This was just another normal day in Southeast Alaska. A morning filled with sea otters, Steller’s sea lions, bald eagles, sea birds, glorious scenery and spectacular weather - and an afternoon of kayaking on glassy seas in beautiful coves and crannies and hikes ashore on a small pacific island with hoards of intertidal creatures and forests walks with sneak peaks out over the cloudless Fairweather Mountains across Cross Sound. Just another normal day in Southeast Alaska….except…..for our evening, the stewards dressed down and presented recap and the natural history staff dressed up and served dinner. As a naturalist, I had done this a few times before in the distant past (somewhere in the Pleistocene!) with mixed results, but this night was such a great combination of energies of guests, staff and crew. The stewards talked about their life during their contracts onboard….the thousands of beds made, sheets changed, heads cleaned and meals served (with some natural history bits to boot) and the natural history staff both gained a deeper appreciation of the work of the stewards and were tutored in the fine arts of the dinner server. All in all, there were no disasters and lots of fun. I think we all came away from the evening feeling so lucky and privileged to experience this day with such great shipmates, spectacular wildlife and amazing weather.
- Daily Expedition Reports
- 13 May 2016
Southeast Alaska, 5/13/2016, National Geographic Sea Lion
- Aboard the National Geographic Sea Lion
- Alaska
Larry Hobbs, Naturalist
Larry has been involved in marine mammal research and natural history education for over 45 years. His undergraduate training is in zoology, with graduate work in marine biology. He also holds a master’s degree in psychology and is a certified coun...
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