Thursday Morning

We arrived home in Mt. Vernon about 5:00 pm yesterday.  We unloaded and began unpacking.  What a chore.  It sure felt good to get out of the car.  We drove 4675 miles total.  Boy, oh boy.  Our poor car needs a rest. You would not believe how many bugs were on the front of the car.  It took me 20 quarters at the car wash to get the bugs off and make her look halfway decent.

Life if back to normal here.  The girls all went to Springfield.  They had some shopping that needed to get done.  I went to coffee.  It was sure nice to see my friends again.  You will never guess where Steve was...yes, on the mower.  The yard looked nice.  Michael and Kyle did an excellent job, but Steve had to "touch" it up.  You know how he is with the yard.  Yes, it is already 95 degrees outside and 110 in the direct sunlight on the thermometer.  He is now resting and going to tackle the back yard when the sun is totally in the front and most of the back is in the shade.  We had a huge Walmart bag of mail.  We sorted through that...what a pain.

I also went to get Samurai from Dake's.  He was fine except Dr. Dake is concerned about his hair loss.  Apparently, he shed a lot while he was in their kennel.  We have to watch him.  They weren't sure if it was from his nerves or a problem.  I have to look for no hair spots and if he gets them, we have to go back.  When I picked him up, he was a little happy and then ignored me.  He was upset that I left him there for so long.  Now that he is  home, he is treating me better.  I know he will get over it.

I have a few pictures from the trip.

Tide water glacier at Glacier National Park. 

Beautiful !!!!!!!

Bundled up in front of the glacier.

Big hunk of ice breaking off and hitting the water.

Size comparison to put the glacier into perspective.  

See the blue in the ice?

I can't remember what I've told you and I'm lazy and will not scroll back to read.  Let me start by saying this was so much fun.  We had a great time and saw so many exciting and beautiful things.  My favorite had to be the glaciers.  Glacier National Park was amazing.  The glaciers were beautiful.  I did get a good picture of some of the glacier breaking off and hitting the water.  I believe it is called calving.  The one that calved was a tide water glacier.  It was like thunder when the hunk of ice broke off and hit the water.  This means that it goes all the way to the water.  I wish the blue of the glacier showed better in the pictures.  We were in the park most of the day on the 22nd.  What a wonderful way to spend my birthday.  I couldn't ask for a better present.  The whole park was pristine.  They said that only 3 cruise ships a day could go into the park.  They have to take 3 rangers on board to narrate the scenery to the passengers..  Also there can be no competing activities on the boat.  I guess you either watch the park pass by or you do nothing.  Of course, we watched.  The park also has a rule that only 5 tourists boats and 25 personal boats may enter the park on any given day.  They want to preserve it and not ruin it by so many visitors.  I feel lucky that I got to see them.  It is just amazing how thick the ice is.  The day was about 54 degrees so we were bundled up.  The landscape was beautiful.  So green.