Tracy's Arm Fjord

I can remember reading about the fjord's of Norway in my 4th grade geography book. I was fascinated by them. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever ride a giant boat up a fjord. On Wednesday morning that is what we did. We were told the night before that we would be entering Tracy's Arm fjord at 5:30 am so I was up on deck at 5 am. It was freezing cold but I got a prime spot on the front by the plexiglass barrier so I was there to stay. I had on my cuddle duds and five layers of upper clothes. J came up about 5:30 when we began to see more chunks of the blue ice. About 7, J left but I just couldn't. It was a spectacular journey. There were several places I thought that we had reached a dead end but Capt'n Stein did an excellent job turning the corners and dodging the chunks of ice. At 7:30 we were really close to the glacier and appeared to be stopped so I started to go to breakfast at the buffet where I could still see the glacier. I tried to open hot chocolate mix with my hands and I could not get them to open it. They were so cold they weren't moving. I finally had to tear the pack with my teeth. Slowing as I held the hot cup my hands began to move. As they did, I had burning and tingling on my wrists. Mel said that I had hypothermia from being in the cold. I didn't realize how cold I had become. It didn't stop me from going back out to examine the glacier up close. During breakfast, we had drifted even closer to it. It was sad to hear the avalanches that were falling off. I would hear a thunder sound and then giant chunks would fall off into the water. The view and the fact that I now know what a fjord is was worth all the cold.