Thursday, August 30, 2007

Tracy Arm Fjord Day 5

Quoting from the daily R.C. Cruise Compass; "Tracy Arm, the north arm of Holkam Bay, takes a general northerly direction for 9 miles, then turns eastward 13 miles to it's head, where two large glaciers, North and South Sawyer discharge into salt water. Traveling up Tracy Arm is like going back through geologic history.  The fjord's dramatic walls lose their vegetation until they become bare shining rock, shaped and ground smooth by ice.  In many places the mountains plunge vertically into the water, which is more than a thousand feet deep."

There was no way I could describe this experience....a new one for me, as we didn't go here last year....other than to say "AWESOME !!"  As you can imagine, the air was cold in here, I went up on deck and immediately went down to the cabin and put on a sweatshirt.  It was quite, breath taking and absolutely the most rugged but beautiful place I have ever been.  Even those of us up on the higher decks, were barely speaking...just looking...trying to take in all that we were seeing, the water was almost emerald green and the ice a light blue.   The ships captain did make an announcement that he couldn't take the ship in as far as he wanted to because of the amount of ice floating. Some of the crew went out in a life boat and gatherd up a hunk of ice to be brought to the ship for viewing up close. Then he quietly &  slowly turned the ship around in the channel and slowly we floated out of Tracy Arm.  I've included a link so you can see more pictures, showing different amounts of ice there.

Since the rest of the day was a day at sea, there were lots of ship board activities.  BINGO for one.  Now, I'm not a BINGO addict.  I've been to BINGO only once with a friend from work.  MyBINGO experience is limited to playing it at home when I was a kid and then later on playing it with my grandkids. I can't remember if this was my "BIG BINGO" day or not, but we played three different days and once I had all the right numbers and was able to yell "BINGO."  I had to share the prize, $270, so ended up with $137 of real money.  I know one day we played BINGO with friends Dennis & Darlene and new found friends Lanny and his wife, Larrie.   Thursday afternoon, the last afternoon on board, the big and final jackpot in the black-out game was over $5,000...won by one person and it wasn't me or anyone I know.   The staff member who called BINGO was a great guy, with a fantastic sense of humor, who had us all laughing and made the game so much fun.  I don't have a clue how you spell his entire name but he called himself "Moe" for short. He's from Fiji and has one of those very long Pacific Islander names. 

I think the 7pm entertainment tonight was without a doubt one of the best, also.  The show started with a female singer, Marlise.   She had a lovely voice and was a very pretty woman.   She opened for Paul Boland, called "The Man of 1000 Voices."  He is a singer/impressionist.  He was fantastic and put on a delightful show.  During his act, he called for a child out of the audience and a little girl raised her hand, so he brought her on stage and kneeling behind her, using a Kermit the Frog puppet and singing in Kermits voice.  When the show was over, the entertainment director called Marlise back for a curtain call, as well as Paul Boland and then the little girl came up on the stage and he said "Ladies & gentleman I present the Paul Boland family."   If you go to his website (link provided) you can actually click on different links and hear his impressions of different people.

Another singer we enjoyed was Sherri Cafaro.  She has a beautiful voice and plays the piano while she sings. She performed often at the beautiful white grand piano in the Centurm.  I think I may get a couple of her CD's for Christmas gifts which can be ordered from her website.

Tonight after dinner and all the activites we set our watches forward one hour as the next day we would wake up in the Pacific Time Zone.

 

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Linda, this is another wonderful entry!  The photos are beautiful and remind me of when we were at the Grand Canyon earlier this year - not that Tracy Arm is like the Grand Canyon, it's just that it's so breath-takingly beautiful, as you say AWESOME!  You have described it so well too, thank you!  Love, Pat   http://journals.aol.co.uk/pm71blackfen/ramblings-from-pat/

Anonymous said...

I think a lot of those pictures would make great postcards.  Seeing the crew in the little boat below really put things in perspective... what a beauitful place and so nice to learn about it thru your adventure.  Love it!

Anonymous said...

Absolutely stunning, Linda. You can FEEL the icy cold from that glacier, the mists around the mountain tops. Vaguely reminiscent of my area, minus the ice and snow.

Anonymous said...

I really enjoyed these pictures!  We went on Vision of the Seas our first cruise to Alaska but did not go to Tracy Arm.  We went to Hubbard.  Beautiful!  What a thrill.

I went back and read all of your cruise entries and relived the experience with you.  What a joy, huh?  There isn't anything like that trip.  It's just out of this world!  I'm so glad you had such a good time.

Hugs, Kathy

Anonymous said...

That is a beautiful area, the picutes are great, you should frame some of them.  It's nice that we still have areas like that left in the world.  Joni

Anonymous said...

The pictures are INCREDIBLE!
And I love the chillin' Lanny!  
Doesn't look like your friend won anything...Is she mad?  

Anonymous said...

Linda,, still really enjoying this, the pics are great. Good job on the bingo.

Got a complaint, the green color you uses in this post was very difficult to read. My eyes are now bleeding. Bill

Anonymous said...

At first looking at the pictures it was like wow you can see so close while way up on the ship and then when you showed the little boat of the crew getting the ice, it really put it in perspective of how big the area was.... and how breath taking!!
Woo hoo on the bingo!!
I only played once too way back in 1986 or so and won $250...
Linda :)

Anonymous said...

Linda, I am playing catch up.  Have been so busy with work that I've fallen a few days behind on my alerts.  I do so love your photos.  They are breathtaking and I am really enjoying taking this trip with you!  Way to go on the Bingo win! Woo hoo!
Marie
http://journals.aol.co.uk/mariealicejoan/MariesMuses/

Anonymous said...

Linda your pictures are breathtaking ~ and how lovely you had a win at Bingo ~ I am enjoying your trip it all sounds wonderful ~ Ally x
http://journals.aol.co.uk/ally123130585918/Lifewithally

Anonymous said...

ooops....i see that i had missed day 5.  no wonder it was going so fast.  lol  such beautiful pix...such beautiful scenery....awesome is right!  :)
gina

Anonymous said...

I cannot imagine how beautiful it is to see in person since the pictures are breathtaking.  What an awesome experience.  It's great you won the Bingo jackpot, even if you had to split it....did you go to the casino at all?
Lisa