We'd scheduled a whale watching outing for 9:30 that morning, so we were off the ship bright and early.
Our first sighting! Ok, so it kinda looks like a lump in the water. Still, we were pretty excited.
A fluke! The naturalist on board the boat talked about how whales have unique markings on the underside of their tails that they use to identify the ones that came back to the same area year after year. They even give them names. One of the whales had been coming back for 13 years, and recently brought her baby with her. Awwww.
A good shot of a dorsal fin. We were lucky enough to see a group of 4 or 5 whales together.
2 whales exhaling water at the same time. We didn't just see whales on our tour. We also got to see a bunch of sea lions hanging out on their own private island!
It reminded me of Pier 39 in San Francisco. And lastly, a bald eagle.
So patriotic. Doesn't it make you want to go out and vote?
After our tour we stopped for lunch (I had salmon tacos, YUM) and talked about what we wanted to do next. We were walking away from the restaurant, and I saw something that made me stop dead in my tracks.
SLED DOGS. RESCUE sled dogs. You guys know how much of a crazy dog person I am. Up until this point in our trip, I had constantly blabbed away about how much I just wanted to pet a sled dog. We couldn't have stumbled upon 2 Alaskan Malamutes at a better time.
I petted them. I hugged them. I scratched their ears. I told them how sweet they were. I fed them treats. If dogs wore watches, they would've been looking at theirs and saying, "how long until we can we stop posing with this lady??" I made Ed promise not to tell Dottie. There are 2 dozen photos. I won't make you look at all of them.
After Dogstravaganza 2012, Ed and I shopped around and explored a little bit.
Just look at how close we were to Chicago!
This one goes out to all of my librarian and library loving friends. After a while we decided to head back to the ship. Probably for naps.
A view of where we were docked, all cute and touristy. I snapped this one just as we were leaving:
Honestly, you came to my mind several times throughout the trip! I kept thinking, "Viktoria and her husband would love this!" Definitely make the trip if you get a chance. For us, it was one of those 'someday' vacations that we probably would have put off for years, had Ed's grandma not decided that THIS was the year that she would go to Alaska and asked if we wanted to go along.
All of your photos make me want to go to Alaska myself!!
ReplyDeleteHonestly, you came to my mind several times throughout the trip! I kept thinking, "Viktoria and her husband would love this!" Definitely make the trip if you get a chance. For us, it was one of those 'someday' vacations that we probably would have put off for years, had Ed's grandma not decided that THIS was the year that she would go to Alaska and asked if we wanted to go along.
DeleteO Juneau.. yes, it is breathtaking out there!
ReplyDelete