In the fog. They told us we were in Glacier Bay National Park. They told us we were nearing South Marble Island, an important bird-nesting colony. Yet we were in a complete fog. As we slid slowly through the mass of moisture a cacophony of cries reached our ears. Hundreds of nesting kittiwakes sounded their names, "kitti-wake, kitti-wake". Glaucous-winged gulls raucously called. A harbinger, a messenger of sorts, black with orange and white head, burst through the scene -- a tufted puffin rapidly winging its way across our bow. As we crept forward dreamy marbleized mounds emerged in the mist, rising from the silky sea embosomed in sunlit fog. Forms of birds and sea lions materialized in the moisture displaying a partitioned sharing of habitat.

As we searched and shared sightings of tufted puffins in tufts of grass, carrot-beaked oystercatchers, fuzzy gray gull chicks and murres motoring by, the rising morning sun began to disperse the coastal fog blanket. A hazy bright arc of whiteness formed over busy South Marble Island. This luminous "fogbow" was created by refraction of light through fog with the sun in a position to our backs. Each observer sees their own personal fogbow, an arc approximately 39 degrees in radius emanating from the shadow of his or her head. We seemingly passed through the fogbow's arch and emerged into transcendental weather of clear skies and long views as we continued up Glacier Bay toward its glacial centerpieces.

After a full day of sunny touring in the park, including glacier watching and sightings of whales and bears, we visited park headquarters at Bartlett Cove. In clear evening skies, we were treated to further celestial phenomena. A syrupy sun set over the Fairweather Range illuminating sparse distant clouds with muted rainbow colors. While the sky was still softly lit from our retreating star, an illustrious display of aurora surreally danced overhead. Slightly red-fringed greenish glowing arcs of vertical fragments formed and twisted, moving without detection, appearing in new pulsing patterns.

We watched from the ship's decks at the dock, immersed in the famous polar patterns that are created by charged solar particles attracted to our magnetic poles, bombarding atmospheric gases, causing them to fluoresce. A gibbous waxing moon broke from behind cloud cover over the rainforest, dispatching a broad rippling glittering swath across the water. Stray shooting stars from upcoming Perseid meteor showers grazed our periphery. As the reflected light of apprentice moon brightened the evening scene, the northern lights sat down. We were fortunate to catch this mesmerizing glowing play of lights. It just goes to show: a day that begins in the fog can end with the aurora borealis.