taking pictures of ice

The first full day spent aboard the ship was labeled a 'cruising' day, as the distance between Seward and our first port of call, Juneau, were many sea miles apart. 

As a family we looked forward to sailing all day so we could sleep in, explore the ship and eat whenever WE chose.  No longer would we have to wait until the touring schedule allowed a quick stop to refuel, most often not in conjunction with when Ellie's T1D required a meal.

Not that eating on the ship was easy-peasy.  True, food was available just about anytime you wanted to nosh, but the buffet of food and lack of nutritional information threw our diligent carb-counting overboard. 

We tried, we really did.  We even packed our Salter nutritional scale and brought along our handy dandy Calorie King guide but when time came to count we just looked at Ellie's plate of food, estimated the serving size and added up the damage.  And you know what, it worked most of the time!

I realize this is not an ideal situation and more diligence should have been paid to correctly measure, weigh and look up nutritional information.  Nine months of daily snack and meal 'counting' have lead us to the point where we can look at most foods and guesstimate the carb count.  Then there is the 'what does my gut say' factor where you hem and haw about what ratio to use to determine the number of units of insulin to give.  Finally, all there is to do is pull up the insulin in the syringe, whisper a prayer and take the plunge.

A little bit of science, a little bit of art and a little bit of prayer equals a good recipe for success in our book.

*We did have the discussion with Ellie that what we were doing on the trip was an exception and not the new rule.  When we got home we went right back to weighing and measuring her foods in order to get the most accurate carb count.

And THAT is how we rolled with the food and T1D on this vacation.

Speaking of . . . . how about some more photos?!

Hubbard Glacier - the ship sailed into Disenchantment Bay, home of North America's largest tidewater glacier.  This photo shows the glacier calving ~ large chunks of ice cleaving off the face and dropping into the water. 

This chunk must have been pretty big to survive the fall and remain intact.  I love the layers (displaying different sediment layers and varying density of the ice)

The Grandparents had a stateroom with a walk-out balcony.  What a wonderful time we all had looking at the glacier and drinking in the sounds of nature.

One of my favorite photos of the trip!  I was standing on a chair on the balcony, trying to get photos of the glacier, when Ellie slithered up under me and climbed in front of me on the chair.  She stuck her arms out to take her OWN photo . . . . . which provided me with a great shot of my own.

Ben and Ellie enjoying a soft-serve ice cream in the Windjammer Cafe as we were cruising into the glacier bay.  Notice the chunk of ice floating in the water ~ we saw several seal's heads pop up and all I could think of was "Wow, that water must be frigid to swim in!"

And yes, we did bolus for that sweet treat.  If I remember correctly, we guesstimated 38 for the treat, used a 1:15 ratio since we knew she would be fairly inactive watching the glacier all afternoon, and took into account she was still working on digesting her lunch and insulin already on board . . . . . so 2 units dosed!

Next up, head wound Harry's story . . .