Glaciers Galore!

Today we (my parents, sister, and I) went to Portage to take a Portage Glacier cruise.  The cruise has only been going for a week now, and there is still ice on the lake so the boat couldn't get as close to the glacier as it usually does.  But we did help whittle away some of the ice.  Here are some pictures from our adventure.

Welcome to Portage

The US Forest Service tour guide on the glacier cruise

He taught us that we all have a map of Alaska...imagine my index finger is a chain of islands...

It was cold outside but when the boat got close to a waterfall we decided to be brave and go out.

Me and Wendi

Me and my dad

It was a very tall waterfall!

It was easier to capture once the boat wasn't as close to it.

Notice the color of the lake.  It's from glacial silt...and nothing grows in the lake because light can't penetrate the water very far.

One good thing about it being early in the season is that it wasn't very crowded!  One bad thing is that there is still ice on the lake... This is the best view we got of Portage Glacier:

It's the blue-ish looking thing in the middle

It's hard to see...not a lot of light or contrast

The captain does an ice-breaking run with every group that goes out on the lake.

The path through the ice we made

"Ok.  I'm cold."  Time to go back inside!

After our Portage Glacier excursion, we continued on down the road to Seward.  We ate at Ray's Waterfront, and it was delicious!

We all had a seafood dish.

I had delicious fish tacos.

The view of the harbor from the restaurant was really pretty.

Before leaving Seward, we had to fuel up the car...

Yikes!

And then we were on to our next adventure--Exit Glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park.  (I expected that we would have to pay to get in or park or something...but we didn't.  That was cool!)

We hiked up the trail towards the glacier view.

The mighty hikers!

Glacial moraine (a.k.a lots of rocks!)

And then we were on our way back...stupid construction...