Don't ask me how to say it, but according to the guide books, the Khutzeymateen Valley has one of the highest concentration of brown bears in the world. Since one of the main reasons that Rick wanted to go to Alaska was to see bears, we made sure to sign him up for this one as early as possible. He even took my camera and checked what settings to use (see, the threat of being thrown overboard made an impression) and came back with over 200 photos. Both he and Randy figured that they might as well as just keep taking pictures and worry about what to delete later. They saw 3 adults and a cub while they were anchored offshore.
As a side note, several people asked why we were paying the little extra to book through the cruiseline instead of booking our own tours. Well, because it was our first time doing an actual stay on the ship cruise (our honeymoon cruise to the Bahamas was just a day over and then another cruise to return a few days later). And because, when tours get delayed and arrive after the all aboard horn, it's guaranteed that the ship will wait for you to return and not leave without you. Which came in handy, since this excursion arrived back to the ship late (and I got a nice phone call from security, which I finally deciphered to be a "where is Rick Staigle" inquiry about 10 minutes before said missing man walked in the door).
