Here is my mom and I the day we left for Anchorage. This pic was taken by my excellent dad. I don't know what is up with our eyeballs, but oh well. Isn't it scary how much my mom and I look alike. Really weird. Our flight ended up being 3 hours late and we barely made it to Anchorage at all!!! How did we pass our time in LAX? We drank a lot...beer, cosmopolitans, rum and coke...it was fun.

Resurrection Bay in Seward, AK and the Kenai Fjords. Mother and I stayed at a very quaint B&B (it's a historical builiding)and went on a great wildlife cruise. This photo was shot from the parking lot at the SeaLife Center on Aug. 24, 00. Notice the snow and clouds. Can you imagine waking up to scenery like this on a daily basis?

Mom and I were lucky enough to be in Anchorage during the Alaska State Fair. Now, I'm not one for fairs...they are smelly, riddled with drunks, and are generally unpleasent afairs (no pun intended). BUT we simply could not say no to the prospect of funnel cakes and giant vegetables. I had heard about these mythical organisms on a documentary I watched about Alaska a few weeks before I left. Anyway, Mom and I went on a search for those gigantic tubuals...and we found them. In this picture you can see a purple pen in the right corner next to the turnip. This gives you the scale of the vegetables. Amazing...and weird.

"But Mom, I don't want to eat the shrubbery!"
"Dammit, just eat the damn shrubbery or no Rocky and Bulwinkle for a month."
"Fine...geeze!"

Ed arrived in Anchorage on the 22nd of October. It snowed all night and on Monday we had the first official snow of the season. I had to go to my yoga class but I brought my camera to take a few snaps of the snow. If you are wondering this picture was taken at 8:30am right outside the front door to my residence hall.

Ed for some reason decided to get all sexy with the snow...actually, he just thought it looked yummy sitting on the tree branch so he took a lick. Yummy yummy...

This pic was taken by my Dad around 3pm in the afternoon. My dad came to visit me on Thanksgiving. We had a super time going to the thrift stores and taking a pleasent drive out to Portage Glacier. This pic is taken I believe at Begula Pass. Gorgeous, huh?

Okay, so, this picture is not of an authentic back of an alaskan person's head. It is a pic of the Orca we saw on the wildlife cruise. It is off to the right, and breeching. It was one of the most amazing events I have ever witnessed.

Mom and I were driving back from Seward when we decided to stop by Portage Glacier. We were intending on driving through the $80 million tunnel that connects the rest of the world with Whittier(a town that really doesn't deserve the tunnel). Deciding against the tunnel, Mom and I stopped by this lake to check out the giant iceberg. The iceberg was extremely aggressive and tried to attack Mom. You can see her fending it off with a stick. She scared the iceberg away (that is why she is smiling) and we made our way back to the car. Halfway to the car we faced our worst nemesis: the killer mosquitos from hell. The air was thick with the buggers. We managed to survive the onslaught (several flew INTO my eye...like into my eyeball!) and quickly got into our car.

So, I was sitting in my room feeling sorta homesick when my roommate yells out, "Hey, did you see the big ol' moose out there?" Well, I hadn't and I peeked out my window to see a beautiful mommy-moose with her baby-moose. I managed to pull the screen off my window and lean out to take these awsome shots.

As you can see the baby moose is just as cute as a button. Of course, this baby is about the size of small cow! The moose did a number on our lovely landscaping that my tuition pays for. But, look at the cute thing...it is well worth it.

Ed and I decided to go on a nature walk to celebrate the first snow. We found a trail that hadn't been taken and we started on our adventure. It was so beautiful with the branches and the trees. As you can see...Ed was giddy with joy over the wonderous beauty of Alaska.

Ed, Andrea, and I went on a midnight nature hike on the last night he was here. Here is Andrea (my roommate) and Ed at the end of the hike. The speed sign behind them at some awsome crysals on it but you couldn't tell that from the photo. Oops...

If you look real close you can see a rainbow in this pic. I was sitting in my bed talking to my friend Ricardo when I looked out the window to see this awsome rainbow sitting right there. Ricardo insisted I couldn't take a pic of a rainbow but I certainly proved him wrong.

This is the beautiful glacier that was the highlight of the wildlife cruise we took. We got to see it calving (when huge chunks break off and splash into the ocean) and listen to it hiss and pop. Amazing and breathtakingly beautiful.

This is another pic of Portage Glacier which is where the iceburg attacked Mom. In this pic you can see the beautiful mountains and trees. When I see this pic I can only think of Alaska.