Alaska: Continued!

More Alaska pictures!  It was easy to keep ourselves busy in Juneau for 10 days.  The city was so peaceful and beautiful.  We were surrounded by water that looked like a mirror, snow capped mountains and the most beautiful wildflowers I'd ever seen anywhere.  Not to mention the bald eagles - they were everywhere!  You'd be driving and see a group of 20 of them, just walking around near the water.  I'd never seen anything like it.

Probably the coolest adventure was the bear excursion out to Pack Creek.  Ryan's family had done the excursion multiple times, and it is stunningly beautiful - plus you get to watch bears just roaming around, catching fish, taking care of their babies.  Pretty cool!  It was a full day adventure, and kids were not allowed.  I was having some trust issues at the time ;) so we canceled the babysitters and I volunteered to stay behind on the bear adventure so I could keep my eyes on the 3 cutest little girls.  There were rave reviews from everyone when they got back, they got to see lots of bears and even one mama with her two little cubs.  Most of the pictures don't really do Alaska justice, but when I was going through our camera and came to the ones Ryan took at Pack Creek, I was pretty awed.  He would probably say it was just because of his amazing photography skills.  ;)

My favorite excursion was the deep sea fishing.  People are often surprised when they find it out, but deep sea fishing is one of my all time favorite things in the entire world.  I realllly love it.  I can't fully explain it, but there's something so peaceful about that ride out.  The ocean wind is whipping around you and most everyone is kind of quiet with anticipation (and because it's usually pretty darn early).  I don't know, it's just my favorite thing.  We got to fish for salmon and halibut - two fish I had never caught before, and it was so fun.  And not just because I caught the first and most fish on the boat.  ;)

Here are some photos from our adventures!

- K

Ryan and Colin took a hike while everyone waited for those lazy bum bears to make their appearance.  Pretty beautiful!

 



A mama and her cubs.  :)

 



I think this might be Merida's mum?  ;)  (Please tell me you've seen Brave...)

 



This guy is just exuding bear swagger.

 



 

Of course we made time for ice cream in between adventures.  :)

 

The guy behind us offered to take a family picture, then took one single picture and raved that it was a great one!  He obviously missed his calling as a photographer...our family has never looked better.  ;)

 

After Sis finished her cup she demanded dad's cone.  :)

Fishing day!

 



 

The whole group - Aunt Dodo (have I ever explained her name? :), Pop, Uncle Colin, Grandma, Ryan and me.

Such a cutie.

 



 

Humpback whales!

 

 

My halibut!

 

Ryan caught the biggest one of the day!

 

 

We even got a couple of salmon, but they were much trickier to catch.

 

Ryan was feeling the PETA love and helped a few little salmonies escape.  ;)

 

Our loot!  There was a one halibut per person limit, and 6 salmon per person.  We obviously failed to max out our salmon intake.

 

We even fit in some family photos since everyone was in one place at once!  Sis was thrilled.

 

Look at that view!

 

Aunt Dodo snuck these on her cell phone while the photographer took the real ones.  :)

 

Aunt Alycia, Uncle Colin, and Brailyn

 

Grandma and Pop and all the granddaughters!  Those granddaughters are pretty lucky if you ask me.  :)