alaska

Since people have been asking how my trip to Alaska was, well it was pretty incredible. Actually it was absolutely incredible. Alaska is such a BEAUTIFUL state and its sad that not that many people get a chance to visit due to its somewhat "extreme" location. I flew out to Anchorage to meet up with my parents and other family friends who were just coming back from the land portion of the trip up to Denali National Park. I am extremely mad that I missed that part of the trip (silly summer school) because seeing Denali on a clear day is something very rare and my parents got to see it. Its okay though, give me a reason to go back :) After meeting up with my folks we toured around Anchorage for a bit then over the weekend took a trip down to Kenai Fjords National Park near Seward and saw some pretty incredible glaciers and landscapes. I even got to kiss a glacier (why not?) somewhat illegally.

After a weekend on land, we all set forth sail aboard the Island Princess for a 7-day cruise southbound to Vancouver. Along the way we visited College Fjords, Glacier Bay National Park, Skagway, Juneau, Ketchican before finally arriving in Vancouver. The cruise was awesome and very different from the Carnival Carribean cruise I took a few years ago because we pretty much followed land about 75% of the time. The ports of call were fun because I got to go and see a musher's camp and ride a sled dog cart as well as go rock climbing and rappelling in Skagway; then ziplining in Juneau and finally sea kayaking in Ketchikan. I also ate massive amounts of awesome food (particularly great seafood) and even go to try some pretty exotic stuff like caviar, escargot and frog's legs (which I promise does taste like chicken).

Saw some cool animals. Bears, sea otters, bald eagles, ginormous starfish, moose and WHALES! I saw not just pods of orcas in the open water but one of my favorite memories was a huge pod of humpbacks! Me and my friends were sitting in the food court on the top deck looking towards the bow of the ship when we saw whale after whale after whale breach slightly. The pod must have had at least 15-20 whales. The coolest part: I SAW A HUMPBACK WHALE BREACH AND EAT A BIRD! no joke!

We ended our cruise in Vancouver and honestly, I now love the west coast even more than before. West coast mentality and culture just rocks and suits me well. I really hope that I get the opportunity to move to the west coast at somepoint in my life whether it be to Vancouver (one of my new favorite cities) or Portland or Seattle or San Francisco. We'll see where life takes me.

I'll try and post pics on facebook or something like that soon. But for your viewing pleasure, here's one of my favorite pictures from the trip: a panoramic view of Marjorie Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park.