Wednesday was our absolute favorite day of the cruise. The morning was scenic cruising through Tracy Arm Fjord with narration by a naturalist. We learned that fjords are created by melting glaciers forming valleys between mountains. We had the best view sitting on our balcony on the back of the ship and got great pictures. We saw Sawyer's Glacier, and even spotted some mama and baby seals on floating ice. So neat! We then went to Juneau where we took a tour to Mendenhall Glacier and hiked to Nugget Falls. The force of the water coming from melting ice is a very powerful sight. From there we got on a three hour whale watching tour that was unreal. We saw sea lions, seals, bald eagles, porpoises and of course humpback whales. The main whales we saw were a mama and her baby. The baby was playing and splashed its tail a lot, and even sounded a few times. The pictures were ok but we have videos that are better to see it because it would happen so fast. The coolest fact we learned about humpback whales is that every winter they migrate to Hawaii to mate, then one winter later they will have the baby, again in Hawaii, and teach it to swim and eat before migrating back to Alaska. That's a 3,000 mile swim twice a year! Also, scientists determine the age of a humpback by looking at its earwax. Gross! Overall, it was an amazing, beautiful and sunny day, and we couldn't have asked for more.
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