Alaska

It's tough to know where to begin writing about my Alaskian adventure, so I guess I'll just begin at the beginning..........

The first place we visited was Glaicer Bay.

The glaciers were not quite as big as I expected,

but they were still pretty magnificent.

If you look closely at the picture above you can

see a large pointy piece of ice that is starting to fall into the ocean.


Now can you see it?

We were standing on the deck and heard this loud CRACK

which would signal that glacier calving is about to begin.

I just happened to have my camera set to take

multiple pictures with a single snap, so I was

able to get the whole process of the large chunk of ice falling off.



There were 18 pictures in this sequence, but

I'm only posting 5 here.

I am constantly in awe of the beautiful things

that I see around me. That little chunk of ice

sure did make a huge splash!

You can see the remnants of another similiar fall
in the right middle of the above photo.

The first Alaskian port we visited was Juneau.

Juneau is a pretty little city which can only be accessed

by sea or by air. I believe we were told that there is

about 24 miles of highway....12 one way from the city

and 12 the other way. There are NO ROADS that connect

Juneau to any other Alaskian cities.

As I have said earlier......my first stop was the quilt shop!

AFTER that we boarded a helicopter and flew over Mendenhal

Glacier. I've never been in a helicopter before so it was quite

a thrilling experience in itself, but to fly over such beauty was

really breathtaking

Out one window there was ICE and out the other window

was a breathtaking valley of green and blue.

The helicoptor LANDED on the glacier and we got

to get out and walk around.

Carefully walk around...........

and drink very chilly glacier water !

Glaciers are VERY COLD! (go figure!)

Even tho it doesn't look like it in this picture

I was VERY happy to be cold!

It was 115 degrees when I left Phoenix.....

We WENT to Alaska to be cold!!!!!

So where to go to warm up?

Hummmmm..............How about the

RED DOG SALOON?

While primarily a hang-out for touristy "boat people" now,

The Red Dog Saloon has been around since the

early gold mining days.

We asked our friendly bartender the meaning

of all of the marked dollar bills that were tacked up

around all of the mirrors in the joint.


It seems that miners would come into town,

get supplies, hit the bar and what $$$ they had left

they would print thier name on it and ask the bartender

to please keep it to ensure that they would have drinking

money the next time they hit town.

This bar featured a old timer playing bawdy tunes on a piano

and singing along, sawdust on the floor and tons of memoriablia

hanging from every nook and cranny in the place.

Check out this wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Dog_Saloon

If you ever make it to the Red Dog Saloon in Juneau,

make sure and ask the bartender to serve you up a Duck Fart........

It'll warm you right up..........I promise.

Come on back tomorrow and read about our

exciting adventures in Sitka............

We had a WILD time there...........