Alaska is known for its cold weather and subsequently unique flora and fauna. In September my family and I went to Alaska for a couple weeks to visit my brother and celebrate my Mother’s 80th birthday. While we were there we took plenty of advantage of the unique environment and did our share of sightseeing. One of the places that we went was to one of the glaciers near Seward. There we saw harbor seals and got close enough to really get to appreciate the beauty of the glacier and the surrounding sea ice. I was quite impressed by the sheer size of the glacier and by its complexity. I have to say, though, I thought that the sea ice was especially cool. Like icebergs, the majority of the ice is under the water. The water and cold air melt and refreeze the ice over and over a little bit at a time creating some interesting and unique shapes. Those shapes, plus the attractive bluish tint in both the ice and the water were a great stimulus to my artist’s eye.