Our son Jason, his wife Lauren and their 15 month old daughter Dylan joined us July 13th for a wonderful fun filled week. It was thundering and lightning when they landed, but by the time they got to the boat in Auke Bay (Juneau) the sun was out and we had a beautiful cruise south to Taku Harbor. When we came up in June, it was foggy and raining on this route, so it was a wonderful surprise with the sun out to be able to see that there were glorious mountains surrounding us.

We had great weather for our trip up Tracy Arm. Three weeks ago we weren’t able to get to the South Sawyer Glacier because of the thick iceburgs, but Captain Dave managed to navigate through the ice beautifully and Lauren and Jason were able to kayak for an hour and a half getting ao close to the glacier we could barely see them from the boat! We then ventured over to the North Sawyer Glacier where we were able to see it calf three times…what a thrill! And oh, I forgot to mention that on the way we saw 6-8 killer whales!

In Red Bluff Bay (which may just be the most beautiful place in the world) we were about to have dinner when I looked out just one more time to see if we could see any bears and lo and behold there was one! Jas and Lauren hopped in the kayaks and paddled over to watch the grizzly leisurely feasting on grass, of all all things. It was very exciting though just a tad nerve racking for us to watch Jason & Lauren so close to this big creature.

On two different occasions we saw sea otters in the middle of Chatham Strait just leisurely floating on their backs eating and enjoying life. What a hoot, out there in the middle of a huge body of water…totally unexpected.

Fishing was a success with Jason catching a pink salmon (providing us with a delicious dinner), a sliver salmon, multiple baby sculpins (returned to the sea to grow up) and Lauren landing a very nice sized Dungeness crab.

Dylan is now a certified Formo Boat Baby: she loves sleeping on the boat, being outside watching the whales and screams with enthusiasm “Waaaay’ els!” as she makes the whale spouting noise with grand hand gestures. She has very good “sea legs” running around the boat with complete confidence. We celebrated Jas & Lauren’s anniversary aboard with a champagne breakfast and then they flew home. We miss them being with us.

Jason & Lauren kayaking- South Sawyer Glacier, Tracy Arm

Lauren, Jason & Dylan in their Anegada hats

Humpbacks in Frederick Sound

Grizzly bear in Red Bluff Bay

Sea Otter in Chatham Sound

Curious seal