So we took a little Alaskan cruise this past Saturday. We drove 2.5 hours south of Anchorage to a fishing town called Seward (sounds like "sewer" with a D on the end) and got on a boat with about 150 other people. The only difference among them and us is that we live here and they're tourists. Most of the other travelers thought it was cool to meet people that actually lived in Alaska. The boat ride was a 6 hour ride out from the Kenai (kee-nigh) Peninsula and around the Alkalai Bay. We saw just about everything you're supposed to see on an Alaskan cruise: 1 moose, 1 bear, 2 Humpback whales, 6 killer whales, 5 Sea otters, Lots of Arctic Puffins, 5 glaciers, 1 bald eagle, 15 sea lions (shown below), and a partridge in a pear tree! It was awesome! The only thing that could have made the trip better was dressing warm enough. As you can see from the pic above, it was cold. Ah, summer in Alaska...

The glacier shown here is Aialik Glacier. It doesn't look big from the picture but it's about 1 mile wide and about 300 feet tall. It was Carolina blue color and you could here it creek and crack as it moved. Well, it was more like a thundering than a cracking. Either way, it was pretty majestic. God was really thinking when he made something so cool (no pun intended). Our resident park ranger on the boat said it moves about 4 feet each day.

The moral of the story is if you come and visit us, you can see all these things too. The only thing is don't let the word "Summer" fool you. Bring your warm clothes.