Tracy Arm Fjord, Alaska

It seemed a great idea to get me out of my armchair to do some real travel: a cruise to Alaska on three days' notice. No hassles of air travel involved, just an easy ten minute taxi ride from home to the dock. All ticketing and security registration online. Our trusted travel agent taking care of all the details.

And so without a second thought we were off to Alaska last Saturday for a seven day cruise aboard Norwegian Cruise Lines' Norwegian Star.

Even packing was a breeze since we were informed that there would be no formal dinners scheduled and NCL's "Freestyle Cruising" meant that we had dinner on our own schedule. There was no need to wonder whether we would draw the Early Seating for dinner or have to dine later than normal if the luck of the draw had assigned us to the Late Seating. Best of all, I'd have an opportunity to try my new iPad "on the road."

The travel industry is full of paradoxes, absurdities, restrictions, fine print and illogic. Cruising embodies all of those to the highest degree. I was to experience that very shortly.

But that will be the subject of another post.


This post will be all about the highlight of this cruise, the hours spent gliding along the mirror smooth waters of the Tracy Arm Fjord amid magnificent scenery on the way to and from the Sawyer Glacier.







The remnants of a glacier retreat above the fjord.
Rock formations stunned with their variety of shapes and colors. The reddish color ones looked somewhat like those mysterious monoliths that guard Easter Island in the Pacific.
Finally, Sawyer Glacier, the parallel moraines it is carrying along looking very much like tire tread marks!