Back to School

I can't believe Brennan is in the 5th grade. Her first day of school was yesterday and she loved it! She is really excited about her teachers. She has 3 teachers this year and she had so many good things to say about all of them. This is our last year of elementary school and I'm starting to realize how hard it's going to be. I can't imagine dropping my little girl off at middle school...not gonna think about that right now! We are going to enjoy our last year at Calhoun.
This is also Brennan's first year in Project Challenge. I am so proud of her.
More soon.
Jaimee

Alaska Day 8

Most of the day today was spent at sea...heading back to Seattle really. We stopped in Victoria, Canada around 7pm. Victoria was beautiful! I could sooo live there. The old houses were beautiful and there Parliament Building was amazing. The city was decorated so beautifully with flowers everywhere. We took an awesome horse drawn carriage ride around the downtown area. There is a great mixture of young and old that live in Victoria...it really had a lot of character. The city was not bustling and over crowded. It was really really nice. Towards the end of our carriage ride, we were freezing! The weather was around 55 and windy. Nothing like the south! We arrive in Seattle in the morning to take our long flight back home. I will post all my pictures somewhere because I have a ton of them! More details on that later.

Alaska Day 7

Today we spent the morning in Ketchikan, Alaska. There really wasn't a whole lot to do here so we rented a little car and explored the town. You wouldn't believe the jewelry stores in Alaska...apparently you can get some great deals on diamonds. Too bad I didn't bring my money tree. The rest of the day was spent playing and shopping on the ship.

Alaska Day 6

We spent our day at sea today, navigating through the Tracy Arms Fjord. I have to say, this was the most beautiful part of our trip so far. We went through very small passages to see the beautiful Sawyer Glacier. Today was so great...this trip is really life changing. I can't believe how beautiful this place is.

Alaska Day 5

Skagway...where the gold rush started. We spent our entire day here. In the morning, we walked all around the small town. The population here is about 800 people. It is a very very small town...but a lot of history here. We took a 4 hour train ride on the White Pass Scenic Railroad which was absolutely beautiful. It was so peaceful and relaxing. Thousands of people and animals died in these mountains, trying to find gold.

Alaska Day 4

I wish that I could post more pictures but the satellite signal is not very strong here and uploading pictures takes forever.
Today was one of the most amazing days of my life. I have never before experienced anything so amazing. We woke up at 5:00 this morning to do some whale watching off the front of the cruise ship. The Naturalist said it would be a good time to spot whales. We didn't see much activity. We arrived in Juneau around noon. As soon as we got off the ship, we went on our whale watching and Mendenhall glacier excursion. We went out in the water on this really small boat. The humpbacks were everywhere. I have videos to show you when I get back of the humpbacks that swam right up to our boat and went under it to the other side. It was so amazing. Total, we probably saw 20 humpbacks in the area. We saw sea lions and a lot of bald eagles. When I get back I will share all the amazing pictures and videos. After the whale watching, we went to Mendenhall glacier. The picture below of Brennan and Dad...you can see the glacier behind them. It was breathtaking. The glacier and the icebergs in the water were beautiful. After that we just walked around Juneau and did some shopping.
Today was awesome...something I will never ever forget.
Tomorrow we arrive in Skagway at 6am. We are supposed to ride the train there. It should be really fun.
More later!

Alaska Day 3

Today was very relaxing. We didn't do much today...we were at sea all day. The weather is cold and windy. We haven't been able to feel much movement on the boat until today. It's rocking a lot today. It's like a huge rocking chair to me...I can't seem to stay awake on this thing.
Mom and Brennan won money today playing bingo. They were pretty excited.
We listened to the Naturalist on the boat, Michael Modzelewski, speak about the wildlife in Juneau and what we could expect. It was very interesting. Tomorrow we arrive in Juneau at noon and have a whale watching excursion. I am really excited about that. Here is a picture of the sunset from our balcony. More tomorrow.
Jaimee