On August 4th we celebrated Alex's 41st Birthday by visiting the Hubbard Glacier in Glacier Bay. I must admit that I wasn't feeling all that overwhelmed with excitement to look at a big chunk of ice, but my feelings certainly changed. It was indescribable -- thus the pictures:
The ship found a good viewing place and then turned around 360 degrees so that everyone on the boat could see all sides of the bay.
Every once in a while a section of the glacier would break off. You knew it was coming because you could hear it crack and shift. The shear power of the melting ice was amazing. It takes 100 sq. feet of snow to equal 1 sq. foot of the glacial ice -- it looks so blue because blue is the only light wave that can penetrate the density of the ice.
The next day we headed into Alaska's capital, Juneau, for some kayaking near the Mendenhall Glacier. We saw por
poises (black dolphins) and 2 Bald Eagles. There are about 38,000 people in Juneau and more than 40,000 Bald Eagles -- crazy! It was fun to do some kayaking with Doug & Nicky, Mike & Steph and Will & Melanie. It was kind of a pain because the current kept pushing us in the opposite direction that we wanted to go but we got a decent upper body workout...a good thing since we'd be gorging on cruise food for several d
ays. After we got back from our kayaking trip we did a little shopping, flagged down a mailman to take our postcards and just hung out downtown.
We had to be back on the ship by 2:30 -- then we were all ready for a bit of a nap. That night we enjoyed Karaoke. It was great!
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