Amazing views...

I just had to share a few of our views with you.

Really, it is that beautiful!

We were blessed with absolutely beautiful weather.

There was sunshine almost every day of our trip.

Now~we heard from several people that this is not the norm.

Alaska gets a lot of rain.

They (ship's crew) kept announcing that we should be very grateful~

this doesn't happen very often.

So enjoy...

A sunset view from our ship.

Amazing.

We saw many glaciers, one of which was the John Hopkins Glacier.

The Naturalist on board announced that we were the third ship of all the cruise lines that had sailed so far up into the area this year to view

this glacier and others up this close.

(Weather is a big factor!)

It is a 12 mile long glacier located in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve.

We took an excursion at Juneau and went by helicopter to land on a glacier!  It was magnificent!  Yes, it was cold~but well worth the cold.  I never imagined I would ever stand on a glacier.  I was in awe.  I felt very small.  (I'm sure my mouth was gaping open a lot of the time.)  It was so beautiful, the bluest of blues ever, with silt mixed in for dramatic effect.  I know I'm repeating myself, but I can't describe it any better.  It was that beautiful.  Really.

There was a stream running through it and our guide bent down and took a drink; she encouraged us to drink too.  She said it was the purest of pure waters.  Well... I'm not too adventuresome and I wasn't sure I would have been able to get back up after laying down. 

So, I just took her word for it. 

She also shared with us that the surrounding ice and silt that we were standing on had taken 150 years to move the 10 miles from back up the mountain; not too fast, but it does carve through the mountains.

All I can say is, "Wow!"

Amazing.

Smooth waters,

Smooth cruising.

Amazing...

I hope that if you ever get the opportunity...

take it.

MFSD