Yesterday in Juneau, we embarked on National Geographic Venture, all abuzz in anticipation of our weeklong exploration of Southeast Alaska. There was general agreement that our prospects for adventure were far more promising than for the thousands of other visitors clambering aboard the mega cruise ships at the docks surrounding us. Indeed, after sailing overnight to Holkham Bay, early in the morning we crossed over the shallow bar, in reality an end moraine deposited by the glaciers that formed the fjord of Tracy Arm. We felt privileged to glide into the wilderness. As we sailed up bay, there were stray icebergs and bergy bits carried by the current in the opposite direction, hints of the glacier up ahead. A mama black bear and her two cubs were investigating the intertidal area, and we paused to watch from a safe distance, hushed so as not to disturb their activities, before moving farther up bay.