July 26, 2010

July 26, 2010

Woke again to rain! Headed out around 7:30am to catch a boat for a 9 hour tour to the Northwestern Glacier. Since it was rainy out we pretty much knew that the boat ride would be a little bumpy, and were we right! People were getting sick right and left, luckily none of us!! Mallory and I probably felt the worst, but we hung in there and it finally settled down a bit! We saw Orca, porpoises, sea lions, sea otters(Mallory’s favorite),puffins,seals, sea gulls, and jellyfish. It was really neat seeing the sea lions just hanging out on a rock in their own environment.

Then the glacier. It was named the Northwestern Glacier after Northwestern University in Illinois, because professors from that university came and did research studying it. We were able to get upclose with the boat. We saw the glacier calving, which means breaking off, and could hear it cracking, sounded like fireworks! Was really amazing. It too was very bluish in color. Has to do with the way the ice absorbs all the colors but blue? Who knows, maybe someone could explain it! Anyway it was blue and it was amazing. Hard to believe how long these have been there, but also how much quicker they seem to be disappearing! The girls seem to really enjoy the boat ride.

Returned back to our campsite once again to rain! We were all exhauseted, looking forward to sleeping in in the morning!