Natural Alaska

Just a few pictures to capture the beauty and wildlife that makes Alaska so special.....

A small humpback whale playing around our cruise ship as we left Seward.

The Hubbard Glacier

Some pretty blue flowers.  I remember thinking, as a child, that flowers were never blue.  Now whenever I encounter the reminder that God uses the whole rainbow of colors for flowers I take pause and smile.

This is a glacial field.  It's not clean and smooth like you may think, but craggy and dirty with pops of blue filtering through.  It really is a remarkable sight.

Despite being on a cruise, I don't love boats, and I certainly don't love whale watching boats (see my failed progress in marine sciences after my marine biology major).  However, when you're in one of the worlds best whale watching spots, what can you do?  Let me tell you, getting on the boat in Icy Strait was a smart decision.  Have you even seen humpback whales bubble net feeding?  Me neither, until now.  It was awesome and the highlight of the entire cruise for me.

Whale waving good-bye after a feeding episode.

In case you didn't know, whales are usually solitary animals, they don't hang out in groups - unless they're working together to bubble net feed - so seeing all these whales together was really amazing.

What is Alaska without a moose spotting?  Despite all of my time in New England, I'd never actually seen a moose before, so this was pretty cool.  Why she was hanging out in the parking lot we may never know, but we were glad she was.