Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Day three (Ketchikan)

We were so excited to get up today and go into Ketchikan and do some kayaking and shopping! We first loaded a bus and took a 20minute ride outside of town to some Islands called Eagle Islands. It was so beautiful there and so peaceful. We had a tour guide that we followed around all these little coves of the islands in a kayak. My arms were a little sore the next day but well worth every minute of rowing.





Around lunch time we still had a few hours before we had to be back on the ship so we walked around the town for a few hours and shopped. The town of Ketchikan is so tiny but absolutely beautiful. We found this stream up behind the town and the Salmon were spawning up the stream, we just stayed and watched them try to swim up stream for a while and walked around.








Our sunset that evening when the fog was just barley coming in around the different islands, it never really got totally dark there. The sun went down close to 11:00pm but it was never all the way dark and then the sun would come up about 4:00am (it took some getting use too).












Day four (Juneau)











During the night our ship traveled 272 miles to the town Juneau. I had butterflies in my stomach today because I was so excited to go on a Zip Line through the Togass National Rain Forest. I felt like Tarzan flying through the trees, I loved every minute of it. We also went to the Mendenhall Glacier the first one on our trip to see. We could not get that close to it but it was beautiful to look at. Next time we would love to take a helicopter ride to it and land on the glacier, they let you get out and walk around and even go dog sledding-boy does that sound fun? We saw the Capital building and the Governor's house (no, we could not see Russia). It was a great day and the weather was perfect.

Day five (Skagway)








This was Ken's favorite town to walk around. Located on the Alaskan Panhandle it was first made a town in the early 1900's. It was a popular town for the gold miners during the Alaskan Gold Rush. Between 1897-1898 it was a law less town described as "a little better than Hell on Earth" Now with a lot of the original buildings it was so much fun to walk around. The people in this town really play to the tourism and dress the parts of the 1800-1900"s.









Day six (Glacier Bay)










Glacier Bay National Park is in the South-Eastern part of Alaska. Here we found Whales, Seals, Sea lions, Brown bears and Eagles. It was a beautiful day and we did absolutely nothing but eat and kick back in the lounge chairs and watch the glaciers go by. This was one of my most favorite days of the whole trip. These pictures don't really do any justice on how big these Glaciers really are.












Day seven (College Fjord)











Our last day of the cruise our ship went into College Fjord. This area is located in the northern part of Prince William Sound. The Fjord contains five tidewater glaciers (glaciers that empty into the water), five large valley glaciers and dozens of smaller glaciers. Most of the Glaciers are named after colleges. This day was our coldest day by far, I wish I had my snow mobile jacket and gloves. The sights were breathtaking and so peaceful. You could hear this very loud thunder sound coming from the glaciers and then you could see the ice chunks fall off into the ocean. It was AMAZING. In one of the pictures by the glacier on the ice chunks there are tons of little brown harbor seals, they were all over.

On our journey from Vancouver to Whitter we traveled 1490 Nautical miles. This was some of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life. The experiences are unforgettable.

Thank you to my sweet Mother-in-law for watching the girls the time we were gone, I love you so much.

Thanks Ken for this amazing trip and for the best 10 years of my life.











Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Is 30 something still hot?

Just about every night I go running with about 4 women around the neighborhood. Every once in awhile we get the occasional "cat calls", "whistles" and"hollers". We don't mind them so much (hey at least a few are still looking) anyways tonight there was a black Lexus with a few guys in it that were honking and whistling they got a little closer to us and slowed way down and as they were right next to us they yelled "oh, sorry we thought you girls were younger" WHAT!
Wow was that a blow, but I say HA-I may not be all that young anymore but hey from a distance I guess I am not that bad. (hehehehe).

Horesetooth Lake






A few weeks ago we took the boat up to Horsetooth Lake and spent the day out in the sun. We had so much fun soaking up the rays and watching the girls play in the water. The girls love to go out on grandpa's boat and can't wait until we get to go again.