June 3: We awoke anchored in a beautiful cove in Tongass National Forest, with fog and mountains surrounding the ship. Tongass is the largest national forest in the country. While I live rurally, the immense quiet and stillness of these remote Alaska locations is nearly indescribable. Since the ship is small, we can visit locations the larger boats cannot access; the small coves and inlets provide true Alaska experiences. When I stepped outside I said, "Feel that air!". I did yoga from a gym that had the best views anyone could ask for, then onto breakfast. The chef introduced himself to our table, and he lives in. . . guess where. . . Benton County, Arkansas! Small world. At the morning meeting, Rebecca and I introduced ourselves to everyone on the ship, and they have all been so welcoming. The ship headed to Sitkoh Bay, traveling through the waterways of the Tongass National Forest on the way.

Lindblad has a Global Explorer's program for those under 20 who are traveling with them, and the young adults aboard learned they will get to drive one of the Zodiac boats; how fun!  I went to the bridge and spoke with the third mate, who explained that someone is actually steering the ship nearly all the time; they are largely not relying on auto pilot. There is a big interactive map in the bridge, showing our exact journey in detail. I talked at length to Captain Tim, who taught me all kinds of things. He even took photos with us in the captain's chair.  We had a morning photography presentation from Lisa, who has photographed everything from presidents to athletes.

After lunch (I had salmon chowder) we anchored by Chichagof Island, immediately spotting a mama bear with two cubs; they were coastal brown bears. The view with my binoculars was spectacular! I did not get any pictures with my phone; I left that to the pros.  We are headed to the zodiacs (small boats that take us to shore), so I will update further down this page with our afternoon activities when we return.  

Wow, the afternoon was spectacular!  We boarded the zodiacs (the small boats that take us to shore) and I kayaked in the water of the Tongass National Forest; the scenery was indescribable, and the pictures simply do not show the grandeur of Alaska.  After kayaking I went on a hike through Tongass National Forest with one of our Lindblad guides.  He pointed out all kinds of plants, and there was lots of bear scat.  The guide even spotted bear tracks on the ground and bear scratches in the trees.  In fact, bear trails (places where bears had been traversing) were everywhere.  Thanks to our guide we spotted two more coastal brown bears from afar, and again my binoculars came in handy.  The bears were huge, even from far away.  When the second bear we spotted this afternoon eventually started to run away from us into the woods it was pretty amazing; when you are looking at a giant bear through binoculars and all of a sudden it turns and looks right at you, it's quite a feeling!  The hike also took us through low water tide pools full of algae.  We spotted a banana slug, which I wanted to see simply because of how fabulous the name is.  A second interesting slug caught our attention as well.  We headed back to the zodiacs for our transfer back to National Geographic Quest.  What an afternoon!