Our first ever experience up close with glaciers and it was impressive. We docked in Bartlett Cove just before 11 in time for the orientation. We checked in and watched the video which explained how to follow the rules in the park. We left Bartlett Cove and headed toward Reid Inlet and Reid glacier. On the way we called the Leon's boat to see where they were. They called and said they were near Reid Inlet but coming towards us to go to another bay to fish. We passed them and waved at everyone.

We woke up the next morning and had a leisurely breakfast and watched a James Bond Movie. As we were sitting there, Brian said, "Look there's a whale next to the boat." Mom said, " those ripples in the water aren't big enough to be a whale." Then the whale came up about 10 feet from the boat and mom said, "Oh my god!" Then Molly started screaming. We ran outside and watched it surface and blow a few times, then it it disappeared under the water.

We pulled up our anchor and headed towards Tarr Inlet to see Margerie Glacier. As we started up the bay, there were small chunks of ice in the water that we were trying to avoid. The pieces got bigger and bigger and we couldn't avoid everything but avoided the larger pieces as we couldn't tell how much ice was below the water. We got about 1/3 of a mile from the glacier and watched for awhile as it calved a few times. After one large piece fell off, we were waiting to see if a wave would come to the boat. We noticed that Shadow was shaking a lot. She must have sensed something happening. We left the inlet, but it took us about an hour to get out as we avoided the ice. Shadow had to be sedated to get her to calm down.

We also stopped at Lamplugh Glacier on the way back. We got about 1/4 mile from it. It had a large cave in the bottom of it near the water. Inside the cave, we could see water shooting out of it at a high rate of speed. Garth said it was a subglacial aqua duct????? We returned to Reid Inlet and anchored much closer to the glacier.

On the next morning (the 12th) we took the zodiac to shore. We found a place to land on the beach that was not too rocky. Most places were too shallow for us to get close enough to get out. We walked a ways and touched the glacier. From shore the glacier was much more unstable. There were rivers of water coming out from beneath the glacier. We were not sure if the water was going under us on the beach, or around somewhere where we couldn't see it. We found a huge chunk of ice on the beach that was as big as the kids.

After our shore excursion, we traveled to North Sandy Cove in the afternoon. From there, we traveled in the Whaler to South Marble Island to see the birds and sea lions. There is a Steller Sea Lion population lives on 2 small rocks near South Marble Island. They sounded like they were burping and farting. Brian called it farping. We moved around to the other side of the rocks to get a different view. The wind must have been coming towards us because the smell was awful. We had to get out of there fast. Brian and Molly named the 2 giant light colored sea lions Big Mac and Super Size! Back at North Sandy Cove, we had the bay to ourselves for our final night.

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