Glaciers in the Mist

I am pulled from the warmth of my bed by something that is much like the feeling of a child who has waited for the first snowy day of winter to finally arrive. I peer at the clock through one barely opened eye. 5:30 AM. Oy. What am I doing? In my light-weight tee-shirt and pajama pants, I quietly slip into my jacket. With nothing else but socks on my feet, I tip-toe past the others who are soundly sleeping in the room and gingerly open the slider which leads to the outside veranda. The cold air bites at my exposed ears and cheeks, but I impatiently ignore its bidding for me to return to the warmth of my bed. Warmth of my husband. I am where I am meant to be.

As we slowly lumber across the frigid waters, it is eerily quiet. There is a sense, in this place, that any added sound would be unnatural. I take a moment to slip back into the room to defrost for a bit. The air is still filled with the sounds of peaceful sleep. Deep, rhythmic breathing without any stirring. Once again, I head back outside.

It is then that I look out into the dusk of the early morning and I see them. Actually, first I smell them. A crisp, icy, scent bombards my senses and I realize that I have been awakened to something very primitive, something that connects me to the earth on a very soulful level. In the water, below me, there are huge chunks of ice. Frozen pieces of history floating effortlessly in a bay which now reaches the depths of 1000 feet plus. We have entered the glaciers of Tracy Arm Fjord, Alaska.
Tiny seabirds rest upon these fallen chunks of glacier, which can sometimes be as large as three city buses. But from my vantage point on the ship, these wondrous pieces of ice appear to be gracefully floating sculptures. Naturalist, John Muir, explored this area comparing its beauty and grandeur to that of Yosemite National Park. He also used the story of the strikingly similar topography in both of these areas to prove that Yosemite was, indeed, created by glaciers.

An hour must have passed by now, or has it? Light rain begins to fall from the sky, but I am too enchanted by these otherworldly surroundings to go inside. I pull my tee-shirt out from the back of my jacket and cover my ears and cheeks. I do a little dance around the deck trying to encourage my body to create its own heat supply. I don't want to miss a thing. I consider waking the rest of my pack, but I know that the alarm will soon go off for them and something about what I am experiencing needs to be done alone.
We drift into an area covered in rain forest. Hundreds of waterfalls plunge from the mountains into the frozen water below.
Water, in all of its forms, overtakes my senses.
Once again, the mist descends. But then, there is a blue-tinged crevasse in between the mountains. Glaciers. Majestic. Supernatural. Ancient. I hold my breath as if breathing will disturb what I am feeling inside. Here, right here on this spot, I feel Him. As if on cue, God breezes right through my body and causes me to catch my breath. Don't leave, I pray, and He doesn't.
I feel even quieter now as a tear rolls down my cheek. I am so small.

So very, very small.
I hear the beginnings of stirring behind me. The slider opens and then closes. I hear laughter and then Mark comes out and snaps a picture of me. It is only then that I realize what I must look like. Wet socks on my feet. Striped baby-blue and white pajama pants. Black jacket. Grey tee-shirt pulled up over my head. I try to explain, but the words don't seem to be enough. I point out toward the glaciers. Mark stands behind me, pulling me in close for warmth. Our breath takes on a similar rhythm. Our four Angel daughters begin to emerge from slumber, one at a time. Faces sleepy from dreaming, they peer out on the glaciers, one by one.

All of a sudden, there is a clamor to get dressed. Excitement takes over like it does on the first snowy day of winter. An urgent fatigue begins to settle down over my body and I step back inside. The clock says 7:30 AM. I have been standing out in the cold, in my stocking feet for two hours. Mark and the girls get dressed and head out to view the glaciers from the bow of the ship. I kiss them all good-bye and they tuck me back into bed. The door closes behind them and I am once again struck by the warmth that overcomes me. As I snuggle into the blankets, I whisper words of thanksgiving into the universe. I pray that God will watch over my husband, our daughters, my family and friends and thank Him for awakening me on this cold, August, Alaska day. And as I descend into sleep the words, You are not so small, scroll through the mist between consciousness and sleep.

