The second half of our excursion was even cooler than the first. We left the bear sanctuary and drove to the marina where we boarded a boat. We traveled across Silver Bay, which is a deep water fjord that is five miles long and ends at the old homestead of the McGraw family. Silver Bay got its name from the fact that the area had been prospected for gold and silver since the late 1800’s. The McGraw family had that home for fifty years before donating it to the state of Alaska.
The scenery on the trip down the fjord was amazing! Reminded me of the fjords in Norway. On our way to the homestead we stopped at a salmon hatchery in an area called Bear Cove. Now I know why they call it that… we saw a real bear in the wild searching for salmon! And the salmon were all jumping like crazy in the water. They told us the salmon jumping were the females since they were slapping their stomachs on the top of the water to loosen up their eggs to be easier to lay.
I again wish I could post a video since I filmed that bear walking along the shoreline until he reached his big claw down into the water and plucked out a big old salmon! Dinner!! Nature is so cool!
We then got to the homestead and it sat at the end of the lake in this beautiful setting with nothing else around. It was so peaceful and serene. They gave us smoked salmon, hot chocolate and the ingredients to make s’mores by roasting marshmallows over a fire. There was a man there telling stories about the history of the homestead. We hung there for about 45 minutes and then took the boat back to the marina and then our bus back to the ship.
OK… this is late breaking news! Right when I was ready to post this update, we started hearing announcements over the intercom saying Bravo, Bravo, Bravo… then Kilo, Kilo, Kilo… none of which sounded good! So as people were freaking out and running everywhere (picture Titanic!) the crew all started running to their safety (muster) stations. They then announced that a fire broke out on Deck 5! Well Danny, Jenny and I were on Deck 4, and Kathy had gone back to the room on Deck 10 to get something so we were separated. They wouldn’t let Kathy come down and weren’t allowed to go up. It was a little unnerving! But then within about 30 minutes they gave the all clear! So we went to the late show and enjoyed the comedian who did a lot of content on the fire! Too funny!
It was such a fun day (other than the fire scare)! On to Juneau tomorrow!
The Wandering Italian 