I know I’ve said it before, but you never know what you’ll see at the Leonabell Turnbull Birding Center in town.  Some days the birds are few and far between; some days they are almost performing for you.  Some days you see things to make you realize it isn’t always a walk on the beach to be a bird.

The first things I saw were four Black Vultures circling high overhead.  Makes a person stand up a little straighter, trying to look healthy and fit.

After I took this photo, I looked down at my camera, looked back up — and they were GONE!  It was a little Alfred Hitchcock-ish.

I spent some time photographing some ducks that were in close (tomorrow’s pix) before I got to the observation tower and saw the alligator!  We saw him once about four years ago and hadn’t seen him since.

He was making himself quite at home, probably having a little nap, out on a point that is frequented by all kinds of birds.  There are a few ducks hanging back along the water’s edge.  What I noticed after I got this picture up on the computer is the cluster of roseate spoonbills in the tall grass towards the left of the alligator.  I was just hoping the ‘gator didn’t have any pink feathers stuck between his teeth.  I zoomed in on the alligator, but his head was hidden:

Someone there said they heard the ‘gator is 15 feet long, but they were estimating he’s more like 20 feet.  I don’t think it really matters.  He was BIG.

There’s more than one kind of “bird lover” that likes to hang around the birding center!

–Sue

It’s been pretty chilly here in Minnesota, although we’re s*n*o*w-free right now, and that’s a good thing.  It’s been a nice, long fall, unless you have allergies.  Then it’s been a nice, long allergy season.  That’s okay.  You can take a pill for allergies.  The only “pill” I know of for winter is to go south.  So grab your sunscreen and your flip-flops and let’s go back to Port Aransas, Texas!

As I’ve said 30 or 40 times before, Port Aransas is my favorite place to be, and for me the main attractions are the beach and the Leona Turnbull Birding Center.  (Of course, later on, a big attraction is the other fun Winter Texans who make their way south!)

I wish I had a magical 360 degree picture of the birding center.  Most of the bird action is out towards the open water and back towards the reeds where the ducks and other birds hang out.  If you go up the observation tower, hower, and look towards land, you can often see a variety of birds.  Since this is Telephoto Tuesday, I decided to choose some pictures where I really used my telephoto to full advantage.  Here’s a picture towards land (just a piece of it, I couldn’t get it all in one shot).  And it’s none too scenic, but trust me, it’s full of birds!

I was watching for the roseate spoonbills.  They like to congregate back in this area, and you can usually see them in one of the smaller ponds.  This trip, however, I only saw one land, and it was far, far away.  I took a photo, but you couldn’t even tell what kind of bird it was!  I did find a great blue heron:

And two of my favorite pictures from the whole 12 days were of egrets back in this area (different egret on different days).  Look at this guy coming in for a landing!  What a wing span. 

And probably my most favorite picture.  I’m way zoomed out because he was in a tiny pond towards the back of this area.  This was taken probably about 5:00, and the golden sunlight made the colors look so rich.  Isn’t this a peaceful scene?

Thanks for visiting the Texas coast with me today!

–Sue

The 7th day of the cruise brought us to College Fjord.  It’s been fun this week to relive, through my pictures (and DH Jim did take some of these), our fabulous two weeks on the Alaskan cruise, and it’s been fun to share with you.  One thing I can’t share with you, and I would have loved to, is the food!  Of the 14 days, I had lox and bagels for breakfast for 10 or 11 days of the 14 days.  If Holland America goes under, it will be because of the amount of salmon I ate!  And because I know you’re wondering (but are too polite to ask), I gained 5 pounds in two weeks (and because I don’t want you to hate my dear husband, I won’t tell you that he lost 2 pounds). 

We entered College Fjord in the afternoon.   

 This wasn’t a pretty day like our first day in Glacier Bay was.  It was gray and misty.  A lot of people observed the fjord from the comfort of the Crow’s Nest lounge:

And here I’ll sneak in a little delayed “Photo Friday”.  When I took this 1st photo, I wanted to show people observing the glacier from the comfort of the indoors.  I didn’t use flash, but the smart little camera tried to adjust for the low light and the windows showed pure white; there could have been a blizzard outside. 

I retook the photo “tricking” the camera to correctly expose the portion of the picture I wanted to see.  I made sure the brighter outside area was in the little focusing box in the center of the view finder/display, and then pressed the shutter half-way down.  Then I could re-aim the camera where ever I wanted, and the camera would use the exposure setting I locked in by pressing the shutter half-way down.

