Wow.
It’s Sunday morning and I’m just chillin while Care sleeps in. She’s gotten used to sleeping in and she goes to bed old-lady early, so I’ve definitely thrown a bit of a kink in her schedule.
But it’s not entirely my fault.
1. I’m used to getting up early for work. I never use an alarm clock and usually let the sunlight wake me up. Uh here it’s light at about 4.30am. I roll over and see it’s light and look at my watch. 5am. No. Way. Back to sleep with you, missy.
2. Alaska is 3 hours behind Central time. 5am is 8am my time.
The part where it’s completely my fault.
9pm here is midnight in Houston. Does that mean I let Caroline sleep?? NO, the sun is still up, we could go for a sunset hike, or take a drive and take some pictures. We can sleep later.
Until 5 when I wake up. 
Today it was 6.45. Yesterday we actually slept until 8.30 but we were exhausted.
Wow. All the things we’ve done and seen. I don’t know where to begin.
We did a touristy day cruise around Kenai Fjords National Park and I met all my goals. Saw not one but 7 or 8 whales. 2 humpbacks and a pod of Orca. The Orca came super close to the boat, it was amazing. I saw lots and lots of Puffins. Horned and tufted Puffins. And we saw a moose on the drive up.
My stupid camera battery is useless. I’d charged it all night and we took some photos on the 2 hour drive to Seward, but not THAT many. And so when we got on the boat, my camera showed that I only had 10 minutes of power left. So I had to ration my pictures.
When we saw the first humpback (endangered!) I zoomed in and tried to get it when the tail came up, but couldn’t really tell and in the end was frustrated with my photo. So we waited 6 minutes or so for him to come back up and when he did I left my camera in my pocket. I watched him blow water out of his hole. I enjoyed the noise it made. 3 times. I watched the dark shape moving slowly under the water. And when he came up higher and we got a clear view of his back, then his tail came out and gracefully and nearly silently went back in the water, I enjoyed every second.
I did manage to coax my camera into taking a few more shots, but I was relieved to not be chained to the holy grail of The Perfect Shot.
The best part of the tour, and really, of my vacation was sitting in front of Aialik Glacier. I have a whole new respect for glaciers. I never understood how they worked, what they did, how they moved, why they moved, or anything really. I do now. We cruised past Bear Glacier and saw Holgate Glacier off in the distance. But the captain of our boat wanted to get us as close as (safely) possible to Aialik. But in the water was brash, or chunks of ice that had fallen off the glacier. Most between 6″ and 2′ long. Some quite a bit bigger. We navigated slowly up to it, distracting ourselves with watching black bears and mountain goats on the cliffs that Aialik herself had carved.
When we got close, the captian said it was quiet time. He turned off the engine, asked us to whisper, and we just sat and watched and listened to the glacier.
As chunks of ice fall off the glacier, they tumble down and splash into the water. Yes, gravity, big surprise. But the sound. It’s like thunder. And then it echoes off the mountains around us. If we were lucky, we’d happen to see the part that was calving and watch it fall, then we’d hear it- there was about a 2 second delay- and then it would echo and we’d watch the mini tidal wave of water and ice rise up and ripple out.
I had no idea it would be so meditative. Just sit there and silently observe the change. If you miss it, you miss it. But you hear it.
Another strange thing to me was that I had no concept of how big this thing was- I promise you’ll see pictures!! They said the face was about a mile and a half wide. I looked at it, trying to figure out how to relate it, how to categorize the size in my brain. But what in the world did I have to compare it to? A mountain? That rock? A cloud? There were no people, no street signs, nothing that could make me think, “Oh, wow, that thing’s HUGE compared to _____!”
So weird.
Anyway, it’s another gorgeous sunny spring day in Anchorage and I’m going to get ready. Care just went to church, and I’ve already meditated, I’ll probably shower and find a nice patch of sun to sit in and have some tea.
