stunning Alaska video

.

Wow.

(But turn down the sound. I don't like all that buzzing at all. And -- unless you have a really fast connection, turn off the HD by clicking on the blue "HD" on the lower right hand part of the video. You'll still see a fine pic, and without as many interruptions while it waits to load.)



All in all, I'm pretty sure I am really seriously agin drones.  Too many issues!  What about safety?!?  Privacy?!?

But wow.  They can enable some amazingly gorgeous video.

I like the times he flies it low at least as well as the times he's way up high.  At least as well.  Maybe better.....

.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

.

Three years ago, you took us all to Alaska to celebrate with you.





This year we celebrated a bit early, in a much less spectacular setting.





Happy Birthday!

.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

.

Two years ago today, we were in Alaska!

My mom decided to celebrate her 80th birthday by taking all of us on a cruise/tour.

It was a spectacular, once-in-a-lifetime trip.

I am so glad to have had the opportunity to go.

Thanks, Mom!

This image was taken in College Fiords. (When the ship's newsletter says "College Fiords, 6:45," they mean it. Get up. Bring the camera. Wow.)





(To see my posts about this trip, look in the archives for July of '07. Many many pics and descriptions there -- it was an amazing trip.)

.

flashback, July 22, 2007

.

Flying to Detroit from Vancouver. Cloudy, but look at all the layers and layers and color variations.....




What a spectacular trip it was. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.....

Thanks, again, Mom, for taking us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


To see the rest of the Alaska pics (and a few videos) I have blogged, look on the right, and scroll down that column of things to "blog archives" and click on the July and August that belong to 2007 (really, they should have years in that menu! the months are backwards from now...).....

.

flashback, July 21, 2007

.

Our only full day at sea, as we headed for Vancouver.

The ship was lovely, and the food in the dining room was wonderful.......





(to see more Alaska pics, look in the blog archives for the end of July and most of August 2007)

.

flashback, July 20, 2007

.

From Ketchican, we took a catamaran to Misty Fjords.





(to see more Alaska pics, look in the blog archives for the end of July and most of August 2007)

.

flashback, July 19, 2007

.

We took a catamaran from Juneau to go whale watching.

The whales were, without a doubt, the most amazing part of a trip packed with wonders.







(to see more Alaska pics, look in the blog archives for the end of July and most of August 2007)

.

flashback, July 18, 2007

.

From Haines, Alaska, we took a float trip through an eagle preserve. This image was recorded at the end of that trip.







(to see more Alaska pics, look in the blog archives for the end of July and most of August 2007)

.

flashback, July 17, 2007

.

Marjorie Glacier, Glacier Bay.







(to see more Alaska pics, look in the blog archives for the end of July and most of August 2007)

.

flashback, July 16, 2007

.

Glacier, in or near College Fiords.







(to see more Alaska pics, look in the blog archives for the end of July and most of August 2007)

.

flashback, July 15, 2007

.

On the 15th we took a tour bus to Seward, and thence embarked the ship.

This image was recorded as we left Seward, bound for College Fiords.







(to see more Alaska pics, look in the blog archives for the end of July and most of August 2007)

.

flashback, July 14, 2007

.

We took the train from Fairbanks to Denali, and then from Denali to Anchorage.

I like the reflections on the side of the train.







(to see more Alaska pics, look in the blog archives for the end of July and most of August 2007)

.

flashback, July 13, 2007

.

Taken in Denali National Park.







(to see more Alaska pics, look in the blog archives for the end of July and most of August 2007)

.

flashback, July 12 2007

.

On July 12, we took a paddleboat trip. Fairbanks environs.

Note very big sky.....




Happy Birthday, Mom! Thanks for taking us on that wonderful trip!





(to see more Alaska pics, look in the blog archives for the end of July and most of August 2007)

.

flashback, July 11, 2007

.

Remembering our spectacular Alaska excursion from last year. I will show one pic from each day of the trip, one year later. I believe that these are all going to be images I did not share last year.....

Here we are, on our way to Fairbanks. Note mountains higher than the lower clouds, left and center.




