Awesome Alaska Adventure

We are back from our trip to Alaska. It was wonderful. So nice to be away, with my sweetie for 10 glorious days! I had one goal in mind, and that was to get rid of the circles under his eyes. I must admit, he still has those circles, and probably will until we're 95, but I do know he got some relaxation and reading in. I think 10 days is a little long for him to be away from work and also his church responsibilities. It is virtually impossible for him to totally go off-radar as far as the phone and computer goes. He still has to run his company, and things come up that he needs to handle. He also needs to be within reach for things that come up within the ward.

Bob doing a little work on the computer
on the ship before the day's
activities begin

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining one bit... maybe just justifying the fact that he still has those circles under his eyes.

We had never been to Alaska before, so we were able to see and do lots of "firsts" on this trip. We saw beluga whales, humpback whales,

a lynx,

The bus driver actually stopped and
put the bus in reverse when someone said
 they spotted a lynx. He couldn't say
enough times how rare it is to see one
in the wild.
I think it totally made his day.

a bear,

Okay, so the bear we spotted was from the cruise
ship. I have never seen one in the wild before,
so I was pretty happy to see him. Sorry about
the blurry photo, but he was pretty far away.

Mt. McKinley,

We heard over and over again how rare it
 is to see Mt. McKinley. We saw it two
days in a row, so I'd say that's
pretty lucky!

and we also went on two different train trips. One of the train rides was on an historic old railway and train that took us up into the mountains on some crazy bridges at scary heights. 

Train tracks leading up to a tunnel. Yikes!

It was a beautiful ride! 

The other train ride was a 9 hour ride from Whittier to Denali National Park. 

That, too, was a beautiful ride where we were able to see so much of Alaska's little towns and villages as well as the abundant amazing scenery. We rode on the to deck of a double-decker train and ate downstairs in the dining area. Pretty fun!

The first part of the trip was on the cruise ship. One really great clue as to what kind of weather to expect on the cruise was the fact that they put wool blankets on the lounge chairs on our balcony.

And yes... we actually did use them. It really wasn't all that bad as far as weather goes. In fact, there was even a day or two that we were able to get a little sun and actually wear shorts around.

We stopped in Juneau, Ketchikan,

Bob was the driver on our cart ride. It was a fast,
wild ride on the bumpiest roads ever. Made me miss
our nice, gentle Mule rides.

 and Skagway. We also spent a day in Glacier Bay

Ice floating in the water?
Bring me that wool blanket!

and then another day in College Fjords. After that part of the trip, we took the train up to Denali, and spent the rest of the trip on land.

I was amazed at the truly spectacular flowers that were everywhere in flower pots and planters. 

I think the winters are so long that they must really love seeing their flowers in the summer. They were gorgeous, and stood out so much everywhere we went!

Well, I think I've shared more than enough photos... I love to have photos to look back on and stir up those memories of all that we saw and experienced together. What a trip!

Now that we're home, we have plenty of things on our plate... Robbie's ward overnight at our cabin this weekend, a Bishopric retreat coming up in a couple of weeks, a Bowen reunion, and a Beehive retreat... all at our cabin and all within the next 4 weeks or so. Fun things ahead!