Yup, I'm forgetful. If Holly hadn't commented, who knows when I would have remembered. *sigh*

First up - moose! We saw lots of moose when we were in Denali National Park. Mostly grazing along near the side of the road. :)






Here's a picture of the state bird of Alaska - the ptarmigan. It's the only state bird that changes colors based on the season - white in the winter and brown in the summer (although some that live way north stay white). This one shows about where we were, season-wise. He or she was still mid-change. LOL




We saw several caribou, as well. They were less cooperative, photo-wise...they insisted on staying further up the hillsides. Thank goodness for zoom lenses!



We saw several black bears while we were in the park, too. But they were much too far away to get decent pictures of. Even with binoculars they were hard to see unless they were moving. Also, they weren't actually black - the ones we saw were blonde. :) We didn't see wolves, darn it. But we did see snowshoe hares - they were too quick for me to get pictures but, wow, their feet are HUGE! And we saw some kind of special squirrel...arctic squirrel? I don't remember the name but they look more like chipmunks.



In my earlier post, you saw the grizzly we spotted and the whales and our seal. We saw several bald eagles, too. They're fast! And mostly kept their distance. Still, I like this picture - the sky is beautiful and Mr. Eagle is nice and clear. :) I think you'll see a bigger version if you click.



This concludes our wildlife tour of Alaska. Oh, peeps, you really should consider a trip there. So amazingly gorgeous! The pictures don't come close to capturing it.

Labels: pictures, roaming, vacay, wildlife

Did I mention that vacay was fabulous? Because it was! My expectations were low...I wasn't so enthused about going to Alaska. My mom picked - and the only reason she chose Alaska is because it was the only state she hadn't visited. LOL But it was sooooo beautiful! We were very, very lucky with weather, thank goodness. It was sunny every day and in the mid-60s/low-70s every day ashore. Everywhere we went locals kept telling us how lucky we were and what a good time it was to visit. :o)

So the beginning part of the trip was a few days on land at a couple of different lodges - one south of Denali National Park and one just north of the park (like right outside the park's gate, practically) - and then a (very long) train ride to our ship. We were told that Denali (or Mt. McKinley, if you prefer, both are acceptable...locals mostly just say The Mountain) is only visible about 20% of the time. It is really tall, you know...20320 feet tall. Whoa. So it makes its own weather and is usually wrapped in clouds. What did we see during our three days nearby?

Day 1:


Day 2:

It was really sunny and mostly clear this day too but it was hazy in the distance...there was a forest fire somewhere not too far away.

Day 3:


Awesome, right? Odds of seeing The Mountain three days in a row?? Really slim.

Next up, Hubbard Glacier:

It was chilly and breezy on deck but I didn't need a coat, just fleece and a scarf and I was fine.

Then Glacier Bay:

Again, fleece and scarf were all that I needed to be comfortable on deck. In fact, we ate lunch outside while we were sailing near the Marjorie Glacier.

There was a naturalist on board that was narrating from up on the bridge. She spotted a harbor seal floating on a small iceberg and told people to look for it by trying to spot something that looked like a sausage. LOL

Do you think her description worked? Do you see him? I think he looks like an eyebrow. :-D

Then we arrived at our first port: Skagway. We took a bus ride over into the Yukon first - gorgeous!




So there we were, cruising along on our way to a barbecue lunch, looking at all the pretty scenery when our bus driver/tour guide slams on the brakes and yells "Bear!" Yup, right along the roadside was a teenage grizzly. We scared him and he ran away but I managed to catch one picture of him. Yay! (Pardon the window reflection. I didn't have time to avoid that.)


After our bus ride and lunch, we rode a narrow gauge train over the White Pass back into Skagway.
The train:

A sample view that includes the engine!:


Next up - Juneau!

We visited Mendenhall Glacier first. It's, like, right in town or the suburbs, anyway. So weird!


Then we went on a whale watching cruise. What?! We went on a boat ride when we were on a cruise to start with? Yup. :-D There was a money-back guarantee that we would see humpback whales. And we did!


We even saw a whale face or schnozzle, at least!

Doesn't he look like he's smiling?

We also saw bald eagles and Stellar seal lions. And killer whales! The on-board naturalist said they only see killer whales about 1 of 9 trips out. And we saw two different pods!


We took SO many whale pictures, peeps! We all had cameras and the whales popped up so randomly and quickly that none of us were ever sure what kind of shots we were getting. I have to say we got a lot of pretty good ones. Lucky!

Our final port was Ketchikan. We did some shopping and went to a lumberjack show. The lumberjacks were disappointingly non-cute. :*( Then we went to Totem Bight State Park.


