The Husband and I have just returned from a summer vacation! Together! About a dozen or so years ago, we visited Alaska--The Husband, The Girl, and The Me. (See "An Alaskan Adventure", 8/20/13 on this blog.) The Husband and I had always hoped to visit this fair 49th state one more time. The visit is now a memory, an iphoto series of events of a thousand pictures, and a good dose of major jet lag.
Being that my blog readers are ever so faithful, I knew you would enjoy seeing and hearing about our trip. Since I gave The Husband a crash course of the operation of my newer small easy nice camera, he really got into the photography as well.
I will apologize if this VERY long blog post makes you bored. I have so much to share!
When our seven hour flight to Anchorage was about an hour away from it's destination, The Husband pulled out his assigned camera and took some amazing photos from the air. Wow!
After landing and retrieving our baggage, we found a close Tastee Freez restaurant and had a hot dog. Being as the time difference between here and there is four--yes, count 'em--four hours difference, we were pretty exhausted. The motel bed felt pretty good that night.
The first full day of the trip, we headed south to Homer. Homer is a small fishing town on the tip of the southwestern part of the state. After leaving Homer, our trip took us to an overnight in Palmer, then on to Valdez, on the opposite side of Prince William Sound. From Valdez (yes, that's where the oil spill was), it was back through Palmer to Wasilla, a morning trip to Talkeeta, and then to Anchorage for a day of sightseeing the day of the night we were to fly home.
The rain came at some point each day we were there except the last. The weather was coolish--50's to 60's. We grew accustomed to it. I liked it. I would have liked it better dry.
Alaska has some beautiful natural sights with mountains, glaciers, and beautiful landscapes.
This was a city park in downtown Wasilla...how about a large beautiful lake with mountains in a city park?
We saw many different animals....about eight or nine moose.....
caribou.....
rabbits...
Dall sheep.....
We visited a Musk Ox Farm (they are interesting...google them if you are interested)....
One of my hopes for this trip was to get a picture of a bald eagle. My heart still flutters when I look at these pictures.....
We saw beautiful boat harbors with mountains that touched the water...
and we ate Alaska food...sometimes.
I ordered duck....just because I'd never ordered duck in any restaurant and why not? It was brought to me medium RARE. I had to send it back because I never eat ANYTHING medium rare, even if the chef says it's supposed to be that way. He stuck to his idea because when it was returned to me, it hadn't been cooked much. Needless to say, that was NOT my favorite meal of the trip even though it was a very nice place.
An Alaskan food....reindeer hot dog.....cooked on the cart on an 5th Avenue in Anchorage...sounds pretty high-class, huh? 5th Avenue....
And yes, a couple of our "restaurants" had nice views...
On the trip, we saw sea otters that looked liked stuffed animals in the water...
We spent time watching fishermen pull in their heavy nets full of fish.
Yes, that's me taking pictures on the boat.
There was a lot of time spent whale watching and trying for the perfect whale picture.
There were smelly sea lions....
and puffins.
We spent over an hour within l/4 mile of Columbia Glacier. It is hard to describe the magnitude of such ice. Pictures just don't show the "big-ness". The silence and then the sound of "calving" of the ice was something to always remember.
Here's the splash of a large piece of ice. When a large piece would hit the water, the water would begin to make "waves" and the boat would feel the effect.
There were Dall porpoises.
Frequent stops were made to port-a-johns and outhouses.
This decor had a matching one on the other side of this driveway....an exact matching set.
There was downtown Talkeetna.
These petunias were salad plate size.
This picture was taken...
at 6:50 p.m. Alaska time which equals 10:50 p.m Eastern time. Time difference was an adjustment for us Eastern folks. It still is.
Being that my blog readers are ever so faithful, I knew you would enjoy seeing and hearing about our trip. Since I gave The Husband a crash course of the operation of my newer small easy nice camera, he really got into the photography as well.
I will apologize if this VERY long blog post makes you bored. I have so much to share!
When our seven hour flight to Anchorage was about an hour away from it's destination, The Husband pulled out his assigned camera and took some amazing photos from the air. Wow!
After landing and retrieving our baggage, we found a close Tastee Freez restaurant and had a hot dog. Being as the time difference between here and there is four--yes, count 'em--four hours difference, we were pretty exhausted. The motel bed felt pretty good that night.