(to see more Alaska pics, look in the blog archives for the end of July and most of August 2007)

.

July 22 -- homeward bound

.

We got off the ship in shifts, with those who needed to get to the airport quickly getting off first. We weren't in a rush, but some others on our bus were....

I was still in the last stages of the migraine, so I didn't take any pics of lovely (and extremely expensive -- average home price $800,000!) Vancouver.

We got to the airport in pretty good time, but then had to wait forever to check in with Northwest. And then wait again to go through US customs. (We'd gone through Canadian customs before we even got on the bus to the airport.) And then wait again to check our bags. And then wait *again* to go through security. Oy. Our "plenty of time" turned into enough but not really extra time. I hope the other people who had ridden on the bus with us made their flight......

Vancouver is supposed to be one of the nicest airports in North America, with a stream running through it, and displays of native American art..... We saw some art from a distance as we waited in line, but we didn't really have time to go exploring.

I nibbled on graham crackers (purchased in Anchorage when someone else had been feeling iffy about the tum), sipped water, ate Tums, and then we got on the airplane.

It was cloudy, so I didn't spend much time looking out the window.








When we went to Alaska, it was an hour and a half to Minneapolis, and then five hours and forty minutes to Fairbanks.

Our flight home was four hours and ten minutes.

Alaska is really very big. Very Big. Fairbanks is sort of half-way, north/south-wise, and then the inside passage (where we cruised) continues south, and more south. Every day after we left Fairbanks, we were getting closer to home.....

I was glad that the shorter flight was at the end of our trip. We were lucky, though, on the way up, DH and I ended up with an empty seat in our row, so various family members could come and sit and chat a bit on that long flight from Minneapolis to Fairbanks. That made the long flight shorter.



You'll no doubt remember my musings about the sky being so big in Alaska.....

As we drove home from Detroit Metro, I wondered why the sky looked so different from Alaska. One thing that is different is -- I don't remember seeing one jet trail the whole time we were there. There are surely no jet trails in any of my sky pics......

Toto, I don't think we're in Alaska any more.....................



.

July 21 -- sailing to Vancouver; shipboard activities

.

July 21, when we were enroute to Vancouver, was our only day on the open ocean. The ship rocked noticeably. It was a little disconcerting, watching the horizon appear and disappear in the windowframe.....

I found the motion nice, like a rocking chair. Until I developed a migraine, and then any extraneous motion was no longer nice.

Due to the migraine, my activites that day were curtailed. Naps are good......

Since my photography on the 21st was minimal, I'll show you some things that happened while we were on the ship, but which didn't fit into my narative for whichever day they happened.

During the course of the cruise, there were various things to do to earn points toward accqusition of 'dam ship logo merchandise. Scavenger hunts, trivia contests, and, apparently inspired by a chilly Glacier Bay location, amidst unfathomable amounts of ice, a polar bear swim. (It was advertised as "swim in Glacier Bay," and technically it was in Glacier Bay, sort of, as the whole ship was in Glacier Bay, but the tourists went into the pool, not the ocean. A disappointment to those who had hoped for the ocean.......)

The water in the pools is ocean water (suitably filtered), but generally is heated.

For this event, they dumped a bunch of ice in the smaller pool.

A surprising (to me) number of people immersed themselves.........






I was told it was cold by someone who spends a lot of time in pools which are far too cold for us ordinary mortals............






Several days ago I mentioned late-night culinary adventures.

At 11:00 pm each night, the cafeteria had something going on. Generally it was a national theme night. Dutch night, as an example. If you hadn't eaten *quite* enough during the day, you could venture back up and see what there was to nosh on.

One night there was a dessert extravaganza. The cooks had clearly spent days and days on all sorts of astonishingly fancy desserts.

Being a purist when it comes to dessert, I like mine to be at least 95% about taste, and not so much about fancy/complicated/embellished. I thought the desserts were fun to look at, but I didn't sample very many.

This bread lobster was one of the decorations. I took a pic of a very nice aligator, too, but he turned out even blurrier than this, alas.






