Pictures Don't Do It Justice

 Today's 7:00 a.m. destination: Mikkelson Harbor on Trinity Island

Nesting penguins and penguin highways, a couple of molting seals and whale bones.

On the short ride over, we spotted a whale.

We've learned to easily distinguish between Gentoo and Chinstrap Penguins. 

These are Gentoo with orange beaks and a white mask around their eyes.

The Chinstrap have black beaks, white heads with a black line that looks like a strap 

under their heads. 

Chile had erected a marker and Argentina a small cabin. 

Penguins create "highways" to get around--generally to the ocean and back to their nests.
Nests are made from pebbles, out of the snow, often on the tops of hills where the snow melts first.
A penguin couple takes turns sitting on their nests. While one keeps their two eggs warm,
the other brings one pebble at a time in its beak to build up the nest or swims in the ocean.

A very common sight even when it seems we're far from land is groups of penguins

porpoising through the ocean.

We walked around the island twice, up and down hills,

stopping to watch the penguins waddle or pick up pebbles

or listen to a guide talk about evolution in humans and species.

So interesting! Did you know there used to be penguins the size of an adult male?

We were back on the boat by 9:00 a.m. and enjoyed room service breakfast and downtime before lunch.
Then the boat sailed a couple hours to Cierva Cove.

It's Monday, so we all talked to Nick for a long while a few different times today!

Before we came on this trip, I imagined Antarctica to be a flat land mass covered in snow, 

but it has hills and mountains, and a variety of terrain. 

On one side of this cove, the glaciers are so thick we're guessing they're at least 30 ft high.

But on another side, summer has brought snowmelt, green moss grows and there's plenty of dry ground for the penguins to make nests.

I wish I could float in this glassy bay for hours exploring the shape, color and design

of each mass of ice and soaking in the quiet calm of this new terrain.

The temperatures are 34* farenheit and we're very warm in our gear.

When the zodiac picks up speed to head back to the ship, I tuck my chin into my parka, 

and our fingers get a little cold holding on to the rope for balance,

but its not uncomfortable at all and we warm up right away.

Hard to believe that these bare cliffs covered in moss are just around the cove from the glaciers.

Penguin highways run from their rookeries at the top of the mountain down to the ocean.

Across the water everywhere you look, penguins were swimming, diving and jumping.

An Argentine outpost used only in spring sat on a hill covered with penguins.

We saw a small iceberg break apart and flip over.

The glaciers and icebergs are the most incredible shade of blue.

 Some of the ice is dark, almost black. 

I was sure the object in the photo below was a dead seal until we were right close to it.

The black ice is actually not black at all, but perfectly clear ice. 

The clearest ice is the oldest ice where all the air has been compressed out of it.

Probably about 6,000 years old!

Three different times I've seen ice shaped just like the two photos below.

The first time I couldn't believe my eyes that a white swan was floating in the ocean.

I know it didn't make sense, but it looked just like it.

(And there are a lot of species of birds here, so it wasn't completely out of the realm of possibility.)

But no, it's just ice.

After our excursion we talked to Nick again and heard all about his Christmas overnight at his Mission President's home. The family they are teaching. What he's cooked this week (homemade marinara sauce and next on his list to learn to make is fish onion soup. Also, he told a member he can cook a better steak than any restaurant and the member agreed to buy steaks and have chef Shaef make a meal. We talked while Nick was on the bus home from the mall where they'd gone with their district to buy gifts for their Secret Santa and for his comp. A model Porsche for his comp who loves cars and a stuffed animal cow for his Secret Santa who grew up on a farm and is missing his cows. Nick is a great gift giver! They also decorated their apartment with a small tree, lights and hung stockings.)

Before dinner all three of us went to the small gym. I rode the stationary bike and the boys lifted and sat in the sauna.

It started snowing as we sailed and even though we're surrounded by white, 
snowfall is still magical.

At 10:30 p.m., while we were watching the first half of It's a Wonderful Life, the clouds parted and we saw blue sky for the first time since we left. But even when its cloudy, the skies are light all through the night.