Partial Alaska Update

Forgive me, I am having trouble integrating iPhoto, Picasa and Blogger. Since this was going to be an enormous post anyway, I'll post what is working tonight and get the rest out soon, I promise
Pictures from around town, including the Mount Roberts' Tram, our boat trip with Dennis and an insane beach landing are here. http://picasaweb.google.com/sandlin.preecs/Days4578Juneau
Watch for Orange Gumbi suits and a pod of orcas.

On Tuesday, Dad loaned us the Hospital's Tram passes, so we started the day up there. Unfortunately, record snows from the winter were hanging around so we couldn't hike. But Matt did get to demonstrate his glicading technique (these are pictures of him slipping down a snowy slope, and later a snowy bum). After buying stuff at Kelsey's work, we swung out to the Alaskan Brewing Co. for samples and a tour.

Our boat trip with Dennis probably merits an entire post of it's own, but I'll just cover the highlights. These include a beach landing at Sentinal Island to Explore the lighthouse. The belching Sea Lions of Benjamen Island were next, then another beach landing for a picnic lunch. We explored the tide pools here, before Dennis whisked us off to the Northern Passage. Since we had to stop the boat for a whale anyway(?!), Dennis taught us how to get into survival suits (yeah- orange) and put us in the water with nothing but a frosty Alaskan. As we floated out for a picture, a sea lion popped up a few yards off just to say hi. We floated out in the open water for about an hour before piling back into the boat. The rest of the way back was punctuated by innummerable Humpback Whale sightings- Dennis has a 6th sense or something- amazing displays, if not photos.

Friday was pretty mellow- we made it as far as the State Museum before heading out to visit Dennis with pizza and beer. Saturday, Dad took us on a Hospital Fundraiser Whale Watching cruise. Although I didn't think we could be impressed by wildlife after ur day with Dennis (just 9 sea lions? Please, they were hardly belching) I was floored when we found a pod of Killer Whale- 15-20 or them taking lots of air breaks for the little ones and keeping a steady pace that our tour boat followed for 45 min? Really incredible. Really the drama was supposed to end there, but while we were sitting at home procrastinating packing, a barge pulled up on to the break to off load several dumptrucks of gravel and some heavy equipment to our next door neighbor's yard. Wow!

If this isn't enough- you can find an additional 500 or so images on Jessi's site: http://jessibo.shutterfly.com/action/

Clearly, an incredible trip. We'll have to find more friends to take home and show off for soon.

Some of these photos were incorporated into the slide show- so keep and eye out. Regarding the slide show- it is currently linked from an album on my Picasa site. Anyone could either switch the album, to say, one of their own creation, or email please me images that I can drop in there.