Alaska

Jan 9th, 2010
First full day in Alaska. Today we will be heading to the museum and Juneau for shopping and exploring. Yesterday was the first day that I arrived in Juneau, Alaska. This was due to my flight out of Detroit being delayed by 2 hours on the 7th. I arrived in Chicago right as they finished boarding and I ran as much as I could towards the gate that the group was on. After arriving out of breath I saw the plane still at the gate but they had closed the doors and would not let me on. So after being out of breath as well as upset and stressed they got me on a flight to Anchorage. After the 6 hour flight I had to sleep in the airport since my flight would not be till 8am on the 8th.
I arrived on the 8th. We are staying at the Shrine of St. Theresa. When arriving at the Shrine the roads were icy and it was interesting trying to walk without slipping on top of having my bag with me. Reaching safely the door I was greeted by the group and introduced myself to the 3 that were not from Hiram. We ate lunch and I was told to go explore when I could.
We went to the tide pools right out side the place we are staying. After exploring and having wet feet it was nice to sit by the fire and relax and read the literature assigned. Dinner was turkey, stuffing, baked potato and a delicious salad. The dessert made by David was rice pudding with a berry mix put on top. By then I was fading due to lack of sleep and the warmth of the fireplace, so I went to bed.
The advantage of flying in by myself in the morning was seeing Alaska by air. I think I could stay here due to the beauty of Gods creation. It was so lush and green. We are right on the shore and can see mountain rising up on the other shore. Simply breath taking. The area was beautiful in every way. I could see myself coming back here. The way the snow, ice and green all mixed together is just mind boggling Alaska is simply a jewel of Gods creation.

Jan 9th, 2010
The weather was rainy about 39 degrees Fahrenheit with cloud cover.
The first stop after picking up Zippy from the airport was the Mendenhall Wetlands. It wasn’t too cold but it was raining and after being wet for awhile it got slightly cold. One of the best sites of the wetland was the mountains around the wetlands. At first the Glacier could not be seen but after awhile it was beautifully shown between mountain peeks. The clouds that covered parts of the mountains gave a beautiful picture perfect look. From the monocular I saw gorgeous mountains and valleys that would have been wonderful to take pictures of but my camera is not that good to get them.
Next was the Mendenhall Glacier. It is part of the fifth largest ice sheet. It was just beautiful in sitting there blue in the sun. It was nice and warm in the visitor center and the rangers were very nice. In the window looking out most of us sat down and enjoyed and awed at the view while we ate are lunch. It is part of a small ice age and the ice field that is 100miles north to south. It has been receding for about 200 years. The ice is constantly moving and will calve at anytime. On the lake around the glacier is frozen pieces of the broken off glacier frozen in the lake. However, they can move at anytime and some of the pieces have moved in the past few days. The blue color is because the glacier absorbs all the colors but blue causing the blue color. About 194ft are lost a year. If it continues in 5 to 10 years then the glacier will not be viewable from the visitor center. After looking around the center we headed to go see how close we could get to the glaciers. However the ground was so frozen solid that we were slipping and sliding the whole time and never made it to the lake. A few of us tried to walk down and ended up slipping and sliding. A few of the guys slid down the ice closer to the lake. There was a lot of laughs and jokes as we slipped and slided back to the group that did not try to walk on the ice. It was fun but I was getting cold and tired.
We headed to downtown Juneau after visiting the museum. Those who are 21 went to the bar as others went exploring. Tim and I ended up by ourselves and looked for a bookstore. After exploring a used bookstore we met up with Denny, David and Sigrid. We went into 2 more stores to look around and then met up with most of the group and headed to the car. We then proceeded to the grocery store to get dinner and other things.
For dinner we had salmon, cooked by Clay, with potato, green beans, and salad. For desert we had half pudding, which was warm and delicious.

Jan. 10th 2010; Sunday
Today is suppose to be a free day to explore but the weather is ugly with heavy rain/hail and now heavy snow.
I played rummy and hearts with Brenna, Rebecca, Jacob and Tim. We had lots of fun. I didn’t remember all the rules about hearts so it was hard to explain the game. We got distracted by marine mammals that we couldn’t tell if they were seals or sea lions. When we couldn’t figure out what the marine mammal was, Denny, Rebecca, Jacob and I went out to get a better look. With binoculars it was evident that they were Sea Lions. We then went closer to the chapel that has good lookout areas and could see with the naked eye the Sea Lions. About 7 of them were there. They were just awesome. We had a beautiful view of the ocean crashing onto the rocks. Due to the rain/snow it was wet and cold but it was just majestic. The trees with there roots coming out surrounding the chapel gave a book illustration feel.
The caretaker of the shrine let us ring the chapel bell. It is pulling the rope to let the bell rock back and forth. It was harder then it looked. Not a lot of strength was needed but a little force was needed to pull to get a ring out of the bell. After ringing the bell we went back to see if we could see whales. Unfortunately no whales were seen but I learned some information about how deep the sea floor goes. It is about 600ft in some areas and drops to over a thousand feet on the other side of one of the islands.
The wind picked up and the snow kept falling so we made the day class day not a free day due to the nasty weather. So we had class instead.
At first I wasn’t going to go when I saw everyone getting ready to go outside. Finally everyone but 2 went outside around 9pm. We bundled up and had a snowball fight in the newly pack able snowfall. With the wind hitting our faces we were laughing as cheeks were getting red from the cold. I was so bundled that I was sweating. Only my face was cold. We then tried to walk across the bridge towards the shrine to the protection of the trees. As soon as we got to the trees the wind was almost nothing but as soon as we left it the wind hit us. We turned off the flashlights and as my eyes adjusted to the night I could see the ocean in such majesty crashing against the rocks. It was so amazing watching it with the snow blowing it was like one was on the ship. I came in early and kinda wish I didn’t because they made a snowman. So now we were all happy, awake and warming up with hot chocolate or hot tea.
Now today is email, shopping and homework day. I miss everyone at home but I am having a fabulous time.