Alaska

Thanks to Sherrie for reminding me that I haven't even told y'all about Alaska. It was insanely good. I look at the pictures and they seem so boring compared to the real deal. This is a view from our stateroom balcony through binoculars. I can't even tell you how pure the air is and how completely quiet everything is. When the boat was stopped, you could literally hear a pin drop on the balcony. Just millions and millions of chunks of ice floating by. Every now and then, some sea otters would play together or you'd see a whale tail jut up in the distance. It's been really hard to come back to civilization. I feel completely overstimulated here. You haven't felt like weeping like a baby until you've stood in the pitch black dark at two in the morning and watched a single moon beam fall on drifting icebergs.

It was a little hard at first when we were in the areas where it never got dark at night. My body couldn't figure that one out. By the end of the trip, we were back to a good assimilation of night and day and every morning, we'd wake up to ice blue waters and mountains covered in snow that would never be touched by any creature. Mister Kitsch took an amazing helicopter ride over the mountains and got to walk on a glacier. He says it was the coolest thing ever.

If you ever get the chance to go to Alaska, do not hesitate to do so. It will completely change your slant on our world. There were certain parts about being on a cruise ship that were not so fun but in the end, it's a good way to see things that you'd never get to see. Bits of nature that would be completely inaccessible. You don't have to worry about meals or packing and unpacking. You sleep when you want to. Eat when you want to. There is shuffleboard and never-ending bread baskets. All in all, pretty sweet. And it doesn't cost too much more to get a room with a balcony - totally worth it. You can go to sleep each night and wake up each morning with the most amazing views. One day, I stayed in the big soft bed and watched Gone With The Wind with an enormous sparkling glacier out the window. Seriously....perfect day.

I thought a lot on this trip about how much of the world's beauty and resources we've destroyed and will continue to destroy. To be in Alaska and to realize that the majority of it is still untouched by man completely gave me chills. I wondered if that would change for the worse in my lifetime. Would I look back and say, "I remember how Alaska used to be...." ? I've got to say that I dislike Sarah Palin and her ilk even more after going to Alaska. Anyone who could live surrounded by so much awe-inspiring beauty and want to destroy it with oil drilling? Complete fools. Don't even get me started on those poor polar bears...