Day 6 Of Our Alaska Adventure, March 21st

Today was going to be a really fun day.  We were going to meet up with our new friends Barb and Bill from Valdez.  And guess what....

They were going to make us on a flight-seeing tour!  I couldn't wait.

We went out to the airport but Bill's plane wouldn't start so we came back into town for a little while.

It would be a perfect time to go visit the Valdez Public Library.  

We read more about the Valdez Public Library on the city website.  

It was so bright and colorful....I loved all of the windows and the way that the books are organized.

There was a fun bulletin board up that said AKLA!  Mom thought this was so nice.  I did too.

There were a lot of murals throughout the library.  This one above the nonfiction books was my favorite. 

Then we went and had lunch.  Something funny happened lunch.....I saw one rabbit and thought it looked tame.  Then I saw another rabbit!  And Mom saw a black rabbit the night when got here.  

I found out that the rabbits were tame and every where.  You can feed them and pet them....They are like cats in Iowa. 

We took a little walk on the peer.  It is so cool with the reflection of the pictures.  

The water doesn't freeze in Valdez because it is too deep.  It is over 800 feet deep.  

We went back to the hanger and hoped Bill's plane started.  

This is a picture of Barb and Bill.  Barb was the teacher librarian in Valdez and he was the principal.  They were cool. 

Dad had to help Bill get the plane out and faced it to the runway. 

The ground here in Valdez is a sheet of ice everywhere.  It was fun to slide around by the plane.  I told Mom to watch so she could take this picture.

 It was time!  And I was going to sit in the front.

Here I am as the co-pilot.  We wore headphones so we could listen to each other and the airport.  There was a little microphone close to our mouth too.

This is the Valdez Glacier that goes through the Chucach Mountains....It went for a long time.

 Bill put the camera on the dash of the airplane to take this picture.

I asked Bill a lot of questions.  

 Mom found this map and it shows the different islands, glaciers, and what the water is called.

This is the Columbia Glacier coming out of the Chucach Mountains.  It is going into the sea.  It doesn't look super tall from the airplane but it is.

These are the narrows leading into Prince William Sound.

We flew over a village called Tatitlek. There are only 88 people who live in the town.

We flew over so we could see the church with the blue roof.  It is a Russian Orthodox Church and is old.

My first ride in a little plane and as a co-pilot was AWESOME!

Now it was Mom's turn to go up too.  Dad stayed in the back and I went to play in the snow with Barb....and we went and got a caramel apple smoothie at the coffee shop too.

If you look really close you can see the bright blue ice of the glacier.

The snow looks like whipped cream on the mountains because there is so much of it.

We saw a cool snow cave on the glacier.  It looks little from up there but someone told us later that it is 3 stories tall inside and really pretty.  The ice is blue inside of the snow cave just like the glacier. 

Here they are flying back to Valdez.  You can see the airport and runway by the mountains.

Mom and Dad made it back!

When they were gone I had fun playing on top of this huge mountain of snow.  I made a snow fort that was really awesome.  I didn't want to leave.  That was the most fun I had on the whole trip.

Flying was a super COOL day.  Thank you Pilot Bill and Barb for an AWESOME day.