Our Trip to Alaska

This is a picture of jason and myself with his parents, Les and Carrie, in front of the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Alaska. We were just getting ready to go on a nature hike through a beautiful rainforest and along the sea coast.

This is another glacier we were able to see on our cruise ship in Glacier Bay, headed back toward Whittier, AK. This pictures really doesn't do it justice. IT was a little foggy and cold the afternoon I took this shot. 56 degrees, with a nice brisk wind! Burrr... but worth it for the amazing views.

This is just a random picture of the early evening sun while on the ship. Everywhere you turned, you found something amazing to look at.

This picture was taken on a tramway in Juneau. We were quite high up on top of this mountain looking down at the bay. There was a great shop, restaurant, and several trails to hike on once you got up there.

This was one of the coolest things, I thought. It's just a little light house out in the middle of nowhere. I thought it was beautiful. Not sure I'd like to live there, although, it would be nice to stay for a day or two. IT is no longer in use, but I still think it's very charming. 

Jason and I were posing in front of a little lake on top of a mountain near Hanes, AK. We were able to go on a shore excursion where we rode ATV's through this mountain and ended up at a nice cabin where the guides cooked us a great meal of chicken and Fresh Halibut, with fruit salad and homemade lemonade. Delicious. The view from the cabin was spectacular.

This is the view I just mentioned. Can you imagine eating your dinner each night over-looking that? 

My cute Hubby. What more can I say? We took this cruise to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. On the ship, I surprised him with a chocolate mousse, heart-shaped, fudge-covered cake that said Happy 10th Anniversary. He surprised me with Swarovski jewelry... A tennis bracelet, a necklace, and teardrop earrings. I love them! I wore them on our Formal dinner night on the cruise! He is so thoughtful. (Made the cake look a little lame... but is sure was good!)

Mendenhall Glacier

Alaska is the most beautiful place I have ever been. These purple flowers are called Fire weed, and they grow wild there- all over. They line the roads, the coast, the mountains... 

This is the sea coast we ended up walking on after our rainforest hike. There were balk eagles in the trees behind us, and boats out on the water, but it was really serene and calm. Nice and quiet. Occasionally, you'd see a salmon jump out of the water, or even a whale exhale through it's blow hole. We were able to see many humpback whales on the ship. They never really came very far out of the water, but it as cool to see the blow come 20 feet off of the surface of the water.

This was my attempt at photography. The big leaves you see are called Devil's Club. They are named that for a good reason... the whole plant is lined in thorns. I thought it was so pretty. I took this shot from the underside because the light coming through the leaves made the leaves appear lime green. I also wanted to get the old rainforest trees in the background. Such an amazing place.

This was the sunset on the first night of the cruise... It happened really pretty late, although it never really gets dark in Alaska this time of year.

Another excursion we went on was aboard the Allutian Ballad, a crab fisherman's boat that was featured on season 2 of the show, "Deadliest Catch" on the Discovery Channel. They took us aboard the ship, which has now been turned into a tourist vessel only... and showed us how they bait and pull the crab pots. They told us the harrowing stories of the many wrecks and terrible storms that the ship had been through (one of which was actually caught on film during the second season of the show.) They showed us an octopus, several different kind of crab, pulled next to native indians, who were salmon fishing, and they also pulled us along the shore line and threw fish into the water where about 30 bald eagles were eagerly waiting for them. They flew in and grabbed the fish not 3 feet from us. It was really amazing to see it that close. we caught it all on video with the flip! So fun!

Jason and me in front of our Carnival Spirit cruise ship at the Ketichikan port. This was taken right before we headed out in the Allutian Ballad Crab Boat. We had such a great time. I'll never forget the amazing scenery. It's just like looking right at God's handiwork.