We Take Ourselves With Us

After boarding on Sunday, we had a sea day on Monday, giving us all time to sleep deeply in our inside cabins, explore the Koningsdam a bit, and just relax ... except, the captain had advised us that we'd be passing by the volcanic island Stromboli at 8:30 that morning.  So, Ned and I pulled ourselves out of bed and wandered the upper decks--from which we saw only ocean in every direction--trying to understand where a volcano could be hiding.  It turned out that it was hiding at 10:30--the captain had made an error in the timing. We made the best of it by going to an early breakfast in the still rather uncrowded Lido market. As 10:30 neared, I went up to the observation deck to grab some space at the railing--and in the distance, ta dah, a volcano appeared! Just a week earlier, Stromboli had erupted with fury, killing a hiker and putting the small villages at its base in danger.  As Penn wondered aloud, who would build a town on a volcano?  Great ques...

After our port visits for the past few days, we were on to Glacier Bay.  According to our Freestyle Daily, we'd be arriving at the bay around 7:15 am, so I was up and out on deck early in anticipation.  There weren't many of us, and there wasn't much to see.  The skies were grey and the clouds were low--making for some dramatically moody photos but no glaciers were in sight. While the ship is in Glacier Bay, US Park Rangers are on board to answer questions, share information, and offer commentary about the glacier and the environment that produced it.  They tendered onto the ship early in the morning and set up shop in one of the lounges.  The map below shows the route we took into and out of the bay. As the morning moved along, the decks began to fill with eager glacier hunters, and I ran back to the rooms to wake everyone up.  (One thing we realized on this trip was that we really need to bring walkie talkies on our next cruise. ...