travelogue: excursions (hubbard glacier)

day 7: hubbard glacier, alaska
so this wasn't technically an excursion - there is nowhere to get out at hubbard glacier. but the ship sails up a narrow channel for a couple of hours, and suddenly at the end is this monstrous beautiful blue glacier. how close a ship can get is different every day and dictated by the coast guard. this day, we got within a half-mile of it. and honestly ... that was plenty close.

there are not words to capture the true scale of this crystalline beast. one of my few goals for the trip was achieved this day, too - my husband and i sat in a hot tub and watched the glacier outside. the air was cold (though not arctic) even in the aquadome, the water was hot, and the glacier was truly breathtaking.

we even got to watch it calve several times, including one that was so big, the wave it created rocked the entire ship.

it's hard to get the scale on these, but they're each at least
about 5-8 feet tall, just floating in the sea around the ship.

the crowd on the windy top deck of the ship, checking out the glacier
and the mountains not far behind it.

a little calving - not the big one, but still very impressive in
it's own right.

stunning. just stunning. and surreal to see right in front of you.

Comments

on lullabies

i am not a singer. if you've sat behind me in church, you know this to be true. (and i'm sorry.) a musician, yes. a singer no. and yet i find myself singing to john almost nonstop. and the beauty is, he seems to actually like it! (there's no accounting for taste. he also thinks i'm the most beautiful woman in the world. i'm no ogre, but i'm certainly not winning any beauty contests outside of my son's brain!) and actually, i've written some lullabies for john that are pretty nice. and it made me think: did your parents sing to you? do you remember what they sang, and better yet, if you have kids, do you sing the same songs to them? reply in the comments!

pull up your big boy undies

"what time is it? mommy? what oclock?" john's teacher told me something amazing today. "you should bring me some big boy undies," she said, "i haven't changed john in weeks." it seems that at school, since they check in with him periodically to see if he has to potty, and since his very smart teacher has noticed his (very regular) bowel movement schedule, john is potty trained. at 9am at 2pm, she plops him on the toilet. he might sit for 20 minutes, reading a book. when she checks on him, he says, "i just poo-pooin', miss meka." and when he's done, he's good and done. we're not quite that far along at home, but tonight we go shopping for big boy undies. and i'm sure we'll have a few accidents, but that's just a part of the process ... and soon my little boo will be in big boy undies full time. and ... it's a great time for him to be out of diapers. because good lord willing and the creek ...

i'm furberizing my baby

ok, let's get this straight right off the bat: i don't know if i am literally following dr. furber's methods of sleep training. there are so many versions out there. but saying we're furberizing john is WAY more fun than saying that i'm letting him cry his little lungs out in an attempt to teach him to sleep on his own. it's night two of our efforts. he went right to sleep last night, which was great. and he slept for 5.25 hours (!!!!) before waking up at 2:30 a.m. when he woke up crying, i let him cry for 5 minutes before going in to soothe him. (the soothing barely works at all, by the way, but it's what i'm supposed to do ...) then i let him cry for 10 more minutes before going in to soothe him again. next on the agenda was a 15 minute stretch of crying - but he fell asleep after 8 minutes. so a sum total of 22 minutes of crying. not too bad for night two. i've heard night three can be the worst ... so we'll hold on to our hats tonight. mean...

john's mom works

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