So, with what we call "Franksgiving" coming up (and I wonder what he - my hubby - will be giving?) I am revisiting my vacation post. It was the last time my family got together. I have an amazing family. We pretty much get along and enjoy each others company. I purchased a lot of items in Alaska just for this holiday - mostly smoked Alaskan salmon. We'll be revisiting our trip - the pictures are amazing, but not as amazing as seeing that stuff in real life - and I am mooley excited. Don't know what 'mooley' is? I guess I'll have to explain in a different post.
My parents decided that they wanted a family trip to commemorate their 50th Anniversary. They chose to go on a National Geographic/Linblad Explorer Cruise in south east Alaska with the family. My parents, my family, my sister's family, my brother's family, my father's brother & his wife, and my mother's brother and his son attended. There were 19 of us on a boat that has room or about 60 passengers. To the rest of the guests we were known as "The Family." Very mafia(ish) if you ask me!
Here we all are (sans the sick uncle) on the bow of the Sea Lion.
On our second day we went to South Sawyer Glacier. Here we saw harbor seals galore and really cool icebergs:
I love the color of this ice!
The girls get their own 'pet iceberglets'
and this contrast from the red iron of the mountain to the blue ice was beautiful.
The next day was our only foul weather day. The mood fog looked like this:
We saw humpback whales in the fog, which was cool, but the pictures aren't good enough to post.
By the way... we were told that in the three months of summer, there were 10 sunny days. We had five of them. I credit my parents for this as they live a charmed life!
On the fourth day in the morning we saw Orca:
It was a pod of five whales, one male, two female and two calves.
On the fourth day, in the afternoon we took a zodiac out to view the wildlife:
Sea Otters are usually very shy. Today, however, we were studiously ignored.
Don'tcha just love the size of those feet!
Stellar Sea Lions - love to lay in a huge pile and complain.
A curious boy checks our our zodiac.
In the afternoon we saw more humpback whales:
The neatest part about this encounter was that we were in an area of about 40 whales that were trumpeting back and forth to each other surface feeding over an area of several miles along the coast. Even the naturalists on board were impressed.
The whales were so close it was amazing!
We call this a rain-blow.
Day 5 is Glacier National Park. John Hopkins Glacier calved for us very frequently.
There was a noise like thunder with each calving and a huge set of waves that accompanied the bigger ones.
John Hopkins Glacier is one of the few glaciers that isn't receding.
I admit I can't remember where this was taken, but it was so beautiful I had to put it in.
The next two days were dedicated to looking at nature. It was explained to us that because the salmon were running, it was a good time to see all the wildlife - and boy was there wildlife!:
Mergansers
Tufted Puffins
Mama Griz & her two cubs
These guys were great fun to watch. Mama would fish and babies would play with the fish.
finally a pod of 9 humpback whales 'bubble-net' feeding.
This was really amazing as a microphone was put underwater and we listened to the calls of the whales as they coordinated their feeding efforts.
The trip was an incredible experience. I thank my loving parents for the adventure of a lifetime.
The happy couple
Thanks again, Mom & Dad, I love you!
P.S. I tried to get these pictures to be larger than you see them, but I don't know how to do that. I'm sorry for it, but if you know how, let me know, O.K.?
Recent Comments