And did a city drive-thru tour. Here is a picture of what used to be the red-light district:

Isn't it cute?

And that was it. We sailed off into the sunset. :o)



If you're considering a trip to Alaska, I highly encourage you to go, peeps. Pictures can't compare to how amazing it was in person.

ETA: Crap! I was going to post pictures of the wildlife we saw in Denali National Park. We saw moose, caribou, more bears, and more. Have I pictured you out, peeps?

Labels: alaska, pictures, roaming, vacay, wildlife

So last weekend I met my mom and her sisters in Nashville at the Opryland hotel for some holiday fun. It was my first time seeing the hotel all dressed up for Christmas - WOW! We are talking serious decorations, peeps. I also did a bit of location scouting for the RWA 2010 attendees and tweeted my findings. ;-)

Check out some of the pics:


Umm...a river runs through it. Didja know?


There were bunches of huge trees but this was the only picture that didn't have tons of people in it, too. ;-)


The big main inside nativity scene - there was a much bigger one outside on the lawn.

Included in our package were tickets to ICE! - which was very cool (literally and figuratively). LOL This year's theme was Charlie Brown (the last few years it has been the Grinch). Amazing!


Popsicle trees!


The doctor is IN.


OOOOOoooooooooo!


My sweet babboo! With the ice slide behind him. My mom chickened out so I didn't slide either. Booooo!


Yup, a nativity made of ice, too. You can really see how they put the huge sculptures together when the ice is clear like this.


Anybody else been doing fun holiday-ish things?

Labels: holiday, pictures, roaming

Since I've been good about posting, I didn't do a Friday Fun Fact. :-D Besides, I was finishing up my tree. Behold!



And did you see my new BIG ornaments? How cute are they?? I LOFF them!



Do you have your trees up, peeps??

Labels: holiday, pictures

The topiary garden at Madeira's botanical garden



The inner courtyard of Seville's Alcazar:



The lighthouse at Point Europa on Gibraltar:



An interesting arch in Cagliari, Sardinia:



A building in Volterra, Italy:



St. Peter's:



A street in Le Baux (my favorite is the restaurant flag, though):



Another Gaudi building in Barcelona - the roof is supposed to look like a dragon:



The atrium of our ship - I didn't manage to get the whole thing but you get the idea:



Another sunset:



Did I mention that I highly recommend this trip? You don't have to do the trans-Atlantic part if you don't want to but the rest is an excellent way to see a lot in a short amount of time. Easy, easy trip!

Later peeps!

Labels: life, pictures, vacay

...I picked one from each stop plus a bonus shot from the ship. If anyone wants to see more of something let me know - we took a gazillion pictures. :-D

Here we go!

Maderia:


Madeira was our only slightly rainy day...and it was drizzly more than anything else.

Seville:


The cathdral - one of the world's largest. Christopher Columbus's tomb is inside.

Gibraltar:


They have several colonies of barbary apes there and some don't mind tourists at all. Obviously. Don't they look soft?? I wanted to pet them but our guide said not to. Darn it!

Sardinia:


The pictures look better than it did in person. We were a bit disappointed in this port (Cagliari), actually. Not a lot to see or do. Sicily or Corsica might have been a better option - but who are we to say? ;-)

Rome:


Since the Vatican Museums were closed the day we were there, we chose an excursion that took us to the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain (duh), the Piazza Novona, the Parthenon and to St. Peter's. After we dutifully threw our coins in the fountain, we rewarded ourselves with gelato. Yum!

Tuscany:


Unbelievably beautiful scenery!

Provence:


This was taken in Arles in the courtyard of a former hospital. Any van Gogh fans in the house?? This should look familiar to you.

Barcelona:


A lovely city! Fabulous architecture! Not just things like Gaudi's Sagrada Familia cathedral...all sorts of architecture. Still, it is Gaudi's city so I had to post this pic. Why can't you see the lovely, cloudless blue sky?? Because I was looking directly into the sun when I took this picture.

And, finally, a lovely sunset taken from our stateroom balcony:


We saw lots of lovely sunsets during our crossing and after we got back near land. And my mom managed to catch a sunrise or two after we started hitting ports (not me! I was snoozing). But this one is my fave because of the colors.


Any questions about any of the trip? Just put them in the comments. I will say we decided that doing a trans-Atlantic crossing would probably be better going the opposite direction. Having all the activity at the beginning of the trip and then having a week to recover would have been better. After having such a lazy week at see, all the excursioning was exhausting! LOL

Labels: life, pictures, vacay