Alaska Trip Highlights

Fresh from the airplane we went whale watching.

The sight of the whales was so moving that I had to pontificate to the rest of my tour mates about what a privilege it was to share the water with such mammoth yet benign creatures, at which point I was ridiculed.

We also took a tour of a botanical garden that was planted after a landslide. The hippie-landscape-architect owner decided to leave the upturned trees and use them for planters. The entire tour I kept wishing Big Daddy was with me to marvel at all of the botanical wonders. One of them being lichen which are so rare because they can only grow in very clean environments. Who knew?

I arrived in Juneau during that very special and aromatic time that the salmon spawned. Salmon at this point have stopped eating in order to put all of their energy into preserving the eggs they carry and getting back to the very same spot they were born. They some times get trapped in inlets when the tide goes out. At which point you can catch them with your bare hands.

This is highly illegal. He promptly returned this bloke to it's watery home so it could go on it merry decomposing-from-the-inside-out way.

My favorite part of the trip was a hike we took around Mendenhall Lake

Here:

Up and under the Mendenhall (eat your heart out Dev!) Glacier

Here:

To some blue caves

We also got a great shot of Juneau and the Gastineau Channel from the top of Mt. Roberts.

In closing I would like to thank Pod and Pamchenko for their generosity, myself for finally graduating from college in order to make this trip happen, and the Silverbow Bakery for making such delectable Rhubarb Squares. But mostly I want to thank Babs and the entire ACT Company for being so gracious, friendly and entertaining (ie dramatic) during my stay.

OH and last but not least...

I did see a few bears. This one hung out in a tree and stuck his tongue out at the tourists. I named him George W.