Katie's Bday party...had to dress up like starting with "K" or "T"

The cast!
"K"iss and a "T"errorist

In Juneau going down the Mendenhall River fed by the melting of the Mendenhall Glacier:)

They thought cars would stop the erosion...nope!


That's the glacier behind me!

In Ketchikan I had the opportunity to visit the Potlatch park and see tribal houses and totem poles and learned a lot of the history of Native Alaskans...very cool.

A soaring eagle:
When the water from the river rushes over the rocks it produces this foam:
Eagles tearing some fish apart:
Can you find all fifteen eagles in the trees? (hint: white heads, but young ones blend in the trees and all brown)

A couple of weeks ago in Sitka I had the opportunity to go on the Captain's Choice shore excursions.  A small boat with only 15 other people going whale watching and then landing on one of the many islands and exploring....here's some of the really cool things:

One bear:
Two bears:

This past week in Ketchikan I had the opportunity to go snorkeling. We wore pretty thick wet suits, gloves, boots, and a hoodie...only our lips were really exposed to the cold water....so it wasn't too cold.

I saw so many sea stars (starfish) it was ridiculous. They were so beautiful too....bright orange and purple!


This is where we went snorkeling...Mountain Point Cove. It was such an amazing experience and totally free thanks to Holland America!

My birthday presentation from the Oosterdam Cast is now posted on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L993kTnGrc

To finish off the educational week I went on a wine tour where we paired wine and chocolate...yummy!

The sun setting on the ship:)

In Sitka I visited the Raptor Center where they heal raptors (meat eating birds). Of course the biggest attraction is the bald eagles.

Beautiful and educational (what can I say, it was an educational week!)

Last week in Juneau I went on a very educational shore excursion to a closed gold mine. I learned all about mining for gold and mining in general...all new info for a Georgia girl. At the end I got to pan for some gold and ended up with a few flakes:)

They had a railroad to get the guys up to the top and here's the superintendent's house...they haven't touched it in a few years.
Above is the after picture and below is the before:
This is what the guy's in the mine used...interesting:
Here's the huge ore rock that they dump on the conveyor belt to take to the crusher to get some gold!

Here's some beautiful nature pictures from Juneau, Alaska:

This is my room on the ship and what it looks like after Irawan has straightened and cleaned:)
To the direct left is the closets and bathroom..the room extends only about 7 more feet to the left!
These are the magician's, James Cielen, dogs...two french poodles. Look familiar?
This is me and Shadow hanging out in the room (the white one is Koda).
Here's some of us eating at the Pinnacle Restaurant on board...I try to eat here once a week!