We went down to central Florida to visit family for Thanksgiving. We were staying in housing close to Lake Monroe in Sanford. In the morning we enjoyed walking along the lake. Not surprisingly, there were lots of boats in the lake though there is only one in this particular picture.

 There were lots of other people walking along the lake, many with their canine companion (s).

We don’t see many palm trees in our part of the world, so it was neat to see the ones lining the side of the walk closest to the lake.  Many of them were full of berries.

 The birds were munching up on the berries, and there was another familiar critter in the trees…

Squirrel in Palm Tree.

Yes, these furry little beasties seem to be everywhere!  We have lots running around in our walnut, hickory, and oak trees back home, but they look to be equally at home in the palm trees in Florida.

However, this little squirrel didn’t limit itself to berries from the palm trees.  It also looked for bread crumbs on the sidewalk, and when it saw one, it went flying across the walk to pounce on it.

Yep, things are squirrely in Sanford!

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It’s good to be back on the farm.  Traveling is fun, but it’s also tiring, and after a while you’re ready for home.  Maybe it makes us appreciate home more to be away for a while!

The first part of our trip took us to Huntington, West Virginia.  Please note, that is NOT “western” Virginia, but a whole different state.  If you wonder why I make a point of that, you would be surprised how many people want to know if I grew up near the beach, or other sorts of questions that make it clear they think I meant I’m from a part of Virginia.  There’s no beach there people!  WEST Virginia is all about mountains. 

Not the big ones like the Rockies, mind you, but a gentler sort of mountains called the Appalachians.

Of course, they’re tall enough to have some great gorges, one of which we passed through, The New River Gorge.  We were a week late for this year’s event, Bridge Day, but they don’t jump while the train is going by anyway, so we wouldn’t have been able to see that. 

Bridge Day is the largest extreme sports event in the world.  It’s held annually on the third Saturday in October in Fayette County, West Virginia. This year there were more than 155,000 people there, with more than 400 BASE jumpers, and 22 teams of climbers signed up to rappel from its sides.  It’s a BIG deal!

We passed several other interesting landmarks while traveling on The New River Train.  Besides the New River Gorge Bridge, we could see downtown Charleston and the State Capitol building with its’ gold dome, WVU Tech in Montgomery, Kanawha Falls, Hawks Nest Dam and bridge, Stretcher Neck Tunnel, Sandstone Falls, and more.

Of course, no trip to the southern part of the USA would be complete without a glimpse of kudzu.

Thankfully, the kudzu does die back during cold weather, or the entire south might be covered over with it.  You have to be careful during summer though, cause if you stand still too long, you might become kudzu fodder.  That creeping green covers everything in its’ path!

The New River Train travels from Huntington to Hinton, where we got off for a couple of hours. They have a street fair there with food stands, arts and crafts, entertainment, a railroad museum, and my personal favorite, a book sale by the local library. I managed to limit myself to three books.

They also have rides by horse and carriage.

The Farmer wanted to know why I didn’t get the buggy in the picture.  Simple.  I wasn’t interested in the buggy, just the horse!  I love these big horses.

On the way home we had dinner on the train.  It’s neat to watch the scenery go by while your meal is being served.  At one point on the way back, we could briefly see part of the train as it went over a bridge.

There wasn’t as much color in the leaves as we’d hoped for, but it was still pretty.  Of course, these pictures don’t do it justice.  It’s hard to get clear pictures through a dirty glass window on a train that is zipping along the tracks lickety-split!

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The best cruising was the time spent in Glacier Bay. Did you know Glacier Bay is a national park? Further, it is a World Heritage Site, “the principal recognition given to natural and cultural areas of universal significance.” The only way to reach it is by boat or plane.

When a cruise ship enters Glacier Bay they take on at least one Park Ranger, who gives a running commentary on what there is to see.

Obviously, there are glaciers. Since these touch water, they are all “Tidewater Glaciers.” The park includes around 12 that calve into the bay. That was the downside to our time in Glacier Bay; we didn’t see any glaciers calve.

