Juneau, Alaska ...and a giveaway (part 2 of ?)

 This was what we woke up to when we arrived in Alaska...It was beautiful!  

 This is not trick photography, that blue line going up the side of the mountain was what we saw.  

Have no idea what caused it???

 One seriously long waterfall...

 Our first view of Juneau. You can't drive to Juneau.  

The only way to get there is by plane, ferry, or ship.

There are only about 100 miles of roads in and around Juneau.

 My first wildlife sighting....Harbor Seals.

 My first humpback whale!  

See the puff of water in the air behind him?  That's another whale.

 Getting a picture of a whale tale was a challenge.  

You only see the tail when they are going to dive deeply.

 A calf kept breaching over and over again.  It was spectacular.

 Three puffs!  How cool is that?

 Sorry this is blurry, but I had to tell you about it.

The whales are bubble net feeding.

One whale dives deeply and blows bubbles around a school of fish.

The fish can't get out of the bubble net.

Then all the whales in the pod open their mouths and shoot up to the surface.

Notice the birds...we could predict where it was going to happen because the birds started swarming before the whales came up to feed. 

 Two whale tales!

 Mendenhall Glacier...

 You could walk down a little trail to get a closer look. They gave warnings about not walking by yourself, but...I was on my own.  Surly there were enough people around for me to not run into a bear.

 Yes, those icebergs are blue.  

It has something to do with the organisms in the water.

 The path down to the better view was lovely!

 The forget-me-not is the state flower.

I had them in my bouquet when I got married.

 All was going well, so I decided to walk down to a deserted beach.

 I wanted to check out the lump of ice on the beach.

Yes, I was alone...and no one was around.

 It was pretty cool to see and touch the ice.

 I got an awesome shot of the glacier. I was enjoying my solitude.  I could see people in the distance, but I loved the silence.  I felt like I was part of nature.  The bus was about to leave so I hurried up the trail...

 One of the ladies in our group was standing at the top of the stairs (waves to Diana).  She looked a little pale.  She asked me if I saw it.  I had no idea what she was talking about.  She said the bear cub that walked in front of you.  I thought she was pulling my leg until she showed me the photo.  She said the bear cub (which means there was a mama somewhere close) crossed the path about ten seconds before I came around the bushes.  YIKES! And yes....I was on my own...

 Juneau had lots of shops...

Many were full of jewelry...

Which reminds me...

Did you leave a comment on this post to get an entry in my gold flake earrings from Alaska?

Have I convinced you that you need to visit Alaska yet?  

My next post will be about Glacier Bay...

The Lost Girl...release day!

I am so excited to be helping announce Sangu Mandanna's book release day!  

Just look at that awesome cover!

Here's the blurb:

Eva’s life is not her own. She is a creation, an abomination—an echo. Made by the Weavers as a copy of someone else, she is expected to replace a girl named Amarra, her “other”, if she ever died. Eva studies what Amarra does, what she eats, what it’s like to kiss her boyfriend, Ray. So when Amarra is killed in a car crash, Eva should be ready.

But fifteen years of studying never prepared her for this.

Now she must abandon everything she’s ever known—the guardians who raised her, the boy she’s forbidden to love—to move to India and convince the world that Amarra is still alive.
What Eva finds is a grief-stricken family; parents unsure how to handle this echo they thought they wanted; and Ray, who knew every detail, every contour of Amarra. And when Eva is unexpectedly dealt a fatal blow that will change her existence forever, she is forced to choose: Stay and live out her years as a copy or leave and risk it all for the freedom to be an original. To be Eva.

Sangu Mandanna was four years old when she was chased by an elephant and wrote her first story about it and decided that this was what she wanted to do with her life. Seventeen years later, she read Frankenstein. It sent her into a writing frenzy that became THE LOST GIRL, a novel about death and love and the tie that binds the two together. Sangu now lives in England with her husband and baby son.


You can buy Sangu's book at:

Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Girl-Sangu-Mandanna/dp/0062082310/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328825318&sr=8-1)
Amazon UK (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Girl-Sangu-Mandanna/dp/0062082310/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329490336&sr=8-1)
Barnes & Noble (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-lost-girl-sangu-mandanna/1108621152?ean=9780062082312)
The Book Depository (http://www.bookdepository.com/Lost-Girl-Sangu-Mandanna/9780062082312)
Indiebound (http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780062082312)

You can learn more about Sangu by visiting her blog or her website...and you can follow her on Twitter @SanguMandanna

Cruising Alaska...part 1 (and a giveaway)

 Several years ago we took a cruise to the Caribbean.  It was my first cruise.  I wasn't really impressed.  We had rough seas, motor issues and I was very (repeat that), very dizzy.

Lat month, we took our second cruise.  It was exceptional (although I still had some dizziness).  We flew to Seattle and boarded the MS Westerdam and cruised to Alaska.  Our trip was 2015 nautical miles. The ship was 935 feet long! It carried 2036 guests (and never felt crowded) and 807 crew members. It used 216 tons of diesel a day and 90 tons of gasoline a day.  WOW, that is a lot of fuel!

 Our cabin was lovely!

There was even a desk for me to write at, with a window view.

We were greeted with fresh flowers, fruit, chocolate covered strawberries, and champagne. 

(Nice start, right?)

We had a lovely patio, which I spent a lot of time on.

We had cruise TV.  We could watch a TV channel that showed the view from the front or rear of the ship.  (Totally cool!) We could also watch where we were on another channel and get all the ship stats.

The ship was beautiful!  It even had a retractable roof over one of the pools.

I did find time most days to work on NOT A HOLIDAY, although the beautiful views out my window were a bit distracting.

Most days we had a cute critter in our rooms when they came in to turn down our bed at night. 

This cool life boat took us to shore in one port. 

 The town was too small to have a dock big enough for our ship.

The food was beautiful and tasty.  I can't believe I forgot to photograph every meal. 

(hangs head in shame)

There were 84 people preparing food for us each day.

We consumed 11,830 lbs of meat and meat products, 3,814 lbs of poultry, 3,000 lbs of fish, 2,575 lbs of seafood, and 23,040 eggs.  (I'm pretty sure I made a big dent in the fish and seafood totals.  I had one or the other (or both) every evening at dinner.)

These were part of the crew that made sure we had a wonderful time.

My favorite thing to do while we were on the ship was to go to the piano bar.  Derek Floyd made every night exceptionally fun.  On the last night, I was exhausted, but I wanted to stop by and chat with Derek.  He was looking forward to his wife and son getting on the ship when we returned to Seattle and then he would have a week with them.  I hope he had a wonderful time.  

If you would like to hear Derek, you can hop over to this  clip.

And now for the giveaway....Jewelry was the big item on this cruise.  Every port had loads of jewelry stores, plus they sold it on the ship.  I bought this pair of gold flake earrings to give away to you guys.  I know you might be a guy and think, well what kind of fun is this?  Think of it this way...you can surprise someone you care about with these lovely earrings.

All you have to do is be a follower, comment on this post and your in...On September, 6th I'll let random.org chose a winner.

I hope you have been having a wonderful summer.

Are You Ready?

Just in case you haven't heard....WRITEONCON officially starts on August 13th, 14th, and 15th, but the forums are now open!!!

I hope to see you and some Ninja Agents there...

I'm logged in as skmayhew.  

What about you?