Oh, I should mention Pete too, since he came along. Pete is Julia's stepmom, Cathy's, dad. (Wow, how do you even punctuate all that? I made it up.) Got all that? Are you keeping track? Because there will be a quiz. 

See? I told you I did all the work. That included cleaning, filleting, and skinning my fish, thank you very much. But watch that dock. It's slippery with all that fish blood and rain and slime and stuff... and you've got a really sharp knife in your hand so... Sheesh! Be Careful! 

Julia's grandpa Bill (who adopted me in May when he first met me) and all the halibut we kept. That big one was his, not mine. This is Swanson Bay, where we stayed the night on the boat. 

Ocean Fishing: Day 1. This is my first halibut! I will have you know that I do all the work myself. And it's a lot of work, even if it's not a really big fish (mine ran 10-15 lbs). Also in the picture is Julia's dad, Rob. Next time, maybe I will let him catch some fish. Maybe. 

Okay, see if you can keep this straight: Mark's sister, Gail, is married to Josh. Josh is an officer in the national guard and is in Iraq with Mark. Three weeks before Josh and Mark left, Kacy was born to Josh and Gail. This is Kacy and her aunt Julia. Whew! (Isn't Kacy white?) 

After a lovely day of shopping and lunch at The Hanger (Mmm--halibut burger, halibut chowder, water-front view, all on someone else's card...) it was off to DIPAC (Douglas Island Pink and Chum, I think), the fish hatchery!

The Red Dog Saloon. Heard of it, you say? Yes, this is it. No, I didn't go in. I'd had enough alcohol for one morning, thanks. 

Downtown Juneau! Ain't it cute? 

I went back to bed after my morning walk, but it was still only 9:45 am when the brewery opened and Katie had more beer than she'd ever had in her life (which was still less than a full taste-test glass). Julia's mom designed all those cool Alaskan labels, by the way. 

The beach is not made up of sand or rocks. Nope. Shells. Crunch, crunch, crunch. 

Wednesday morning, I got up early and went for a walk on the beach. On some mornings, when the tide is low, the beach is swarming with eagles. I was not treated to this, but it's hard to avoid the eagles nonetheless, and I thought this was a pretty picture. 

There was no whale watching on the way back, so Julia and I slept most of the way. Just as we were coming back into Auke Bay, I saw these very interesting clouds.( Something Julia does not seem to understand.)

Glacier Bay! Those mountains are called the Fair Weather Mountains, on account o you caint see 'em without the fair weather. Most people stay at Glacier Bay for a few days but Julia and I only spent about 1 1/2 hrs there, for lunch at the lodge and a walk. I had "The best (and only) burger in Glacier Bay." A whale entertained us by breaching several times in the bay while we ate. We had a lovely short hike through the nearby woods, but I'd love to go back and not be so rushed.

This is a harbor seal. Mostly it just looks like a bowling ball out in the ocean. But it's not! It's a seal! That is why zoom lenses exist. I saw two seals that day, and this is one of them.

Whale tales are called flukes. You see these when the whale goes down for a "terminal dive." (When you're on a tour, ask your naturalist a lot of questions.) 

Female humpbacks average 40 feet, males 50 feet. They weigh approx. 1 ton per foot! Baby humpbacks are born without blubber so they drink 100 gallons of milk every day. Whale milk is 50% fat, so the baby gains 6 lbs an hour!

Here you can see the whales "bubble net feeding". A gam (a group of whales that are not all related) goes down together and blows at the same time, trapping fish in the bubbles they make. Then they surface, opening wide to get all those fishies. But did you know that the throat of a humback is only about the size of a grapfruit? So they don't eat a lot of big fish. 

More humpbacks. Total, I saw 27 humpback whales while in Alaska.

Tuesday Julia and I went on a very expensive cruise to Glacier Bay. Oh, but did I mention that we went for free? Julia's brother-in-law works for the company, as does his girlfriend so we went as her comps on the all day tour. These are some of the whales we saw on our way. 

This is Auke Bay, as seen from Julia's dad's back deck. If you look really close you can see a small sailboat. 

This is the view from Mark's mom's house on Douglas island. Here we are looking across into downtown Juneau, late evening. Jan was off traveling the world, so we just let ourselves in, visited the cats and played Boggle for a few hours while we waited for the cruise ships to light up. 

This is the Ruddy's yacht, the Princeton Hall. I helped get it ready to go out on a three-week charter. It was my first time on a boat with a downstairs, which made my friends laugh. 

Just the tip of the iceberg. No, really.  

This is Mendenhall Glacier, a close-up view. There's no reference point in this picture but the thing is huge. This is just to show you the color and shapes.  

Rain or no rain, this is the view that made me fall in love.