How close are you willing to get to snap that lizard picture? If he sneezed, my lens would have gotten wet. Admittedly, once those lizards find a nice rock to sun on, they don't like to give them up! Some have nice little blue spots but this one was pretty typical.
This is the view from the top of Cascade Falls, Alaska. It was a beautiful, sunny day but there were clouds for just long enough to take this picture.
Some Dall's Porpoise that were keeping us company in Prince William Sound, Alaska. They stayed for the entire time while we fished for halibut. We didn't catch anything other than a few beers.
There are Surf Scoters. Seems like kind of a funky name. These ducks hang out fairly far from shore and this particular flock took to wing when the boat passed by.
Woe be to Icarus for daring to fly too close to the sun, so close that his wax wings melted in the heated fury. This para-glider was sailing along the cliffs of La Jolla the other day, floating gently past the sun so that it was eclipsed and I found myself looking up into the shadow of the glowing red sails.
A colony of kittywakes in Prince William Sound, Alaska. They glue their little nests up against the steep cliff walls so bears, foxes and other hungry critters don't get the eggs/chicks. It's pretty impressive but I suppose you need to go through extreme measures to stay alive when you're on the bottom of the bird food chain.
The Prince William Sound is full of waterfalls. Probably the only other place I've been to that comes close is Hilo, Hawaii. The dot the cliffsides wherever you look. Some are just trickles and others are huge cascades. This one was a medium sized one that was falling right through the trees.
First there was Moose and Squirrel (Rocky and Bullwinkle) and then there was Moose and Magpie! This little magpie is checking out the lawn ornaments in the front lawn of a house in Anchorage, Alaska. It was kind of fun having the sun set at 11:30pm. Wow.
Picture from Prince William's Sound (near the Cascade Falls), Alaska. Well, Happy is the dog's name and it is totally fitting. Happy is just ecstatic as long as there is someone to play fetch with. I've never seen a dog so determined to play fetch. If there is no stick, he'll make a stick off of a nearby tree. Amazingly good natured and tough as stones. Cool dog. If only people were all so happy and so simple.
The first bear into the water had jumped in to play with a log that was in the water. The second bear promptly had to have the first bear's log and stole it away (more like badgered it away). The first bear grabbed onto another log in the pond which the second bear promptly decided was even better than the first. Finally, the first bear found a little piece of wood to play with. After a few minutes of playing with the little piece of wood, the first bear had had enough and jumped in, claws flying. In this picture, bear #1 has a mouthful of fur.
In spite of global warming, Alaska is still jamm packed with glaciers. This one is called Bear Glacier. You can also just see the bow of the boat we were on while we waited for the glacier to calve.
There has been a hummingbird hanging around the Mexican sage in front of the house for a month or two. I normally get a glimpse before he buzzes off. This time, I snuck out of the front door and used the passion fruit vine for cover as I snapped some quick photos. It's kept me from trimming the sage even though the flowers are starting to look ratty, not wanting to bumm out our hungry little buzzing buddy.
Hahah, I could use some chocolate right now. I found this sign up in the Seattle airport promissing stress relief via chocolate. Of course, I had not thought it would be prophetic (grin). As the credit card bills roll in for my little Alaska vacation, I'm thinking that chocolate is looking better all the time.
On another note, I'll get more pictures up of Alaska shortly. I have finally finished weeding out and deleting the worst of the blurry, underexposed otter, bear and bird pictures and STILL have over 12 GB of pictures left. 10MPixel is great until you have to store them all, chuckle. Meanwhile, I have a new appreciation for sun and warm weather and am going out to enjoy the San Diego beaches for a little bit.
More pictures from Prince William Sound, this one en route to Cedar Bay. There were seals and otters resting on little ice bergs. This one was so comfortable, he wasn't budging as the boat slowly chugged by. I love the way the water was glassy and reflective, showing off his beautiful fur coat.
I'm back from Alaska. This is a picture of me in front of Meare's Glacier in Prince William Sound. The park ranger told me that the snow crystals are packed down under tremendous pressure and that pressure changes their crystal structure to produce their wonderfully cold looking icy blue color. It is really stunning and if you sit there long enough, you can watch the glaciers calve off huge chunks of ice into the sea. It's a little scary watching the huge glacial wave coming towards you realizing that the water is incredibly cold but, hey, that's why you're in a boat (that floats over the waves...). It's quite a rush. Overall, it was a fun trip with lots of stunning vistas and cute furry animals (heh). More later.
