Sorry I've been gone for awhile, but I had lasik eye surgery last week and haven't been on the computer much. My focus is in and out a bit at times so that's my excuse for being awol!

I'll be busy over the weekend out of town for Father's Day. I hope you all have Fathers to be grateful for whether here to celebrate with or waiting for you in Heaven. I have very fond memories of my childhood and I am so grateful to my Father (and Mother waiting for me in Heaven) for bringing up six Irish Catholic children so well. The greatest gift that they ever gave us was the Gift of Love.

Thank you and Happy Father's Day Dad and all of the other father's out there.

Mt. McKinley or Mt. Denali as the natives call it

This is what everyone was there to see - The North Face of Mt. McKinley inside Denali National Park. Because it's so high at 20,320 feet, there's usually cloud cover & you might never get to see her like this. We were lucky & she was "out" on one of the 3 days that we were there. What looks like clouds/snow is actually McKinley. This picture can't come close to giving you a good idea of how big it is!

Glacier Bay

Ok, I'm adding a few more pictures today - just a few at a time as to not be too overwhelming! This one was taken at the heart of Glacier Bay. You can see the beautiful aqua blue tones that the ice has taken on. Glacier Bay was absolutely gorgeous and we spent quite a few hours here. One of the favorite parts of the trip. We went out on our balcony at around 5:30 am, but DH was out there much earlier as he couldn't sleep. Sunrise was 4:12 am! Anyway, we stayed out on our balcony for about 11 hours that day. We went for breakfast and a quick lunch and didn't go to dinner until about 7:00 pm. It was just spectacular!

Bald Eagle

The Top left photo shows a few eagles in a tree that seemed to be their favorite perch in the area. At times there were 8 or 9 eagles in the tree.

These two landed in the water at the same time for the same piece of fish & they did end up colliding!

Moose at Denali Nat'l Park

Here's another one...a juvenile Moose at Denali National Park. He just stood by the side of the road while we sat on a bus taking pictures of him. He was just so darn cute!

This is what Vancouver looks like at 5:00 am on Monday, May 24, 2009

This was taken early the morning we embarked on the ship. About 20 minutes after I took this, I threw my back out (lifting the toilet seat!) and was in severe pain. I couldn't believe that I had hurt my back. We hadn't even gotten on the ship yet! I had to take a muscle relaxer (they always travel with me) some Tylenol, and something for anxiety and went back to bed for an hour. I also had my sticky back things that act as a heating pad stuck to your body and of course put one of those on. I was doped up and drowsy, but the pain was finally manageable. 

The Island Princess - Home for 8 days...

Our mini-suite w/balcony...DH in mirror!

We're Back....From our trip of a lifetime to Alaska!

This is just a quickie for now... it's 5:12 am on Monday morning. Our jet lag to/from Alaska has our sleeping a bit confused and I've been awake for a couple of hours now. I figured I might as well post a few pictures (of the 1200+ we took) of our fantastic trip to Alaska. I'll continue this for awhile since there was so much to see and do...