Glaciers everywhere!!

Yesterday we drove to Valdez..it was so nice and clear! Spontaneous trips are the best haha. ;) The drive seemed to take longer than usual though..maybe cause we kept stopping (and the road was pretty bumpy..maybe mom was driving slower than usual). At one point I was poking mom cause I read about a flightseeing tour over the Wrangell Mountains and mom was like "I'm not Facebook!" OMG hahaha..that's hilarious. :P We of course hiked up to Worthington Glacier..it looked like it had receded more than it usually does in a year. I looked at pics from last year and the base of it was at this little lake..it definitely wasn't this year. Aw, poor glacier. :( I heard it's been pretty warm this year, so that's probably why. You could actually walk up on the glacier! Usually it's too steep. After that we continued to Valdez, checked into the hotel, had dinner, and relaxed at the hotel. I brought a fan (well..it's an air purifier thing, but it works haha) for white noise so I wouldn't hear dad snoring (I brought the one at my apartment cause it's pretty loud). It definitely worked..I didn't hear any snoring! Both mom and dad said it was nice too..cool (there are lots of glaciers in the mountains surrounding Valdez..one reason I titled this entry "glaciers everywhere!!" haha)

This morning we woke up to blue sky..woohoo! There were some clouds in the distance, but not those evil ones that rain on you and obscure the mountains. We had breakfast and took a walk before getting on the boat. The captain was happy to hear we'd been on the boat before. We saw sea otters, porpoises, sea lions, puffins, a bald eagle and other birds. No whales though..that's unusual. After checking out the sea lions we went over to Columbia Glacier! We were approaching this big ice wall and then the captain was like "that's not the REAL Columbia Glacier, the active ice is over here!" and he turned a corner and there was the huge face of the glacier..I think the face is 4 or 5 miles wide. Woww. Definitely the biggest tidewater glacier I've seen. We got a quarter of a mile from the face!!! Omg it was amazing. Since it was sunny, it didn't even feel that cold!! Normally I'm freezing and my hands are numb but I was fine, hot even! Wow..that never happens haha. I guess sun and no rain makes a difference. ;) The glacier was quite noisy..it calved so epically too!! Mom was looking through her binoculars when this HUGE piece fell off..I didn't see it since someone was in the way, but it was super loud! I got some great pics of it calving, and mom got a great video! (You can hear me yelling excitedly in it..can't help it, I'm a Crazy Glacier Lady..haha!) I loveee being that close to a calving glacier..one of the best feelings ever! I was definitely shaking after a big piece fell off and my legs actually felt weak..haha woww. It was such a beautiful day to be at the glacier. <3 Eventually we had to leave (booooo) and we went back to port. So amazinggg..my pics are epic. After that we had dinner and went back to the hotel. All of our faces got sunburned haha. Now..bedtime! We drive home tomorrow

( here are a couple phone pics to hold you over till i get the others uploaded ;) )