The first full day of the trip, we headed south to Homer. Homer is a small fishing town on the tip of the southwestern part of the state. After leaving Homer, our trip took us to an overnight in Palmer, then on to Valdez, on the opposite side of Prince William Sound. From Valdez (yes, that's where the oil spill was), it was back through Palmer to Wasilla, a morning trip to Talkeeta, and then to Anchorage for a day of sightseeing the day of the night we were to fly home.
The rain came at some point each day we were there except the last. The weather was coolish--50's to 60's. We grew accustomed to it. I liked it. I would have liked it better dry.
Alaska has some beautiful natural sights with mountains, glaciers, and beautiful landscapes.
This was a city park in downtown Wasilla...how about a large beautiful lake with mountains in a city park?
We saw many different animals....about eight or nine moose.....
caribou.....
rabbits...
Dall sheep.....
and sea birds.
One of my hopes for this trip was to get a picture of a bald eagle. My heart still flutters when I look at these pictures.....
I ordered duck....just because I'd never ordered duck in any restaurant and why not? It was brought to me medium RARE. I had to send it back because I never eat ANYTHING medium rare, even if the chef says it's supposed to be that way. He stuck to his idea because when it was returned to me, it hadn't been cooked much. Needless to say, that was NOT my favorite meal of the trip even though it was a very nice place.
An Alaskan food....reindeer hot dog.....cooked on the cart on an 5th Avenue in Anchorage...sounds pretty high-class, huh? 5th Avenue....
And yes, a couple of our "restaurants" had nice views...
One of the most beautiful mountain range sites I saw were these on the Aleutian Range. We could never get a photo to do them justice. I was amazed at their beauty.
Waterfalls....
The only fee trip we took was a day trip on the Lu-Lu Belle, the limo of boats. There were us and about 35 or so more passengers. The trip was to Columbia Glacier in Prince William Sound. It was a fantastic day in spite of the rain. The captain was informative, funny, and patient. The crew of two college girls were great as well making for a nice trip. I recommend them highly.
On the trip, we saw sea otters that looked liked stuffed animals in the water...
We spent time watching fishermen pull in their heavy nets full of fish.
Yes, that's me taking pictures on the boat.
There was a lot of time spent whale watching and trying for the perfect whale picture.
There were smelly sea lions....
and puffins.
We spent over an hour within l/4 mile of Columbia Glacier. It is hard to describe the magnitude of such ice. Pictures just don't show the "big-ness". The silence and then the sound of "calving" of the ice was something to always remember.
Here's the splash of a large piece of ice. When a large piece would hit the water, the water would begin to make "waves" and the boat would feel the effect.
There were Dall porpoises.
Since we were in Valdez, there were oil tankers.
In Alaska, wildflowers grow everywhere. The most seen one was lupine and a kind of flower resembling Queen Anne's Lace.
Frequent stops were made to port-a-johns and outhouses.
You can thank me for taking a picture of the cleanest one. Use your imagination for the worst and then imagine a lot worse than that.
We saw where the wildfires had come...
Alaskans used anything and everything for flower containers. The phrase "you might be a redneck if" comes to mind.
This decor had a matching one on the other side of this driveway....an exact matching set.
They used unique ways of irrigation...
and made homemade ice cream in an unusual way.
There was downtown Talkeetna.
The technique of taking a selfie was practiced. The not-so-silly expressions were hard to master.
An Alaskan prestige car..or truck...tag.
And of course, any photo album of mine must contain flower pictures. With the mega daylight hours during an Alaskan summer, their flowers in the summer time are just as big as their snow is in the winter time. It would get "dark" about 11:00 - midnight and was never REALLY dark. The light would be back by 4 a.m. Luckily Alaska motels have thick liners behind their curtains.
These petunias were salad plate size.
This picture was taken...
at 6:50 p.m. Alaska time which equals 10:50 p.m Eastern time. Time difference was an adjustment for us Eastern folks. It still is.
The view from one of our motel rooms showed beautiful sunset color on the mountains...
and the taking off of a float plane, a normal mode of transportation of Alaskans.
And yes, we actually posed for a few shots. Not many...
The final day in Anchorage showed Alaska city sights and reflections.
Our flight home was delayed because of bad weather in the East. The Husband captured this photo of the moon and also the cloud that caused our plane to take a detour home.
I apologize for the great length of this post. I know that sometimes one gets tired of looking at other people's pictures; however, I couldn't seem to find a stopping place. I actually have several hundred more, you know?
No, we saw no live bears on this trip but thanks for "bearing" with me as I shared.
