Cruising

Upon waking up the first morning on the ship, Ron was soon out on the balcony with binoculars in hand.

After breakfast, I joined him outdoors with cups of hot chocolate.  While he kept his eyes peeled for any ocean life, I perused the Princess Patter to see what was happening on the ship that day. 

I know that I keep saying it over and over, and there is no way that pictures will ever do it justice, but everything was just beautiful!  In the afternoon, Ron caught sight of the water spout of a whale or two.  They were pretty far from the ship, but there were several of them and that was enough to keep us watching for more.

Then along came some harbour seals.  Cute and playful in the water, they were really fun to watch.

The naturalist on board suggested that we try to view the upcoming Hubbard Glacier from one of the lower decks so that we could get an idea of the magnitude of its size, so we bundled up the best we could and headed to front of deck 7.  

However, with a bit of sleet coming in and strong winds, it became unbearable and we retreated to our own balcony.  As we neared the glacier

we began seeing ice bits and icebergs floating in the water.

We also began seeing more and more seals. 

In fact, many of them were perched on top of the icebergs!

Just look how cute this mama and baby are?!!

Getting to see Hubbard Glacier up close was just amazing!  

The color of it was almost unbelievable---such a beautiful, clear aqua!

I loved the striations of color created from picking up dirt along its path.

It was almost addicting to listen for the "crack" and then the echoing BOOM, as large pieces of the glacier calved into the water.  In fact, while we were visiting the glacier, we witnessed the largest calving in quite some time.

After about an hour, we had to leave Hubbard Glacier.

Ron and I turned our attention to getting ready for the first "formal night".  It's hard to feel very dressy with a big old cast around your arm, but we made the best of it and headed to the Michaelangelo restaurant for dinner.  The food was wonderful!

After dinner, we joined the rest of the passengers for the champagne reception mid-ship, the string quartet and having photos taken (the first of many---seems like they were always taking our picture for this or that)!

When we returned to our room, I had a phone message to return to the gift shop.  There, Nancy, the sales clerk from Mexico who had tried to help me find a covering for my cast, was waiting for me.  On her breaks that day, she had crocheted a black, wool cover for my cast.  I was overwhelmed by her thoughtfulness!!!   It fit perfectly, and in the days to come, it was priceless for keeping me warm!!!