The Final Frontier...Alasksa (last post)

 This will be my last post on Alaska.  I figure you guys are getting tired of my photos. 

 I've only posted a fraction of the ones I took...

 Our third stop in Alaska was Ketchikan.   These little islands were everywhere.  It was so beautiful!

 The port was so small we had to take lifeboats to shore.  

 Many of the little islands were owned by people!  They had houses and private docks.  They got their water from cisterns.  Their power is from generators.  We didn't hear about ....um... their septic systems????

You could actually rent some of these homes.  The government built cabins on some of the islands and you can rent them very reasonably (less than a hotel) for a week at a time.  How cool would that be? Renting an island for a week!!!

 We went on a wildlife tour and saw rafts of sea otters.  They were sooooooo cute!

 Our next stop was in Sitka. I went on a crab excursion.  The bus ride to the crab boat was amazing.  Sadly, most of the photos were blurry because they were through the bus windows.   We did see lots of eagles.  What was surprising was how many were sitting together in trees.  There were probably a dozen in one tree.  They were near an area with lots of fish.

 If you look closely you can see some very colorful starfish on this rocky bank.

 That big glob of sticks at the top of the center tree is an eagle nest.  I've never seen one before.  Eagles go back to their nest each year and add more branches and sticks to them, so they get pretty big.  This photo was taken from quite a distance.

 This is one of the crab pots they pulled up on the tour.  The crabs were beautiful. 

 I didn't hold one though.  I figured I'd have bad dreams....

 This is the splash of the porpoise I saw....the only one in the whole trip.

 This is an old crab canning plant that was along the tour route.  

 The tour ended with a fantastic crab feast.  I've never had crab that was this good...it was fantastic!

 I tried a little local flavor....(not bad)  

AND

some pretty desserts from the cruise ship...

 AND

some monkey business...

I hope you have enjoyed my Alaska photos.  I am so glad I went with my husband on his company trip this year.  It was an amazing opportunity to learn about "The Final Frontier"...ALASKA.

Happy writing, blogging, and reading my friends....

Glacier Bay...(and a winner) updated

 This what we awoke to...We had arrived at Glacier Bay.

 We saw some smaller glaciers, but the ship stopped at this one.  On the TV they asked that you not talk while we were viewing the glacier.  It was beautiful.  The silence of the people aboard the ship allowed you to hear the cracking of the glacier and eventually the calving and splashing.

 It really was this color...

 I started watching this cathedral style hole in the glacier...

 The ice began making the cracking sounds and you could see a little of it flowing through the "window."

 When the ice breaks of the glacier it is called calving.  I had no idea as I snapped away if I was getting any good pictures.  I was super pleased when I got home and downloaded them.

 We didn't see much wildlife in Glacier Bay.

 Believe it or not, this is a black glacier.  It is black because as it has receded it takes the soil with it.  (or something like that)

 A close up of an iceberg.

 Just to put the size of the glacier into perspective...The boat you see here holds around 200 people.

Glacier Bay was exceptionally beautiful and hearing nature working was amazing.

If you missed part one or part two of my trip, click on over and check them out.  

And the winner is Miss Mooty!  Miss Mooty if you will email me your address I will put your gold flake earrings from Alaska in the mail.  

When you are out in nature, do you like silence?

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...