Mission Alaska: Juneau

I recently returned from an amazing trip to Alaska. There are so many impressions of nature at its grandest and I can scarcely do it justice. I might have been overwhelmed by the experience were it not tempered to some degree by some of the funny, near goofy stuff that also happened during the week-long cruise.

I'd like to share the journey in pictures as much as possible, but I'd probably blow out Blogger. Everything is so gorgeous that I couldn't keep from snapping picture after picture after picture.  I'll do my best to select enough to give you at least a good idea of Alaska and our adventures. It's going to take a few blog posts.

We departed Seattle on Sunday, May 22nd, cruising up the inside passage.  By Tuesday, we reached Juneau.  After a slow, crowded disembarking at this first port on our journey, we were transferred by bus to a boat for our Wilderness Cruise.  I couldn't wait to see whales and the whales did not keep us waiting.  Within minutes, we spotted the first humpback whale.

I think we saw at least half a dozen humpbacks on that trip, including one who was sleeping at the surface of the water.  The captain killed the engine and we just hung out there for awhile watching the whale while it rested.

The company has been running these tours for at least a dozen years so they know the area well.  The captain cruised to a popular haul-out spot for Steller sea lions.  That big guy in the middle is the beachmaster -- the boss of this herd.  I bet he weighs at least 1500 pounds.

One of the crew members told me that they hadn't seen Orcas in the area, that it was a little early in the season for this species.  I guess the killer whales didn't get that memo.  When we were close to the time that we needed to head back to the dock, the captain thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye.  I turned my head and spotted the distinctive tall dorsal fin of an adult Orca.  There were three small groups around the boat, including some youngsters.  Absolutely gorgeous.

After a few minutes of observation, we really needed to head back, so we said goodbye, leaving wildlife and beautiful scenery in our wake.  Please note the blue sky.  These are rare in Juneau.  Apparently it rains 300 or so days a year, so we were lucky.

After rejoining our bus driver/tour guide, we traveled to Mendenhall Glacier.  We learned that glacier ice appears blue because the blue in the light spectrum is reflected back to us from the deep, compact ice.

I have many more glacier pictures from a few days later in our cruise, so I'll leave you with just one on this post.  After Mendenhall, we were delivered back to our ship.  Our spirits were high from the gorgeous views of mountains and water and the joy we felt over seeing so many whales.  The day could not have been better!

Stay tuned for the next post on our visit to Skagway.

A Typical Sunday Afternoon in the Florida Keys

Sundays. Ahh, Sundays. Another day off of work for many. A day to relax, maybe go on a picnic in the park or gather around with friends and family for a barbeque.

We like to do the same things in the Keys but, you know, we're on islands and there's a lot of water around. Given the slightest chance, we'd rather be out on our boats. When the surroundings are this pretty, wouldn't you?

Anchor up at the sandbar, swim or walk around to other boats to say hello.  It's just like a picnic at a community park, if the park is under water.

People are usually pretty happy when the weather's gorgeous and the water's warm.

My friend Angelina on my boat.  Yes, the water was really that clear.

Earworms

Right now do you have a song, or even worse a snippet of a song, stuck in your head? I have two alternating: Firework by Katy Perry and Soul Sister by Train.

I now officially despise these songs with a loathing formerly reserved for I've Never Been to Me, a song that becamse a big hit when released (for the second time) in 1982 by a one hit wonder named Charlene. That song contains such magic lyrics as, "I've been undressed by kings and I've seen some things that a woman ain't s'posed to see."

It's not that they aren't good songs. Honestly, I have no perspective now on whether they're good, great, or dreck-awful. Any affection I might have formed for their bouncy appeal is eradicated by the fact that they've taken up residence in my head. They're stuck there, not just like creepy worms, but like ticks -- firmly embedded and refusing to let go.

Why couldn't I have truly great songs that I love, like anything by Springsteen, on an internal endless loop? I'd far rather listen to Show a little faith, there's magic in the night. You ain't a beauty but, hey, you're alright. And that's alright with me from Thunder Road, than this:

Hey soul sister, ain't that Mister Mister on the radio, stereo, the way you move's no fair you know.

It's nearly impossible to avoid this song when it's now used on every other television commercial. The American Idol finalists sang it as a group a week or so ago. That made me eternally grateful that I was watching it on my DVR and fast forwarded faster than you could say, "Soul Sister again? Shoot me now."

I fair a little better with the Katy Perry song, probably because I only know one line and that's the one that's stuck.

Cause baby you're a firework.

Unfortunately, even one line relentlessly pops into my head.

Look at that bird flying by.

Baby you're a firework

Add two tsps of . . . Baby you're a firework

I need to write a Baby you're a firework blog post. What should I write Baby, you're a about today? firework.

See, it's pure torture. Every time I think I've stopped hearing them, another television commercial for a movie or tv show plays one of them and triggers the earworm yet again.

I'm not the only one annoyed to all hell about it either. I Googled for which ads use the Train song and found a number of blogs who want the plug pulled, too. For the record, using the song doesn't work to reinforce the ad message. I couldn't tell you what products are being touted in the commercials because I'm desperately trying to tune out the song.

Both songs even infiltrated Glee. No, I did not download the cast's versions to my iPod.

I think the only thing worse would be a mashup of both songs so that I had to listen to both of them over and over and over. It might go something like this:

Hey Soul Sister, ain't that Mister Mister? You're a firework, what a perk! The way you move's not fair, you jerk.

Ayieeeee. Now I'll probably have that worming its way through my brain, too.

Got an earworm of your own? Care to share?