Lucka's Birthday/House Painting

We celebrated Lucka's (my sister's) bday the way she wanted it to be celebrated - by working!!! Her birthday is on the 8th of June and she was going to return to Czech on the 20th and she wanted to see the whole house painted. And in order to that... we pretty much had to keep on painting every freaking day. We started on Friday the 5th and we finally finished on Sunday the 14th. We painted from sunup to sundown (well at least on the weekend) - it was crazy. I was looking forward to going to work as I could get some rest there then return home and keep on painting. But it was soooo worth it. Lucka & I finished the lower level by hand while Chris was replacing some parts of the siding and we all worked on the upstairs together. Lucka & I doing the details while Chris was rolling after us. The last day the 14th we started at 8 and finished by 9pm. A long day... but the most gratifying day as we finished it all!!!
We and all the people who followed our progress were amazed at how fast we were moving along. We all loved the results and now we have one of the only two green houses in the area... all the rest are booooring shades of gray.

5/30 - Kayaking in Whittier & bye bye Alaska

Today was our last day in Alaska and it was going to be a long one!!! We had to leave the boat by 8:30 a.m. and our flight was not until 1:30 a.m. the following day. Needless to say – we were not looking forward to this loooooong day. Once we were done with our last breakfast on the boat we joined our group to head out to mainland Whittier for a kayak tour. The weather was so so… looked like it could rain any minute, but that is considered a good weather in these parts of the world. Lucka has never gone on a kayak so she begged me to go on a double with her…. That was at least until she heard the speech from our guide on what to do in case you tip over…. She didn’t like the idea of swimming in the water that not too long ago was an ice… so she opted to go with the guide instead and I was free to go with Chris. We had a good group of 11 to start with, somewhere along the way we lost 5 so there were only six of us finishing the tour. One couple was lost to fear, they turned around right away… and the second had to return with the guide after the husband got seasick. We spent the next three hours paddling along the coast, crossing to the other side of the bay and exploring some waterfalls and thousands of nesting birds along the way. It was spectacular. I was very proud of Lucka how she handled it, she didn’t even complain and actually enjoyed herself. We had a great time!!!
Mom & Dad didn’t go with us on the kayak tour but instead they took a bus tour to yet another glacier and to the wild life sanctuary. We were to meet up with them in Anchorage. We got on a bus just in time as we only had 5 minutes before the tunnel was to close. You can leave Whittier only once in an hour, on the hour, through one way tunnel. That is the only way in an out by land.
We met up with Mom & Dad in Anchorage, grabbed delicious food in our favorite restaurant – The Snow Goose restaurant… and walked around the town for a bit while Mom & Dad went to a museum and movies. We returned to our hotel in the evening and hang out there until it was time to leave for the airport….. sooooo tired!!!

5/28 & 5/29 - The Glacier Experience - Glacier Bay and College Fjord.

The next two days we were to be ship bound prior to our disembarkation in Whittier and the official end of our Inside Passage adventure. The first day we visited the Glacier Bay National Park. The 'show' started around 9am when were entered into this wondrous place. We had park rangers on board who narrated all that we saw. Despite the tremendous size of our boat we were able to get fairly up close and personal with these beautiful glaciers. We were even 'lucky enough' to see calving of the glaciers (don't know how we can truly be happy to witness the direct proof of global warming) but it was a spectacular show just the same - the crackling and the huge boom when it finally broke of... it was beautiful. We spent most of the day on our balcony with a drink in our hand enjoying the view and I ... snapping away with my two cameras :o).
We were able to get a lil workout in prior to going for yet another delicious dinner. This time I couldn't decide if I should have Beef Wellington or Lobster Tail... so I had both. Thank God the cruise was not any longer as they would have to roll me off the ship.
We had to pick up speed overnight as we had a long haul in the open seas to reach College Fjord. We were not getting there until the afternoon so we had the whole morning to get some gym time in, some swimming, hot tubing and lil sauna to finish it off. In the afternoon we once again hang out on our balcony enjoying the view. We didn't get quite as close this time as we did the day before... but the view was amazing just the same. So peaceful in there.... just the nature, floating ice all around... oh yeah... and 2.5 thousand people on board Margarita glass. Once the whole show was over we headed out for our last dinner of this voyage. Last hurray before the diet that does have to come ;o) this huge sea monster ;o) Chris said that the ice all around looked like we were swimming a a Margarita glass. Once the show was over we headed out for our last dinner of this voyage. Last hurray before the diet that does have to come ;o)