As we came down the fjord, there was a rounded mountain with a glacier on either side.  These were the two main glaciers:  Harvard and Yale (there are other glaciers with names like Smith, Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, etc.)

Cameras (at least in my hands) can only do so much.  There’s no way I could capture the vastness of this whole landscape, let alone the size of the glaciers.  I did find some statistics about the Harvard Glacier indicating the width of the glacier where it comes into the fjord is 1 to 1 1/4 miles wide. 

The Yale Glacier was also absolutely immense, and the light on it was almost magical:

We spent some time by the Harvard Glacier for some very good close-up viewing:

A couple more pictures of the Harvard Glacier.  This first one shows more of the river-like part of the glacier that can go back for miles and miles.  Even though they are ice, they actually do flow.  I thought this glacier was especially blue. 

There were some eagles giving us a pretty thrilling show:

One last look as we leave College Fjord:

That was our Saturday.  Sunday we arrived in Seward where our family members, along with most of the ship’s passengers, disembarked and new passengers joined us (although there were over 200 passengers who stayed on the ship and did the round-trip like we did).  Then we did it all over again in reverse, arriving in Vancouver the following Sunday and flying home to Minneapolis.

What a wonderful, relaxing experience, made especially fun by traveling with some family members.  Wish we could do it all over again, but I can’t risk another five pounds!

Thanks for spending this week in Alaska with me.  Tomorrow I go back to regular “programming” with my stash report.  And speaking of stash, even though I visited five quilt shops (and some I visited two times), I only added 3 1/2 yards of fabric to my stash! 

–Sue

we’re entering Glacier Bay.  (If you’re new, we’ve just returned from an Alaskan cruise, and I’ve been taking anyone who’d like to come along on a re-creation, day by day, of a week on the Holland America Veendam Vancouver-to-Seward cruise.)  Hop on board and I’ll show you around!

I woke up early that Friday morning two weeks ago.  I misread my watch, and I thought it was 7:00 or so.  Quickly I got up and got dressed so I could get up on deck to start watching for the glaciers.  It was then that I realized it was 5:00.  I haven’t mentioned the nights, but at this point in the cruise, it was really dark only from midnight to 4:00 or 4:30.  I was up, so Jim and I headed on up, knowing they were going to have coffee ready early.  What a treat this day turned out to be!  This was our one 100% sunny day out of 14 days spent on the ship, and it was a beauty.

Don’t go thinking it was warm though!  As long as the ship was clipping along through glacial waters, it was so cold on the top deck when I went up there to snap a few pictures, the cold wind would literally take my breath away, and I would have to turn away from the wind to take a breath.  (Once the ship slowed and/or stopped for glacier viewing up close, it was very pleasant.)  And of course there are plenty of viewing areas inside the ship.  Our bonus for getting up so early is we saw several whales spouting off along the way. 

It is actually Glacier Bay National Park, and park rangers came by boat out to our ship to board and give commentary during our time in Glacier Bay.  The bottom photos in this collage each have a glacier flowing down to the sea.   The glacier in the lower right below is the Reid Glacier.

The white/blue glacier below is the Margerie Glacier.  The part of the glacier that projects out of the water is 250 feet high, and it extends another 150 feet below the water line.  This glacier is incredibly wide, and there was a lot of calving this day (where chunks of the glacier split off and crash into the water).  That’s what creates the ice floats in the water.  You will hear the crack, and it sounds to me like a rifle firing, followed by the crash into the water.  In the lower right there is a black glacier that abuts the Margerie Glacier.

From the Tarr Inlet, we headed for Johns Hopkins Inlet for a look at the (you guessed it) Johns Hopkins Glacier.  We couldn’t get as close to this glacier, but it was very dramatic.

At this point, we’re going to fast-forward a few days.  Because we did the cruise round trip, we visited most cities/sights twice.  Our second day in Glacier Bay was a totally different kind of day — drizzly, with low, wispy clouds.  Still very beautiful, but in a new way. 

The larger picture below is of the Reid Glacier.  I really like this photo because the boat in front of the glacier gives it some scale.  (This same glacier is pictured from the 1st day above.)  The small photos are of the Margerie Glacier on the 2nd day.  I think they are even more blue on cloudy days.  And the columns in this glacier juts out as such impossible looking angles, I don’t know how they can stay upright!

