It is..REALLY weird being 30 years old now. O_o I remember turning 20 was weird, but 30 is even weirder haha. It was another nice day as we drove up to Portage Glacier..I think that was at least my fourth time taking the boat out to the glacier (it has definitely changed since I was first there in 2009!). What better way to celebrate than standing in front of a glacier? I love that feeling lol. Portage is actually a pretty small glacier, but still looks big when you're up close (the face of it is actually half a mile wide!). Whoever named some of the glaciers around that area must have liked poetry, because three of them are named Byron, Shakespeare and Burns haha. It never seems like we spend long enough at the glaciers when I do those kind of cruises, but they have other cruises to do as well. :P It was lovely staring at the pretty blue ice though. <3 It didn't calve this time, but it's not really as active as other glaciers. As we walked into the visitor center, there was a geocache RIGHT THERE! It kinda felt like cheating signing the log since we didn't have to search for it lol. After we got back to Anchorage I went to Title Wave Books! I have little space left in my bags from all the books I've bought, so I was determined to only buy one or two..yeahh that didn't happen. :P I have little control in bookstores LOL. Somehow I'll find room. :P They had THREE copies of The Worst Journey in the World!! I had those editions, but I always love seeing Cherry's book :D (mom was like "phew! I was worried you'd buy every copy you'd come across!" haha). After having fun there, we found some geocaches and then had dinner at Olive Garden! Mmmm four cheese ziti and breadsticks. Someone needs to build an Olive Garden in Fairbanks already! After that we found a couple more caches and headed back to the room. 30th birthday successful! :D

Tomorrow we fly back to Fairbanks..I'll miss the glaciers, but I'm tired and ready to go home lol. It was a great glacier-filled vacation though :D

( pics from portage glacier )

It's supposed to be 88 degrees today..OMG I am going to DIE. D: It's already in the 70s! Yesterday it was 80 something outside AND inside the house. *melts* Alaskans aren't used to thisss. Haha (the high latitude makes the sun feel hotter than normal). Guess I need to soak up warmth before winter though. Meanwhile down at Portage Glacier the ice just broke up on the lake (with lots of icebergs from the glacier's winter calving) and there's still lots of snow on the mountains and ground. WTF?

( hot )

OMG today was busy and I am SO tired. We woke up and looked out the window..TOTALLY SUNNY. Why couldn't it have been like that yesterday?? Haha. First we had breakfast and then went to the Sea Life Center, which is an aquarium. We had been wanting to see it since we were last in Seward. It's rather small, but still cool. There were birds, a sea lion, fish, a touch tank (the water was FREEZING), etc. It was fun to watch the birds dive and stuff hehe. After that we drove to see Exit Glacier! We were prepared and brought rubber boots this time haha. I was curious (and kind of scared) to see how much it had changed since I was there last (2009). First we hiked up the hill to the side of the glacier..I was quite hot but when we got to the top of the hill..hello glacial cold wind. :P There was still snow from last winter on the glacier. We took some pics then went down to the outwash plain to get to the front of the glacier. The boots definitely came in handy. ;) There was less water today though..maybe cause it wasn't raining or something. When we got to where we could see the front of the glacier..I was shocked. It has retreated SO much since I saw it last!! Like..I saw the spot where I stood at the edge of the glacier last time (I recognized the giant rock on a moraine I thought would fall on me..I guess it's quite secure haha)..NO ice there now. You had to walk down the valley more just to get to the face..which was covered with ice in 2009. That's soooo weird to think about..such new land. So crazy it's retreated that much. Not even Worthington Glacier has retreated that dramatically! (I've seen it every year so far since 2008!) I mean..I can tell it has retreated but not like Exit Glacier. The front of it is much flatter now and you can kinda walk on it! Though you're not supposed to since there's a sign there that says closed and not to go past that point. Uh..oops. :P It was cool though. After we found some cool rocks we went back to the car and drove to Portage Lake (an hour or so away..the last boat left at 4:30 but we could tell we had plenty of time to get there). The cashier said they hadn't even been at the glacier yet cause that part of the lake WAS STILL ICED UP WTF. In JUNE?! There were places (like the Exit Glacier parking lot and this one mountain pass) that still had snow in piles on the ground!! Wowww. The trees in that one mountain pass literally hadn't even got their leaves yet! It felt like winter all over again! The boat was able to plow through some of the ice (luckily it's built for that haha. It was pretty cool) and we could see a little of Portage Glacier..but couldn't even get near the face. :( Sooo disappointing. Good thing I've been close to it before. I couldn't tell how much it had retreated though. After that we went to the visitor's center..ahh I've spent SO much money on this trip haha..but I keep finding awesome glacier related things like bookmarks and magnets and stuff! Then we drove to Girdwood (40 miles south of Anchorage. It's a big ski area) to spend the night. The hotel is CRAZY high class haha. It makes me feel uncomfortable. :P We ate dinner and then took the tram up the side of Mt. Alyeska (3939 ft but we didn't go all the way to the top). That was SO cool!! It's very vertical and just so fun to watch. The scenery is awesome too (I love being up high haha). There's still SO MUCH SNOW up there..brrr. I want to go back to Fairbanks where it's already summer. :P That mountain looks so scary to ski down. D: After that..finally time to relax!