I got lots of pictures of glaciers.  Lots of water and ice and wildlife.  It’s hard to convey the real beauty of the place and how awesome such big glaciers are with these little bitty pictures.

Clicking on the picture above opens the slideshow.  Take a look at the captions on the thumbnails before enlarging them.  For some reason the captions didn’t carry over.

Have I mentioned I’d love to go back?

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This was Day 5 of my 2007 Alaska Adventure.  We stopped in Skagway, and took a train trip to the top of White Pass on a narrow gauge railway, “The Railway Built of Gold.”

It was a thrilling ride. You can’t really relate to just how steep the railway is until you’re riding along and looking waaaaayyyyyyy down. A 10’ roadbed doesn’t seem very wide when a fall would be so far!

I took a lot of pictures. The good news is the ones on the way up to White Pass turned out pretty well. The bad news is the ones I took from White Pass back down to Skagway were messed up, and every file read “Error”. That’s the first time I’ve had that happen in all the years I’ve been using digital cameras. And it’s the last time I buy a memory card from some unknown on eBay!

Oh well! If I’d known, I wouldn’t have stayed out on that little platform outside the car freezing my fingers and other parts of my anatomy. I’d have sat in the much warmer coach car and just watched the sights go by.

It’s another trip I’d do again in a heartbeat.

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Going to Alaska was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. Seeing whales in their natural environment was the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. September 18th, 2007 found me fulfilling both dreams.  Combining the two made a day I’d repeat in a heartbeat if ever given the chance.

This was the first shore excursion Dad and I took.  And we got right back on the water!  I think we both agreed it was one of the best excursions of the trip.

Not surprisingly, I took more pictures on this day than at any other time. There were whales and seals and eagles and beautiful scenery just about everywhere you looked. It was almost a surreal experience; I just couldn’t believe I was really seeing all those things at last!

I picked out 45 of the pictures to make this slide show - too many Kodak moments to choose between!  If you’ve ever been to Alaska, you know how beautful it can be.

As always, click on the picture above, and it will open a new page with the slides index page. The first picture is at the top left. There are 3 pages of slides, so don’t forget to move to the next one after you get to the last slide on a page.

Most of the pictures were taken in the Auke Bay area, north of Juneau, Alaska.  There’s a limit on the number of characters I could put on the captions, so I couldn’t get too wordy.  The pictures will just have to speak for themselves!

Also, though the little camera I was using doesn’t take the best videos, here’s one I took of the Stellar Seals, just to give you an idea of all the NOISE they were making.

It’s an area rich in wildlife. And boy, I’d love to see it again!

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I have two days worth of pictures here.  We were mostly just cruising the first couple of days.  A pretty smart idea actually, because I suspect most people were tired from all the hurry and bustle of just getting to Seattle and boarding ship.

These pictures are September 17th & 18th, as we were crusing the Inside Passage, headed towared Juneau.Day 3 we spent cruising the Inside Passage, and on Day 4 we made it to Juneau, Alaska. As in previous entries, just click on the picture above, and it will open a new page with the slide show.

I would soooo love to see Alaska again!

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This was Day 2 of my trip.  It started with me touring the Space Needle and Science-Fiction Museum, and ended with me boarding the Norwegian Pearl and meeting up with Dad.  That evening we set sail for Alaska!

I am such a huge sci-fi fan, I must admit that touring the world’s only sci-fi museum was a real thrill!  And I know going up on the Space Needle is probably sooooo “touristy”… but how can you go to Seattle and NOT visit the Space Needle.  That’d be like going to Paris and giving a miss to the Eiffel Tower!

As before, click on the picture above to open the slideshow page, then click the top left picture on that page to start the actual slideshow. Oh! And there are two pages, so when you finish the first, click the arrow > on the top right of the main page to go to the 2nd page.

There are 29 pictures in this group, so if a picture is worth a thousand words, I got really mouthy!!!

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