Cruising to Alaska (day 5)

That rainy day took us to Icy Straight Point Icy Strait Point, a  cruise port created to bring some revenue to the local Natives and offer a variety of activities, mostly accessible through a pair of gondolas. 

We chose a  guided whale watching tour that forced us out of bed at 5:30 am and under a ferocious rain got us inside a small boat to watch whales in the wild. 

The first hour was pretty much devoid of sights and it’s only in the second half of the trip that our boat was surrounded by 15 to 20 humpback whales blowing water and slapping their tails as they dived to fish. A sickening ride in rough sea, but we soldiered on!  

Mid-morning, we disembarked from the cruise ship to explore around Ice Strait Point and got on a 8 passenger gondola like the one we’ve got in Park City to get to the Native’s cannery and village on the other side of the hill where our ship was berthing. 

A scenic, treetop ride took us to the historic Hoonah Co. building that was turned into a museum and tourist shop. We then went on to the village bordering a quiet bay overlooked by a large Orca statue. We chose to walk back to the fish through the forest trail. 

At night we had a delectable dinner at The Bistro, the ship’s French restaurant, and went to hear the “Abbey Road” album songs by the Argentinian Beatles tribute band that either performed better than the night before, or perhaps had become fully validated and accepted by our discriminating ears!