Tomorrow (my birthday!) we drive home (skipped Homer..would have been too much). Now I'm skipping the picture meme and going to bed cause I am super tired :P

OMG. Yesterday we drove to Whittier (not very far from Anchorage..maybe an hour or so away). We were gonna stop at Portage Glacier along the way but we missed the turn and couldn't really turn around. I sill saw Portage Lake and I was like "OMG!" when I saw the icebergs floating in the water..wasn't expecting that haha. I saw the glacier around the mountain though (and other hanging glaciers driving there too). The only way to drive to Whittier is to go through a tunnel built into the mountain..and it's only one lane so every 30 minutes for 15 minutes they let cars go out (and trains have to use it too). Whittier was on the other side..it's tiiiiiny..and there's almost NOTHING to do in town. Less than or around 300 people live there and most live in this one apartment building. And it's cloudy and rainy all the time. The glacier cruise was in the afternoon..while we were waiting it started POURING rain. They said cloudy days are good days to view glaciers cause you can see the blue well. As we left the harbor the forest ranger guide pointed out a glacier and we were lucky to see it cause the clouds weren't obscuring it (I THINK it might have been Billings Glacier). We then headed to College Fjord! We didn't go all the way in the fjord for some reason..but I still saw Harvard Glacier!! I've soo been wanting to see that one!! There's also Yale Glacier and a bunch of other ones. Harvard is advancing and Yale is retreating. Then we went to see Surprise Glacier (and passed Barry Arm on the way. Mom said she saw Barry Glacier calve!). OMG we got up SO close to Surprise Glacier!!! I was shaking and it was NOT from the cold haha. And then..WE SAW IT CALVE!!! AND I got it on video!! OMG I was thrilled haha. That was addictive..being up close to the glacier face like that haha. Then we headed to Barry Arm (had to think of Margerie guy since he went there :P). Three glaciers are there..Cascade, Barry and, Coxe. We couldn't get in all the way to Barry Glacier cause of all the ice. We did get rather close to Cascade though. Then we stopped at a kittiwake rookery (they look like seagulls) and then went back to the dock. Fastest 4 hours or so of my life. :P Then we just went back to the hotel

Today we woke up to the storm someone said would come..it was crazy windy, raining, the water was choppy and there was some thunder. We were hoping the weather would be better on the other side of the tunnel where Portage Glacier was..buuut nope. They were still doing boat rides though so we decided to go. It was less windy by the glacier. We got up close to Portage also!! It was FREEZING haha. We saw Portage calve too!!! I was like "WHOOO YEAH!! *jumps up and down*" I think I heard it creaking or cracking. There was this one big piece of ice that had a crack in it and I was just waiting for it to calve off (I was begging.."PLEASE CALVE PLEASE CALVE!!" haha) but it didn't before we left. When I went back inside the boat I was SOAKED. :P Getting up close to tidewater glaciers = WIN. Then we drove to Seward. It was raining there too. :P Though it's bigger and nicer than Whittier. We brought our stuff to the hotel (it's called Exit Glacier Lodge!) and then drove to Exit Glacier. We put on plastic rain poncho things and hiked up to the glacier. We took the trail to the river valley that takes you to the very bottom of the glacier where you can touch it but I just couldn't get over a river channel (unless I wanted to get my shoes wet). We got to the top and we were the closet I've ever been to a glacier. Wowwww. We got back to the bottom and I was just ITCHING to touch the glacier. I tried to cross the river channels again. I was trying to use rocks and this big stick to get across. I was DESPERATE. Finally I was like "whateverrr" and just got my feet and pants soaked and finally got across ("WHOO YEAH I MADE IT!!"). Though I still had to cross another channel before I could get to the glacier but I finally, finally made it. I touched Exit Glacier. :D I was at the side of the glacier and I heard these people talking about it being unsafe cause of rockslides and I look behind me and see this big rock on the cliff RIGHT above me and I was like "yeaaah I'm leaving now." :P When I was going back I realized I was walking on the terminal moraine! I was HUNGRY after doing that haha. WE ate dinner and went back to the hotel where I am now

We go back to Fairbanks tomorrow..I work Tuesday..so I'll try to get my pics up when I have time. Wooo exciting glacierness! :D

( pic of the day )

Skipping the definition of the day :P