In Which Miss Hoppington Cruises a Fjord

Heading into the fjord.

 I sailed in a fjord today! Fjord is a word from Norway, a country on the other side of the world from where I was, and it means a long, narrow inlet of the sea between mountains. It is pronounced like fyord or fiord. We were sailing in the Tracy Arm Fjord, so called because when you look at a map, it looks like an arm! (you can see it here: http://tinyurl.com/j55wc8q) It's a fun word to say. Fjord, fjord, fjord!

At the end of the fjord was a big glacier called Sawyer Glacier. Fjords are made by glaciers like Sawyer and this fjord was very deep. The waters are a bright deep greenish blue, very pretty. Glacial silt gives the waters that color and helps protect harbor seals from orcas. The orcas use sonar to hear under the water but in the fjord, there is too much silt and it confuses them so they don't come up the fjord. When we got to the glacier, we saw lots of harbor seals relaxing on the the ice. In fact, some seals treat the glacier and the fjord like a nursery because they know it is safe to leave their pups while they go look for food.

We had lots of time to look at the glacier while the captain turned the boat around. He literally spun the boat around in place because there was so little room but did it very slowly so we could see everything and, in my case, not fall off the railing.

You can't see the glacier yet 'cause I'm standing in front of it.

It's so big! We're still about half a mile away.

See how blue!

The glacier was very blue, almost the color of glass cleaner! I was surprised at that but it was very beautiful. That color happens because there is so much ice and it's pressed together so hard that instead of the ice being white, it turns bright blue. So many pretty colors: the green water, the bright blue glacier and the dark green trees on the mountains around the fjord.

Heading back out of the fjord.

After we saw the glacier and spun around, we headed back out and on to our next adventure. There were large bits of drift ice from the glacier floating with us as we left the fjord. They look pretty small in the pictures but they were actually pretty big, especially to a little rabbit such as myself.

I think it's time for a nap and some sun on the upper deck. I am on a cruise after all!

See you next time!

Hedda

In Which Miss Hoppington Gets Very Wet

Brrr, friends!
After my early morning adventure in Skagway, I boarded a bus and drove out of the country. Yes, up the Klondike Highway until we were in... Canada! We drove to Fraser, BC, which sits about 7 miles inside Canada and is the first place that the Klondike Highway and the White Pass Railway meet.

We got off at Fraser for our next adventure, kayaking. There's a lake across the tracks from the customs house at Fraser that was made by a glacier. Remember how I said glaciers made mountains by scraping and pressing down? Well, they made lakes sometimes, too, and the water from the remaining glaciers feed the lakes which makes the water very cold. Unfortunately, I got very wet; Miss L. kept splashing me by accident but I still had so much fun. I was also very glad when we were done. We had hot cider to warm up and snacks while we waited for the White Pass Railway to take us back to Skagway. I'll have to tell you about the train ride next.

You can't see me but I'm riding in the center of the kayak!

Slowly getting warmer,

Hedda

In Which Miss Hoppington Answers the Call of the Wild

Helloooooo! (that's me howling),

Juneau is an interesting city but I spent most of my time outside of downtown. You see, I got to ride on a helicopter. A helicopter that flew over a glacier. And then landed on the glacier. And then I got to ride a dog sled! How absolutely fantastic!

We flew to the Mendenhall Glacier, which is a large glacier that starts in the Juneau Icefield, the fifth largest icefield in the world. A glacier is very dense ice formed by snow from over hundreds of years. Glaciers can move and can even change the land around them by scraping on the sides and pressing down. A lot of the mountains in Alaska were made by glaciers.

Once on the glacier, we all got off the helicopters and then went to meet our dog teams. Each group had a dog musher (a person who commands the dogs). After meeting the dogs, we all got into the sleds for a ride. All the dogs who weren't pulling sleds had to stay behind. They were very unhappy about it and let us know by barking and howling and whining. Sled dogs love to pull sleds and run!

After a quick break, the dogs are ready to run again.

Away from the camp, it was very quiet. All we could hear was the sound of the wind, blowing across the glacier, and the shushing of the sled runners. We stopped once because the lead dog wouldn't follow directions; he wanted to haw (go left) when the musher wanted him to gee (go right). Then, we stopped about half-way through to take photographs and for people to switch places (some people wanted to stand on the foot boards). The sleds started up again, and much too soon, we were back at the dog camp. I would have loved to go on a much longer ride.

Then the helicopter came back and we had to fly back to Juneau and the boat. My adventure in Juneau came to an end much too soon. But there was more adventure waiting the next day!

I'll tell you about it next time.

Mush onward, my friends!

Hedda