Below is a picture of a boat by one of the ice floats.  The ice in the water is a LOT bigger than it looks!  The Lamplugh Glacier is in the upper right spot below.  We were told the black lines in glaciers indicate where, over time, glaciers have merged together.  The bottom two pics are of the Margerie Glacier again, still on the second day.

On our way back out of the park, we saw a harbour seal sunning him/herself.

*Whew*  I know that’s a lot of photos, but you should see all the ones I DIDN’T share with you!!!  You’re welcome.  Oh, why is it called “Glacier Bay”?  Not all that long ago (only 200-250 years ago), this wasn’t a bay at all — it was a huge glacier!  The glaciers are retreating at quite a fast pace.  And why are glaciers blue?  The ice is so dense, that’s the only color of light that escapes through the ice. 

That’s it for today.  Rest up, because tomorrow we’ll visit College Fjord.  

Sue

Pour yourself a cup of coffee, make sure you’re bundled up (okay, maybe not…), as we continue our Alaskan cruise.  We are now into Day #5, Skagway, Alaska.  Skagway’s population is surprisingly low:  862 people, as of the 2000 census (per Wikipedia).  The population doubles during the summer months to handle the 900,000 visitors, who mostly arrive via cruise ships.  There were four  big ships in port the day we were there.  Here is my favorite photo of our ship, the Veendam (the ship only looks small; check out the size of the people on the pier):

You can see the water is still the milky greenish color of glacial melt.  From the ship, it’s a short walk to the shopping area of Skagway:

The town has retained a rustic appearance, even maintaining wooden sidewalks.  The effect is slightly marred by the cruise ship in the distance, though!  I love the looks of this building, plus there were TWO quilt shops:

And check out this antique locomotive designed to clear snow from the tracks:

 Here’s a view of Skagway as we were cruising away Thursday evening, and you can see the setting of the town.  Can you imagine coming here 110 years ago, getting all your provisions together, then making the hard trek to search for gold?  This was a particularly scenic night as we left Skagway.

 One last look at the scenery as the sun sets into what I can only presume was the west. 

Skagway has quite a colorful history beginning in 1896 when gold was discovered in the Klondike, and Skagway became an entry point for those looking for gold.  Wikipedia has some pretty interesting information here about those early lawless years.

C’mon back tomorrow and wear a hat and gloves — we’re going to Glacier Bay!

Sue

we must be in Juneau, Alaska!  (In case you’re stopping by for the first time, I’m taking you, day by day, through the first week of our Alaskan cruise from which we just returned.) To recap:

Sunday — we departed Vancouver on Holland’s Veendam
Monday — a relaxing day at sea
Tuesday — a little shopping and exploring in Ketchikan
Wednesday — Juneau, Alaska

As you probably remember from your grade-school years, Juneau is Alaska’s state capital.  An interesting fact about Juneau that you may not know that it is the second largest US city in area (Sitka, Alaska, is #1).  Juneau has an area of 3,255 square miles and a population of about 31,000.  Government is a main employer here, along with the tourism industry.  The cruise ships bring an estimated 1 million passengers into the port city from May to September.  We visited the steps of the capitol building, a short walk from the pier:

Across the street from the capitol building is a bronze statue of a bear by R.T. Wallen, entitled “Windfall Fisherman”.  There’s something about statues — I just can’t resist posing with them.

I didn’t manage to capture with my camera how steep the hills and mountains are and how dense the trees are, but here is my best shot, along with a photo of a staircase squeezed in between two buildings, leading up to another street:

You can also see a little bit of the flowers in the photo above.  Juneau had lots of colorful flowers growing in containers throughout the town, I think to give a cheery look to mostly gray days.  And a photography note:  flowers seem to photograph better on cloudy days.

As we headed back to the ship, the color of the water was noticeably different from what we’re used to.  Glacial water has a milky green color from the powdered rock that is released into the water from the glaciers.  I think it is especially beautiful.

And speaking of glaciers, the Mendenhall Glacier (which we visited a few years ago) is a short distance from Juneau and is definitely worth a visit if you are going to be in Juneau.

For a map showing where Juneau is in Alaska, as well as lots more information, you can click here to visit Wikipedia.  Be sure to stop back tomorrow for a visit to Skagway.  Wear warm clothes and bring your cup of java!

Sue

(Addition:  For some interesting information on Ketchikan, you can visit Wikipedia.  For instance, Ketchikan has the largest collection of standing totem poles in the world!)

