Day 2: First Glacier

We slept in as best as we could but even after staying up late we were still on KC time. Pops had cooked up a bunch of pancakes and bacon. Heath and I got a couple mile run in before the kids got up and then we all ate.

It was in the 60s and really nice and sunny out. We packed up the truck and headed out for an adventure to our first glacier. We drove south along the Turnaguin arm for about an hour looking for beluga whales and eagles before arriving at Byron glacier.
Once there we found I forgot the battery in the camera so we used cell phones. We took a little break before the trail-head and looked out over Portage Lake and saw some boats and a little iceberg.

Then we loaded up on bug spray and waved our way through the mosquitoes and onto a really nice black gravel trail.

We hiked along a little rushing mountain stream for about an hour to a big opening looking out at the glacier between some mountains.

We spotted a mountain goat but he was too high up to get a good picture. The view was great and the weather was perfect. Everything was so clear and clean.
There was no trail from this point but we worked our way over and around some rocks over to a big stretch of snow.

We slid around and looked in the crevices and tossed a few snow balls.

Everyone had a lot of fun but the kids were a little bummed that we didn’t think to bring a sled with us.
After throwing some rocks in the creek we headed out.

We made good time hiking out and barely worked up a sweat.

We drove over to a 2.5 mile tunnel and then took a little break. Traffic only goes 1 way at a time and switches every 30 minutes. When it was our turn we drove under the mountain and over to Whittier.

We parked and walked up to a couple of restaurants before finding a great one that had big windows we could sit at and watch the harbor.

We ate halibut and had some local beers.

The kids had a good time looking at the boats fill up on gas and head out.
After lunch we didn’t have long before the tunnel went back our direction so we walked along the shore over to our car and then headed out.

The girls both fell asleep under the tunnel. Pops drove us all the way home and the girls slept until we got into the garage. We tried to put them back to sleep but it did not work. Pumpkin did lay down and watch a movie on the laptop while Heath relaxed and Pops and I ran to get some diapers.
Once home Pops got busy making dinner. We grilled burgers, sausage and I did some butternut squash. The sausage was some homemade stuff from one of Pops coworkers and it was really good and spicy. We didn’t know what kind of meat it was though.
We were all pretty worn out after dinner but went for a walk to work off dinner. As we walked we could smell all the flowers and got a few nice views of the ocean.  Once home we were beat got the kids and me to bed.