ALASKA

What incredible country Alaska is!!! 

 I think I'll always be in awe of everything about it.......the air, the magnitude, those enormous mountains erupting out of the sea, glaciers, wildlife .............just all of it!   This post is dedicated to my good friend, Bernice.   I wanted her to see at least a few of the photos that I've posted on Facebook so far.  There are plenty more but I haven't been able to edit them all yet.  
The first photo here is not in the order that I wanted but it's of me and a very outgoing, singing and whistling, conductor.  With his hair and hat on he reminded me of Capt. Kangaroo!  I think he loved posing and as you can see here, he had me get in front of the lens, too.   This was on the train that we had to get up at 4 AM!!!! to catch out of Anchorage, to Seward where our ship was waiting.  The flights up to Anchorage were long and tiring and I really thought I'd sleep on the train, but it was too exciting for me to even bother trying.  We saw a mama bear and somewhere out of my sight, anyway, were her 2 cubs loping on down the tracks in front of the train.  I think the train engineer is very conscious of the possibility of wildlife because it slowed down to practically a crawl while most of the passengers shifted from the right hand side to the left with cameras clicking and snapping.  Mine included.  I did get one not-so-great shot of mama.   This was my one and only bear sighting.   Karen really scored in this area.  She was visiting friends one afternoon over in Haines and her hosts drove over to where they thought she might see a bear.  There it was fishing and eating a salmon.  She had a super telephoto lens and got some of the best bear photos I've seen!   I think she should make a calender of her different photos, they were that good!

This photo is out of

 order, too.  It was actually taken on the second day of crusing and viewing Hubbard Glacier.  I had been up there once before and that glacier viewing was just miserable......freezing rain and wind.  I had to change my clothes about 5 times to try and dry out and warm and never did get very good photos.   This day was different.  The clouds were giving way to blue skies which had some beautiful patterns in the sky.  I didn't SEE any glaciers calving but a HEARD a number of them.  That was so exciting for me...........the sound echoing and there were about four of them close to each other.  So neat!  I guess the glaciers are retreating but the length, width and depth is still very significant.  The above view is taken from a distance from the glacier...........maybe about 1/4 or 1/2 mile?   I'm not very good with judging distances but believe me that this was an awesome sight. 

 This is one of my favorite photos from the cruise.  Our porthole window here is right over the bow of the ship and we'd climb up there and get some pretty good photos if it was cold and windy out on deck.  Karen loved this little "hidie-hole" as I called it and she'd retreat some afternoons and read......slow down and catch a breathe.   It was interesting that at night we were supposed to close our light-proof drapes because the light from our room might interfere with the navigating of the ship.  Maybe the reflections or something.  No problem........we went to bed so early that most of the time it wasn't even dark yet~Such partiers, huh??   We couldn't have been happier with our stateroom and that view.....

And this was our beautiful ship!  I kept looking for a port where I could get a long shot of the entire ship without anything interfering with the image.......this is the closest I could find.  But I think you can get the idea............it was LONG!!  12 or 13 floors high.........All the crew was fantastic.  The only thing I could even think to complain about was that they tried too hard.  Everything you ever wanted and any help they could provide was done immediately and with friendly smiles.   And they were a lot of fun!   It was a great trip and we're already talking about Ireland next............
Have a great week!  Feel the fall in the air?