a scavenger list of things to complete in honor of my birthday celebration. I completed about 15 of them that night (wear my tiara, ask a stranger to dance, take my picture with a bartender, tell someone it’s my birthday and have them sing me a song).

My favorite one was “Play $5 on number 40 on the roulette table.” We don’t play roulette enough to know it only goes up to 36! I lamented, “I’m too old to play roulette!”

But then we decided to split the numbers up. Edra gave me 10 $1 chips, and I put one on 4 and another on 0, with no luck. For the second spin, I placed 2 chips on number 20. Just as the wheel slowed down, the ball made its way toward 37, and I said, “Oooh, I forgot to push my button!” So I pushed the button, which lit up my flashing 40th birthday button, and poof! The ball hopped into number 20 and I WON!!!

We all screamed with excitement, even though we had no idea how much I’d won. Turns out I cleared $76 off that $2 bet! We were a fit of giggles and shrieking laughter, and immediately headed to the bar so I could fulfill another item on my list, “Do a shot with your friends.”

Between the Kid’s Zone and my mom, Mark was taken care of, so we spent our night out on the town…err, boat. Next, we hit the New Year’s Eve party on the boat, which ended at 11:45 p.m. (not sure why!) We stayed out for our latest night yet, until 12:30. It was a blast.