Glaciers

I went to Prince William Sound to catch a day cruise to see the glaciers.

I was fortunate enough to get a window seat with a delightful family of a husband and wife and their grown daughter. We had a great time talking about all sorts of things on the cruise, and pointing out things out the window. Which is important. Even if you are going to do that kind of thing by yourself, you don’t want to have to just sit there – you want exclaim and make comments.

The delightful boat guaranteed no seasickness, had free tea and coffee, a nice little meal, and fresh baked chocolate chip cookies right about the time we were totally pooped. You’d be surprised how exhausting it was!

The first excitement came with sea otters, floating on their backs in small and large groups and sitting on floating chunks of ice – they seem too small to call icebergs. It’s odd to think of something so little living in those freezing and exposed conditions. They really are adorable the way they look out over their stomachs at the world.

We saw a number of glaciers which were all pretty dirty looking, unlike the kind of snow covered arctic glaciers you might usually see pictures of. They were covered with bits of rocks and stuff that had been caught up in their movement. They were also very blue – because the deepness of the ice causes that color to be reflected back. Sometimes when we stopped the boat we could hear the glaciers calving in the distance, and we saw a couple good sized chunks break off and fall into the water. The boat hangs around waiting for that, and part of you is like “come on BREAK!”, and the other part is like “YIKES, there is going to be nothing left at this rate!” All the while you hear ice clunking against the bow as you drift.

We also got to have a bit of glacier ice fished from the water either with a drink or just in a cup. It seemed denser than normal ice – maybe all that pressure actually shows in a way that you can casually observe – weird.

After the long cruise I went to the airport to wait for HOURS for my middle of the night flight. On the plane I sat next to two women with a baby – the baby was out like a light the whole time, just squirming around a bit as they cradled it to their chests and put it on the food tray. Note to self – when I have babies, I’m going to travel at times when they can’t possibly hold their eyes open.

So that was it for me an Alaska – this time. I plan to return for sure, although when, I cannot say. On to the adventure of figuring out my normal life again –only with lots of plans and ideas on how to make it less normal.