Alaska Adventures: The big 3-0

I hit the big 3-0 on Sunday. Can't say I feel any older, though I'm one of those people who believes age is just a number...until my back starts aching and my dentures need cleaning. So even though I don't feel any older, I do use any excuse to get out for a kayak trip. Bring on Aialik Bay 2008! We kicked off the trip with my best water taxi ride yet...we were entertained by breaching and spinning humpbacks at the mouth of Resurrection Bay. And by breaching, I mean these suckers were launching themselves out of the water left and right. It was amazing. I'd packed my camera and while the whales were putting on a show, my camera was under the deck of the boat. Doh! But Jenn had her camera out and got one good shot (breaching whales are hard to photograph with a point and shoot digital unless you know exactly where and when they're going to launch). Here are some of the highlights - sunshine, seals, otters, bacon wrapped steak with gorgonzola for dinner, boxed wine and campfires, glaceritas, wrestling on the beach, granite walls with 1,000 foot waterfalls, and my favorite, calving glaciers. My b-day night was spent at the foot of Aialik Glacier. There is an unmarked camping spot, probably b/c your camp could easily be wiped out by a wave from the glacier. But we like to live dangerously...or, I just love Aialik and we were willing to risk it. We hiked up the moraine to view Aialik from its profile. Unbelievable. Again, I need Jenn's photos for this. WOW. One of those things I can't explain - you should've been there. Best b-day ever. We peeled ourselves off the beach the next morning and made our way towards Pederson and Holgate Glaciers. They don't hold a candle to Aialik, but they're cool in their own right. The lodge is underway at Pederson, which I find heart breaking. Kinda ruins the experience. And rather than 10 bear sightings at Pederson, as I saw last year with Bree and Michael, we saw one. It was a big, healthy guy, but only one?! Not cool. Here's something a little nuts - while we were up in the upper Pederson lagoon we ran into another girl in a yellow kayak celebrating her 30th b-day!! The water taxi ride home was equally as impressive as the ride out there, but this time it was breaching orcas. Imagine Sea World times 30. There were orcas all over the place, and they were getting airborne. Wicked cool. May have to do it all again for the big 3-1.

Enjoy the pics:

Camping at the end of an avy shoot. We ended up moving b/c the snow proved to be an awesome launch pad for tent-flattening boulders.

Ah, the party boat. On the morning of my b-day, I found balloons stuffed into any place a balloon can fit in my kayak. They all ended up hitching a ride on the back.