Sailing the Seas to Alaska

Several months ago, my Angel Father Number One(as he now insists on being referred to), turned the corner to being seventy years old. It has been decades and decades since we went on a "family" vacation.(I was about thirteen years old and my was brother nine, at the time. My mother insisted on spending the afternoon in the tiny bathroom on The Maid of the Midst, instead of experiencing Niagra Falls, as to prevent her hair from getting wet. Oh, the horror.) So, when my step-mom brought up the idea of taking a family vacation, the idea sounded quite intriguing. Mark and I like to take the girls on vacation when we can. We know that it is only a very short jaunt to the time when each one of them will have lives of their own, and arranging a time when we will all be available at the same time will be increasingly more difficult. We have always prided ourselves on the idea of raising our daughters with value and respect for our family as a unit. For these reasons, and many others, we decided that a cruise to Alaska would be a nice way to create some new family memories with my dad(Excuse me, AF1) and my step-mom, Rita.

We decided on a cruise because it is a fairly easy way to travel to several different points without having to pack and then unpack, over and over again. We decided on Alaska, mostly for convenience. Mark and I had taken our Angel daughters to Anchorage, several years ago and we really enjoyed being able to experience the glaciers on land. The wildlife there was absolutely breathtaking. While taking a hike through the Anchorage wilderness, we were forced to wait and be still for over twenty minutes while a gigantic Moose grazed and grunted lazily on the footpath. There is nothing like having to remain still while allowing the rhythm of nature to take its course. It certainly puts life into a different perspective. Viewing Alaska from a cruise ship is a very incongruent and limited way to experience such a vast land of beauty. We did get off of the ship in different ports, but were only able to see what the cruise lines wanted us to see in the constrained periods of time which we were allowed. That being said, we had a very nice time spending some time together as a family.
The beginning of our trip started with a plane flight up to the dynamic city of Seattle. We were all filled with happy expectance, as we boarded the airplane for the two and a half hour flight.
Angel Daughter Number One and Angel Daughter Number Three settled into the seats across from Mark's and mine.
After about an hour, Angel Daughter Number Two and Angel Daughter Number Four fell asleep behind us. I just love the way that my children look when they are sleeping. So...Well, so angelic ;).
Once again, I took in the distinct context of observing the earth from the air. Here is one of the several volcanos which reached up beyond the vistas to greet us. Fascinating.
Descending into Seattle from the sky.
Once we arrived in Seattle and settled into the hotel for the night, AD1 was able to catch up with her beloved roommate from college. Theresa is like another Angel daughter to us. She drove four hours from Portland to see us. I am so glad that the girls got to spend some time together and that I was able to give Theresa a big hug.(She is a wonderful hugger!)
Seattle is such a diverse city. You can see the Space Needle off in the distance. If you can catch the city on a clear and sunny day, the mood of the city boarders on giggly. People there are so energized by the sun. Seattle is a wonderful place with a fabulous farmer's market. We had an extra day on the tail-end of our trip, so I was able to spend an afternoon enjoying all of the local splendor. I will share some photos of the farmer's market in another post.
Angel Daughters three, four and two(from left to right) arriving at the port in Seattle. It was our first journey on a such huge ship, so the girls were quite excited. Angel Daughter Number Three does not really like having her picture taken. I am not sure why, as she is such a beautiful girl, both inside and out. Hence the sourpuss...
After embarking onto the ship, we met up with Angel Father Number One and Angel Rita. We then went up to the very top floor of the boat to watch as we shipped-off to sea! We seemed to be on the side of the ship that was windward, so it took a lot of begging to get a photo of the girls as we sailed out of port. Angel Daughter Number Three had to use one hand to hold down her skirt(No Marilyn Monroe shots here), and the other to hold her sweater closed.(She gets cold!) I guess that left no hands to brush the hair from blowing into her eyes.
From the bow of the ship, I watched as we made our way out into the open ocean. The sky and sea seemed to share the same cerulean color as we embarked upon our journey. It's interesting how each day offers us the same opportunities to start out with that wonderful feeling of unbridled optimism and yet, we do not often take advantage of the tangibility that we are offered. I have to say that going on a trip, whether it be long or short, gives us the fortuity to look forward to the unexpected in a very good way. What if we took a little bit of that into each day along with us? Even the seemingly ordinary ones.

I will definitely condense certain days of our trip into shorter snippets. We spent at least a few days at sea without a lot of activity. I would say that all in all, our trip was filled with mostly good stuff(ex-boyfriend drama followed us from land that never should have) and that Angel Father Number One learned a whole lot more about his granddaughters than he thought he knew, but really did not. I suppose that is why spending time together as a family or with the closest of our friends(the ones who are like family), is such an important thing. Shouldn't we all know more about the people we love the most?

I am so glad to be back at home. And thank you for the lovely comments that you left for me in my absence. Your kind words mean so. I have missed catching up with everyone. I promise to stop by to say hello in the next few days.