hubard glacier

after Hoonah, we headed to Hubard Glacier. we woke up in the morning as we were cruising close to the glacier. there was ice all over the ocean. It was very titanic! as we got closer, the chunks of ice, got bigger. due to an earthquake somewhere around the glacier, the ship was able to get in really close to the glacier. as we sat watching the glacier, we were told to look out for calving. the ship had brought in a professor from the University of Alaska, who teaches classes on the glaciers. he was up front with us, educating about the glacier. it was really interesting. we were told to look out for "calving"; which was when the ice breaks away from the glacier. first you would hear a sound that sounded like somone was hitting a metal pipe. then if you looked toward the sound, you would eventually see pieces falling off. i wish i could remember the measurements of the glacier, because it was ENOURMOUS.

flowers of Alaska

ravens

bald eagles

The Ziprider

The Ziprider ride was unbelivable! We hopped on a bus and took a 40 minute ride high in the village to reach the zipline. The zipline is over 5300 feet long. That's over a mile long! once we got off the bus, we had to hike down a bit to the edge of the bluff. there we saw what we were in for! the boys wanted to go first, so first we went. we each went to our "line" and sat in a nylon type seat. a person stood next to us strapping us in, hooking us up to the lines, etc. then i was told to prop my feet up against the steel door and push my legs out. Oh, and did i mention that the ziprider goes 60mph! so they open the doors and away we go! it was crazy. we were flying! the view below was awesome. there was a good distance between each person (the zippee?), so i could really see dillon's face. unfortunately i couldn't hold my camera and the straps, so i couldn't take pictures "during" the ride. but his face was priceless! you could see the thrill, fear, excitment, etc. it was great. for some reason, josh fell way behind so he was way back there. so eventually we started to come to the end of the ride and i kept thinking, hmmmm, how is this thing going to stop? so finally i decided to just close my eyes and think good thoughts! the landing was a bit rough, to say the least. but at least i survived!