Few cruise ships dock in Anchorage, but with this Holland America Alaskan cruise, we were lucky enough to dock the ship in the largest city in Alaska, and probably one of the ones that is most thought of when one thinks of Alaska.
Actually, Anchorage is a large city (about 300,000 people with a total of about 400,000 when you count the surrounding area). It's not a bad city, one that when I look at cities I wonder if I could live there. Maybe. It would depend if I could live with many days of sunlight and then many days of darkness. I guess you could get use to anything.
This day we had a tour planned where we would go on a catamaran that would take us up close and personal to some glaciers. This is what I came for! Let's go. But, before we boarded the boat, we stopped at an animal reserve for bears, moose, deer, etc. that have been injured or abandoned and can not go back into the wild. I learned something about bears.
The brown bear is also known as the Grizzly. It's most distinguishing characteristic is the hump on its back.
Black bears do not have humps, and they are usually smaller than the grizzly. They are more aggressive, also. It is the black bear that will attack you, so fight, fight, fight -- punch and aim for its face, kick it, do anything and everything you can to fight off this animal.
On the other hand, the grizzly will fight you if you are threatening to the cubs, or you have food. Please, no food around animals -- ever! When you encounter a grizzly this is the one that you should stop dead in your tracks, wave your hands, talk calmly (CALMLY!!!) to it to let it know you are a human. And if it does come too close, play dead. Lay with your head down, arms over your head, and feet apart (harder for the bear to roll you). Hopefully, as long as you have no food on you, it will get bored and leave.
Since Florida has black bears (oh great, we have the aggressive one!), I now know that if I see one, I should make noise, clap my hands, scream, honk the horn, anything, and I should throw something at it to scare it off. I have seen bears in the clearing on I-75 between Sarasota and Ft. Meyers, so they are here.
Lastly, I learned that when a bear stands on his hind legs, he is curious, not threatening. I would want to run, but, no one can outrun a bear, so...good luck....
The moose is to the left and a herd of deer is above,
And the Wildebeest is part of the antelope family. What was fun, was, while watching them, they started to run and play with each other. I never thought of large animals playing.
On the way to the glaciers (and away from the glaciers) we saw many sea otters sunning on a rock in the middle of the water.
Notice the blue of the iceberg.
I had to throw in one of the lone boats we saw heading closer to the glaciers.
Two days later, we cruised past the Mendenhall glacier and here, I saw the glacier calve where chunks of ice broke off. Amazing, and everyone whooped and hollered to see such a sight. Cameras flashed everywhere!
Where you see the white spot, the snow, that is the glacier after it calved. We actually watched the ice drop into the water and then the snow pour into the water. An amazing sight.
A very nice picture of the calving, the blue in the glacier and the "tire" marks.
I leave you today with another scene from nature. Tomorrow, on to Kodiak and a Russian tea.
Until tomorrow...have a great day...
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