Alaska

My new found freedom has brought a few blessings. It has been a tough road the last couple months, but I was absolutely, without a doubt, blessed to go on an Alaskan Cruise with my mom and great aunt. My great aunt, who is 80, has been the closest I have had to a grandma for the past 20 yrs. She has been so wonderful since her sister died (my grandma) to try and fill those shoes yet honor my grandma. She really wanted to go on an Alaskan cruise with my mom. When I was laid off, my mom offered to pay for me to go, if I painted her house in return. I still think this was a great trade.

I had a really great time, I will most likely never get that time with my mom and aunt again. Norwegian Cruise Lines, stinks in absolutely every way possible, but I'm not going to go into that here. Alaska absolutely took my breath away. Many of you know, I hate nature in just about ever sense of the word (getting attacked by wasps on a hike, Girl's camp hike where we got lost and 5 miles turned into 10 and we all had to sit and pray we'd figure our way back, picnicking at Joe's Valley Reservoir and getting my shoes lost in the mud, picnicking in liberty park a couple weeks ago and getting bird poop on me, should I continue?) I can get every outdoor fulfillment in Liberty Park (minus the day of bird poop), but I am telling you Alaska is hand down the most amazing place I've ever been! It is so beautiful and I am so glad I got to go. I really want to take Chris there (we'll be going Carnival Cruise lines, cruising is a great way for me to go because I got to see all this amazing scenery and still use a normal bathroom and have a comfy bed void of bugs) Below are my pics:

Side note, some interesting Alaska animal facts- Alaska is the only state where the bald eagle is not endangered, there's like 50,000 of them in the state. Puffins only have that colored beak during mating season. ("Hey baby, check out my colorful beak") And finally for that random guy on the cruise that didn't believe me when he was asking where the penguins were: there are no penguins in Alaska. They are native to Antarctica, ha- I was right, I just had to get home to check the facts (Not sure why I care so much, the guy thought this picture of a puffin was a penguin, not the brightest...)

Juneau:

(Above: awesome Juneau Public Library Architecture)

(Above: Chris and Charity tradition of the random heads vacation pic)

Ketchikan: Now for some fun Ketchikan facts. I'm sure Juneau is just as fun, but I didn't take a tour there. Below you will see Miss Dolly's house of "ill-repute" as they call it. Back when Dolly came to Ketchikan the ratio was 100 men for every 1 woman. She paid that house off in 3 MONTHS! The men were lonely and she was a smart business woman. Prostitution in Alaska was legal all the way until 1956. In Ketchikan it is now 4 men for every 1 woman. Ketchikan is on an island, the only way to get supplies to the city is either by plane or boat. The island is also solid granite. This means there is no underground plumbing system, the residents catch the rain water to use. Good thing it rains an average of 176"/year. If there is no rain for more than 14 days, it's considered a drought and they have to buy bottled water from the grocery stores. Also because Ketchikan is solid granite, it costs upwards of $30,000 to bury someone there, they literally have to blast out the hole for your grave. Quite the thought when you realize that Alaska has the highest suicide rate in the nation. So, most people choose to be cremated. But Since there is no crematorium in Ketchikan, the bodies have to be shipped up to Juneau and then the ashes are shipped back down. Hearing all these facets, I am torn. This is probably the most beautiful place I've ever seen. We could open a crematorium there and make lots of money, but I am pretty sure if there was a natural disaster of some sort, Ketchikan would be the first to be wiped off the map. No water, no supplies....

Miss Dolly's House of ill-repute, Ketchikan:

(those flowers on the shower curtain are made from condoms! The first condoms were made from silk. When Dolly realized they weren't really useful in that regard, made them into flowers.)

(Old red light district in Ketchikan.)

(This is the first thing I saw when I walked off the ship. They really are happy bears...)

(This tunnel is in the guiness book of world records. It's the only tunnel you can go through, around, over & when the tide's low- under.)
Cruising Alaska's inside passage (these pictures don't even begin to do it justice):