The fruit skewers were intended to be put through a chocolate waterfall, but I prefer my fruit without. The mouse was chocolate, and not bad......






One of the obligatory amusing towel animals placed on our bed each evening. My bro and sil took the rabbit they got one night, and put red eyes and great nasty teeth on it for the enjoyment of my nephew (not to mention the rest of us!).

Sea turtle.






We took a kitchen tour. They whipped us right through there, but we did get to see some interesting things.






The whole-grain bread was available in bread baskets near the beginning of the cafeteria lines. It was good.






After the kitchen tour, the top chefs gave a demo/lecture. That was interesting. I thought it was a good thing that they talked about the herbs they would use in a dish, and didn't agree about which herbs would be best.....

This pic was taken from the overhead monitor, which is why it is so grainy.






For a "nominal fee" you could sign up for yoga class. I didn't take yoga, but I did work out with weights one morning. Several of our party availed themselves of the gym. (There was also a spa, and several of us enjoyed massages and other spa treatments).






On a cruise ship, you can rarely venture very far from the theme of food.






I thought this cantaloupe was cool. I like the green on the edges of the petals. The asparagas wrapped in smoked ham was very good.






Bread pudding from the cafeteria. I am not a connoisseuse of bread pudding. I was told by some who were that this was excellent. I was clear it was excellent, but could not tell that it was excellent even amoungst its fellow bread puddings.

Eggs, milk, bread -- it's food, right? The sauce was not alcoholic; I'm not sure what was in it. The combo was delicious.

I think this would be second to the berry soup, choosing my favorite dessert on board, but it was a close second.

Not very photogenic; not embellished or fancy, but ... yum.





This shot was actually taken on the 21st. That was the only day we had with steady rain all day. Weren't we lucky? We visited a place where it rains all the time, but encountered only a few drops here and there, until the day we were at sea and could sit comfortably in the Explorer Lounge with a book, enjoying the rocking chair motion of the sea.





In order to facilitate chronological traverse of these posts, a link to the next one is here.

.


.

July 20 -- Ketchikan and Misty Fjords

.

I was very surprised, on July 20, to look out our window and discover that we had apparently parked right in the middle of Ketchikan.






There is some interesting public art in Ketchikan. These are on pilings visible as you walk to your catamaran for a trip to Misty Fjords.








The barnacles are my favorite. What an excellent use of the different colors and shininess/mattness of the tile!!!






Ok. Let's head out for Misty Fjords.






Exposure was a constant problem for your intrepid photographer. If the sky was properly exposed, the land tended to be underexposed, and if the land was properly exposed, the sky was blown out altogether. The human image-reception/-processing system allows us to focus on the sky one second and the land the next, and we are not aware of all the shifts in our equipment that let us see whatever we are looking at as clearly as possible.

A photograph, being static, can't allow our pupils to readjust to different light levels, and so one part or another may not be properly exposed.

Sigh.

I can do some post-processing, and lighten up the darkest areas, but the color has not been recorded properly, and never looks quite right.......

Sigh.

I've left this one alone, exposed for the sky, to show the silhouettes.






A constant theme, in Misty Fjords, is nature's tenacity. Give a tree a sliver of rock to grow on, and grow it will...........










Another constant theme is tiny little waterfalls. There is still snow, up above on the mountain, and the snowmelt results in these little falls. We were told that the snow will melt entirely, at some point over the summer, and the water will stop until next year.....






The day, while cloudy, was still. Lots of excellent reflections.......










I have forgotten what sort of birds these little guys are.... It seems to me their name ends in -let or -lot?






Of course we know what sort of bird this is.






And this.






The stillness of the day, and the height of the tide allowed us to get quite close to this pictograph.

It is old enough that no one knows when it was painted. Or why........








Harbor seals. I can see three little faces.






More reflections.






Time to head back to Ketchikan.






This was our last day on land in Alaska.

One last eagle, as we leave Misty Fjords......





In order to facilitate chronological traverse of these posts, a link to the next one is here.

.