I've added a link to Rachel's blog. She is travelling in Thailand right now.

The official date for the next Luau is August 12, 2006.

Bear in its natural setting. Buses out of their's.


Proof that Marissa got to see Denali again.

I'm having better luck with pictures today, so here are some more. This is one of 11 grizzlies that we saw on the trip to Kantishna.

Another pretty view from the canoe.


Sunset on the lake.

Denali from the Lake.

Denali at sunset from the lake.

For those of you who haven't seen enough pictures:

What's everybody looking the other way for?

Well, there was a moose there. Other than the two in Anchorage, this is the only moose we saw. That's OK with Marissa. She's had her fill with moose already.

South view of Denali from the canoe we rented at Byers Lake.

This is why we came in the fall!

On the drive through Anchorage, there was a Mom and junior moose blocking the way on the only major road running through the city. It came up too fast. The camera was packed away and the moose were still in the other lane so we didn't actually have to stop.

The pictures that I download seem to have disappeared. Well, I guess I'll try again.

Yesterday we took the bus from Seward to Anchorage and rented a car. We went to Fred Meyers and got two $20 sleeping bags for the two nights in the cabin at Byers Lake and then we went to the Alaska State Fair in Palmer. We saw a lumberjack show, an 85 pound cabbage (that's bigger than the pig that we cooked over three boxes of cabbages at the luau) and a lot of happy Alaskans. We had salmon quesadillas that were really good, and then we came to the Alaska Garden Gate B & B, which is really a lovely place. And it turns out that Karen, the owner, provides WiFi internet access, so I'm sitting here at my laptop entering another blog entry. The last entry was from a dial-up speed public internet shop, which after downloading 6 pictures showed me only two of them, but today I got to check, and they are all there! The mushroom picture was from our walk in the woods after floating down the river through the Eagle Preserve outside of Haines. The cruise ship was actually quite nice, and we will miss it.

See the eagle.

Today we took the canoe adventure to Mendenhall Glacier. They let me steer, but we didn't get lost. Fortunately I had my Garmin with me.

So, we made it to Alaska!
We've seen Sitka, Ketchikan, and today we are in Juneau.
In Ketchikan there was a young black bear that we saw find a big old salmon.

Here are two nice pictures from Christian.