Alaska, Part 2

After the glacier cruising, we headed to Sitka, AK. My family lived in Sitka for a little while before I was born and my Dad and Teresa got married there 13 years ago. We got to see the spot they got hitched and did a little 4x4 riding.

Teresa and I getting excited for 4x4 riding. Dad pretending he didn't know us.

He'll hate that I posted this, but, I think he's cute.

Our 4x4s

The brown spot you see out there is a BEAR!! A Coastal Brown Bear with her two cubs.

I tried to take a picture of them through the binoculars. FYI, it doesn't work.

We cruised to the black sandy beaches. That was a weird site. Black Sand...

The rainforest that we went through...who knew Alaska has a rainforest?

You can't really see it because of the clouds, but, there is a volcano out there.

Castle Hill - Dad and Teresa were married up here. Tons of freaking steps to get up there!

After Sitka, we headed to Ketchikan and sea kayaking. I've never kayaked before and don't really care to do it again. Yikes, that was hard. It was fairly easy when we were in the cove areas. But, the guides decided our group was "advanced" and took us out into the mass waves to carry us back down to our starting point. We almost flipped over!!! There were many cuss words flying and I got a blister from the oars. Oh, we also came thisclose to being eaten by a Sea Lion. One popped it's head up out of the water, his head was bigger than Diezel's, and then it disappeared back underwater. The Guide kind of freaked and said, "Um, we should move out of his way." and then took off. We oared as fast as we could to get out of there! I just kept thinking about the whale watching guide telling us that Sea Lions were mean and like to knock over kayakers. I was FREAKED.

Kris and Dwane on the speedboat - heading to kayaking site.

Tom and Me - before our "adventure".

Kayaking in the calm waters.

Dad and his hand (he blocked Teresa)

Here is a picture of us on one of the formal nights - we clean up nicely.

The sunset outside the window during dinner.

I still have more photos to share, but, it'll have to be Part 3....stay tuned.