Since Telephoto Tuesday is a photo post, this works into my plan of taking you through the first week of our Alaskan cruise.  So far we have:

Sunday – Leaving Vancouver, heading north

Monday – Was a relaxing day at sea.  Which brings us to…

Tuesday — A port day in Ketchikan, Alaska.

Ketchikan, like some of the other Alaskan ports we visited, is a small town, nestled between the mountains and the sea.  You can easily stroll through the town in a couple of hours, depending upon how much time you spend in the shops.  This is a view from the upper deck of the ship:

The hills/mountains are heavily wooded all around, and the clouds hang low and heavy over the town.  Here is a shot of the marina, off to the right:

And say “hi” to SIL Lee, Niece Nadine and her DH Eric, as they wait to be picked up for an excursion:

Our fellow travelers took an excursion in almost every port, but since we were there five years ago or so and took many of the excursions at that time, we elected to be ship bums this trip.  We spent a little time shopping, then lunch back on the ship followed by a relaxing afternoon of reading/movies/puzzles/knitting/hot-tubbing.  Such a life.  Speaking of shopping:

all four of the ports had quilt shops!  Well, not Haines (at least I didn’t see one).  Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Seward all had quilt/sewing shops, and there were even a couple of yarn shops.  This scene tickled my funny bone:  horses pulling a trolley in front of the Wells Fargo stage coach sign:

Well, you know I’m easily amused.  Ketchikan is probably my favorite town of the ones we visited.  It’s very picturesque, very Alaska — even down to the float planes that frequently land  and take off, right alongside the big cruise ships:

Vicky commented yesterday that she had heard Alaska was a cruise that was worth taking.  Like I said, we took a 7-day cruise five years ago, and we still were excited about coming back and doing a 14-day cruise (two 7-days back to back).  There’s so much to see and do, and when we have the glacier days especially, the scenery is absolutely breath taking.  The only people I talked to that were disappointed in the cruise were expecting warm, sunny weather.  If you go, expect chilly temperatures, and fog/low clouds alternating with rain.  It won’t interefere with the sight-seeing one bit.  Then when you get a sunny day, it will be a pleasant surprise.

Stop back tomorrow, and I’ll take you to the state capital, Juneau! 

Sue

This week, it’s What’s On My Design Foot!  We were lucky enough to spend the last two weeks on an Alaskan cruise with some family members.  Two weeks without my sewing machine, although I did seriously think about taking my Janome Jem along, until the logical part of my brain kicked in and told me how ridiculous that would be.  So I took knitting along.  I took these photos a few days ago so I have progressed further, but it didn’t seem to warrant taking new pics.  I’ve actually COMPLETED this sock (yes, COMPLETED — I love that word) and am ready to start the heel on the second sock. 

And I’ve done more knitting on this sock as well.  I’m ready to do the toe, then this sock will be done.  These are both done with ONline wool/nylon yarn.

So for this week, I plan to COMLETE the pink and green pair of socks, and quilt a customer’s small items (a couple of table toppers and lap quilt).  It would be a real bonus if I could organize my Alaska pictures this week, but I’m filing that under “Fat Chance”.  I thought I would share a little bit of each cruise day, though, through this week.

Our cruise started late Sunday (two weeks ago) out of Vancouver on Holland America Veendam.  Sunday was sort of a blur of getting unpacked and settled into our room, finding family members on the ship, exploring, getting ready for dinner, etc. 

Monday was a day at sea, and while I got started on knitting socks, DH continued reading the book he brought along…

And even though this photo was taken a later day, I wanted to give you a taste of the beauty of Alaska. 

And I’ll probably emphasize this every day for a week.  This is NOT a tee-shirt and shorts trip.  Some days were truly wet and cold — not cool, but COLD.  We took an Alaskan cruise about five years ago, so we were ready for the weather, but a lot of people weren’t.  After all, it’s a cruise ship, it’s in July…but through the week take a look at what people are wearing in these pictures.  If you go to the coastal cities of Alaska and if you plan to visit the glaciers, be prepared to dress warmly.  (This is my Public Service Announcement.)

It’s nice to be back home and blogging again!  The trip was wonderful, the scenery was fantastic, the food was beyond our expectations, and yet there’s still no place like home.

Sue

p.s.  I’m waaay behind in reading blogs (247 blog postings waiting for me on Google Reader), and I’m also behind on my e-mail, so be patient with me this week as I get caught up!