Alaskan Sea Lions!

On the deck of a ship, imagine your eyes wandering along the jagged coastline in Alaska. You are looking for the white spots which indicate Bald Eagles. A movement near the water catches your eye, and heaving itself up onto the rocks you realize that you are viewing a sea lion. Then you notice the cluster of them covering the rocks! Click on the photos to see these amazing critters better!

With their noses pointing up in the air, I wonder what they smell…

Noses in the air

The sea lions are along the rocks just above the water line!

Sea Lions on the point

As we sail through the passages, the sea lions swim near the ship. I caught a pair, with one looking at the ship, and another swimming away from the ship!

Swimming with the birds

Heading away from us

In the Skagway harbor, near the pier, a head pops up from the water. The sea lion is looking right at me!

Inside the Skagway Harbor

We were so fortunate to see the amount of sea life that we did. If you have the opportunity to visit Alaska, I hope that you too get to enjoy the sea life too!

Thank you for dropping by today! Have a wonderful Wednesday! Be well! ^..^

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Ice Caves

When we visited Glacier Bay and the College Fjords, one of the things that I noticed were the number of ice caves. These caves are openings where the melting waters of the glaciers flow into the channels. People do like to venture into these caves, which can be very dangerous, because at any time the cave can collapse. So, let’s explore these from a distance! Imagine the sound of rushing water…this is what we heard as we neared these caves!

Feel like exploring?

Three caves

Looking in

Water running out of the cave

Dark caves

Aren’t they cool? 🙂

Thank you for stopping in today, and I hope that you have a terrific Tuesday! Be well! ^..^

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Blue Ice

There is nothing that compares to looking out over the rail of a ship, standing in the bitter cold, and looking at a massive glacier! Best viewing of glaciers, so that you can see the amazing colors, is when the sky is overcast. Luck was with me when I took these photos. I love the color blue, and, for today, I wanted to share with you some amazing photos of glacial ice up close and blue!

Jagged

Bands of blue

Blue and floating

Swirls

Dropped

Shades of color

Lines

Isn’t the ice amazing?

Thanks for dropping in today! Have an amazing Saturday! If you are in my neck of the woods, stay dry! Be well! ^..^

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Angular – A WordPress Photo Challenge!

Xiao over at WordPress has chosen topic “angular” for this week’s photo challenge! As I love patterns, this is a perfect challenge for me! So here is my angular world!

We were visiting Harrah’s Casino in Las Vegas, and when we stepped outside, and I looked up, I fell in love with the angles on the building at night!

Harrahs

At Hoover Dam, I stood under one of the towers and looked up. The angles on the tower were electric!

Inside the tower

Inside the dam, there were interesting angles inside the generator room!

Generators

Angles are not always straight. Check out the shifting angles on this fern fiddle!

The fiddle of a fern in the rainforest

One of the most amazing displays of angles in nature was the basalt formation we discovered in Yellowstone National Park.

Geometry in a basalt formation

One final shot…this one: Lines of color!

Lines of color

I hope that you enjoyed my angular view of the world! Be sure to check out some of the other posts for their views of what they see as “angular.” You can get there by clicking HERE!

Thanks for stopping by today and have a fabulous Friday and weekend as well! Be well! ^..^

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My 1300th Post!

When I started writing this blog I had not idea that I would be continuing on for all the years that I have! I have been blogging since June 2011, and over this time I have had over 126,000 views and 14,200 comments! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You have inspired me to keep this going! I wanted to share with you my top five posts of all time!

At number 5, with 1,400 views: Oven Fried Pork Chops!

Half way through cooking

Number 4, with 1,700 views is Chemistry in Cooking! People are really curious as to how things work!

Melting butter

Coming in at number 3, with 1,860 views: Sam, its Yosemite!

Yosemite Valley

In at number 2, with 3,300 views: Chile Rellenos in the Crock Pot! Yummy!

Dinner is served!

Drum roll please! At number 1, with 4,400 views, and back on the rise due to the upcoming holidays, Maple Glazed Rotisserie Ham!

The ham goes on the spit!

Thank you again for not only inspiring me, but for your loving support of me and this site! I would not have been able to reach these numbers and milestones, if it were not for you! Be well! ^..^

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Layers of Clouds

My head is in the clouds today. Clouds can be dramatic, wispy and revealing! Let’s go and check it out, shall we?

Fingers across a glacier

Hovering over the mountains

The clouds part revealing the mountain tops

Breaking through

Wispy

Peaking through

Aren’t they just lovely?

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a wonderful Wednesday! Be well! ^..^

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Mendenhall Glacier

There is nothing more impressive than coming around a corner and finding yourself facing a glacier! I thought for today I would share some photos that I shot when I last visited the Mendenhall Glacier! This glacier 13 miles from the capital city of Juneau Alaska. The glacier is receding glacier. It has an area of about 37 square miles. So let’s take a look at this glacier!

