Seattle

A few weekends ago, Carl and I drove to Seattle to visit a friend of mine from Ireland who was visiting the area. It was so good to see Gianna! We spent one day in Seattle and another day on Whidbey Island, which is where we stayed for the weekend. 

View of the Seattle skyline from the 

new ferris wheel on the pier. 

And of course, we brought Sheela. 

Here she is in the Space Needle

Sunset at the Deception Pass Bridge

We tried to take a photo of Sheela outside this cool old

military fort (Fort Ebey, but more commonly known as

Fort eBay) but it's hard to see her, so Carl is there to help

see her. She's right above the 1942 in in the top right corner.

Taking the ferry from Whidbey Island to Seattle.

Snow!

I woke up this morning and what do I find? SNOW in my backyard! It was quite the zinger! 

Get ready for ski season!

Missoula from the Air

Pictures from Carl's paragliding flight today.

Missoula is still really smokey. 

Lewis & Clark Caverns

I took a jaunt with Carl and Sheela to to Lewis and Clark Caverns on Saturday to evade the Griz Football crowds in Missoula. The smoke was terrible in that part of the state, but it was a nice day to be out anyway.

Sheela Stalagtite.

We let Sheela go down the slide on

her own and her OTHER toes fell off!

Looks a bit like a scene from the Little Mermaid if you ask me.

Kind of looks like an alien. Or Grandmother 

Willow from Pocahontas.

Cool geology. :)

They have begun to put in new lighting in the caverns. This

is the only room they've completed the process. The new lighting

is colored more like natural light, so supposedly you see 

the more natural colors of the rocks here. Pretty cool, eh?

This is an old limestone quarry cave down by

the Jefferson River, just on your way up to the 

caverns. My shoes are pretty reflective.

South to Montana!

I'm ba-ack!! Two weeks shy of a year and I'm finally back in Montana. It's been a good, good year, but I've sure missed home!

My two friends Whitney and Helen flew to Anchorage to make the drive down with me. We were SO lucky and ended up with absolutely wonderful weather for the whole drive! It took us three and a half days to make it from Girdwood to Libby! Unfortunately, we didn't stop to do much along the way, but the scenery and the company was incredible!

Destruction Bay at sunset

Uh-oh! We made it, but just barely! Thanks to Helen's

Mario Andretti entrance into the gas station!

I think the Canadians were impressed!

Who is actually working here? And why can't we get through? 

We had to sit here while these two chatted, then the girl in neon 

got a roll of TP and made her way into the trees for a spell, 

and then the lady holding the sign tooksome pictures of the 

neon girl. The Yukon is a strange place.

Mount Robson. Almost to Jasper!

Jasper National Park

Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig strrrrrrrrrrrrreetch. . . aaaaaaaaah.

Stuffed in the car.

Makin' dinner on the road.

Beautiful sunset in Jasper.

 Group foto.

Look ma! No hands!!

I'm flying!!!! I hiked up Alyeska Resort the other day after work, and at the top, there is a para-gliding business. My friend Carl (see previous para-gliding photos) knew one of the guys working that night, and he happened to be free, so I got a ride down!!!!! It was AMAZING! I'm totally hooked. 

Nancy Lakes Canoe Trip

Over the weekend, I took a 3-day canoe trip around Nancy Lakes, a chain of lakes north of Wasilla. I think there were 13 lakes on the tour, and we had to portage everything between the lakes. It was a super fun trip despite rather inclement weather.

Sheela is maxin' and relaxin on the lily pads!

I could do this aaaaaaall the time!

Enjoying the view. . . even though it looks more like

Minnesota than Alaska.

It was REALLY rainy, but our campsite had this

cool porch for the tent! 

That's the boat and the captain. And by captain I 

just mean owner. That's Carl and the new boat.