Absolutely breathtaking!!

I'm not sure words can describe what we experienced today, but I'll give it a try. We woke up at 3:30am to catch the sunrise over the Antarctic Sound, truly beautiful, as the sun came up the tops of the mountains turned a pink-orange color. It was very cold on deck. After watching the sunrise a quick breakfast then off to go ashore. Our first steps on the continent of Antarctica. (5 continents for me and 6 for Cheryl)

The sea was calm, like glass and the sky was clear and a beautiful blue. We landed on the Antarctic Sound where we were greeted by adorable Adelie Penguins. They are the funniest little guys, they do everything in large groups. They would start to go into the water then all of a sudden one would stop and all others would stop. They would wait until one made the move to go in and others would follow, they did this over and over... you couldn't help but laugh. We walked to the Adelie rookery and watched the little babies chase the adults around wanting food.

There was also a small gentoo colony that had the most curious little babies. We sat down and the little babies came to check us out. At one point I had two babies climbing on me and snuggling in my jacket. At different times each of the babies jumped onto my lap, I almost popped into a million pieces. I had thin gloves on unfortunately, but I did get to pet the little guy, I would have loved to feel the soft fuzzy fur. Cheryl got great photos!

It was very warm now, no need for parkas, even the little baby penguins were too hot, they were spread eagle on rocks trying to cool off. After playing with the babies Cheryl and I hiked up the glacier, what an experience! Took pictures and then hiked down.

We left the Antarctic Sound heading further up the Antarctic peninsula toward our landing sight for tomorrow morning. The captain and his crew did an amazing job with a slow cruise through the most beautiful tabular icebergs. The views were breathtaking!

Our expedition leader has made the same comment about two of our landings... Salisbury Plain and Antarctic Sound, "No need for you to ever come back, because it doesn't get better than this"

This is one day that will be extremely difficult to beat!!!

Did I mention that we saw penguins?