Mendenhall Glacier and Lake

Wind blows off the top of the glacier making this area 10 degrees cooler than the surrounding valley. The front facing edge of the glacier still calves and the resulting icebergs float on Mendenhall Lake.

Icebergs

As the ice melts, it carries with it glacial silt. This silt makes the water cloudy. It almost looks milky and this is why the call water carrying this silt Mother’s Milk. This photo shows you where the silt is mixing with the lake water…

Mother’s milk

While the glacier might look as if it is just sitting there, it is not. It it constantly moving. As it moves it shapes the landscape around it. The rounded peaks surrounding this glacier have been smoothed by the moving ice.

Rounded mountain tops

This glacier is just one of the 38 that come off of the Juneau ice field. Nearby, a hiking trail takes you to a massive waterfall. To give you perspective of how large this waterfall is, check out how small the people seem to be as they stand viewing it.

Nugget Creek Falls

Inside the visitor center there was a chunk of the glacier. It is 200 years old, and I got to touch it!

200 year old glacial ice

One final shot of a part of the glacier up close. On cloudy days the ice is blue. To give you an idea of the size of this glacier, see if you can find the rafters!

A close up of the glacier

I hope that you enjoyed this little trip to the Mendenhall Glacier! Have a terrific Tuesday, and thanks for stopping by! Be well! ^..^

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A Vacation Gone Awry – Mondays Finish the Story

I am taking part in Mondays Finish the Story, which is a challenge that provides a photo prompt and the opening sentence to your story. The rules indicate that the story you come up with must be between 100-150 words….Ready?

“When I rented the room, I did not think it would be this one!” It took me months to plan for this vacation. It turns out that planning a vacation is not my forte.

I had bought the cheapest seat available on the flight. The seat: It was right next to the bathroom. When we landed, the airline lost my bag.

The first “hotel” that I stayed at turned out to be a rooming house. There were 50 beds in one room with what resembled hospital curtains between the beds. Man, some people can really snore, and fart! It only had one bathroom!

The second “hotel” that I rented was actually a tent. For the facilities, they provided you with a shovel and a roll of toilet paper. There was a warning to watch out for the poison oak.

My last place was a real room. This was the most expensive of the lot. I cringed when I saw the half moon on the door!
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You too can join in on this fun weekly challenge! Just click HERE to get to this week’s challenge!

I hope that you enjoyed my bit of flash! May you have a magnificent Monday, and thank you for stopping by! Be well! ^..^

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Spying Moose!

Taking a trip into the Denali National Park and Preserve, all on the bus are on alert, each looking for any form of wildlife. “Moose at 9:00!” shouts a person from the back of the bus. All heads turn in that direction. The bus slows to a stop, and there off in the distance we are all amazed at the sight of a lone moose. And, it is a male, as only the males are adorned with palmate antlers. I was lucky in getting these photos with such clarity. The moose was between 1/2 mile to a mile away from us. Here are the photos of this moose that I was able to capture!

Please click on each photo, first to isolate the photo, and then click again to enlarge it. That way you can see the details of this amazing moose!

As I searched the area, I was able to spot the moose.

A lone male moose

He is on the move…

He is on the move

He heads into a depression.

He heads into a depression

Watching him, he heads into the bush, his rump barely visible!

And disappears from sight

He re-emerges from the other side. He is on a mission.

Then re-emerges from the other side

His mission: To find a female hoping to impress her with his huge rack!

He is in search of a female

It was exciting to see this massive creature! Considering the distance he was from us kind of gives you an idea of how massive moose can be. The male stands at almost 7′ tall, and weighs about 1,550 pounds. Those antlers can span up to 6′!

I hope that you enjoyed visiting with this moose in Denali! Thank you for taking your time to drop on by today! I appreciate it! Be well! ^..^

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On the Water

Water does calm me, and I love looking at it and watching the mostly gentle flow of it. For today, I wanted to share with you some calming water views and also show you something that surprised me! Ready to take a look?

Having been on the water for only a day, I fell in love with this sunset!

Sunset

I was surprised one day as I looked at the oceans water only to discover some sea life that was beautiful and huge as well! Check out how spread out the tentacles are! Click on the photo to isolate it and then once again to enlarge it to really check out this beauty!

One huge jellyfish

A huge flock of feeding birds caught my eye!

Birds feeding

We come across a patch of icebergs, and this one caught my attention. The dark areas are part of the rock the glacier slide over, removed and carried with it!

Iceberg

A fishing boat glides along dragging a net behind it!

The net is out

Waking up early in the morning, I am greeted with storm clouds hovering over the shore and one heck of a dramatic shot!

Darkness and light

Do you have a connection with water?

I hope that you have enjoyed the photos I have featured today! Thank you for coming along with me, and have an amazing Wednesday! Be well! ^..^

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