I'm back!

Did you miss me?

Of course you did. I missed you too. The vacation was wonderful for my creative spirit. I've got dozens of new ideas, new plans that shall be revealed in the next day or so and an invigoration of the soul. Alaska is one of the few places left that doesn't have a McDonald's and Best Buy on every corner. Instead, there are trees and lush mountains.

But you don't want to hear about my vacation. You'd rather see it for yourself, wouldn't you? Of course you do. Everyone likes looking at other people's vacation pictures.

Thursday morning, we flew out to Alaska where my Dad met us at the airport. He works for a company out of Alaska and had been there all week. When we got there, we hit downtown Anchorage.

After popping into a few shops, we had dinner by a river and looked for salmon.





Instead, we found a log that looked suspiciously like salmon but was....a log.







*Note: Due to the Nazi-anal-retentive-nutjob-airlines, we packed very light. Therefore, my only jacket was my pink fuzzy you'll see in most of the pictures. So don't be worried--I didn't wear the same clothes three days in a row.



Friday, we did all sorts of exciting things. We flew over Anchorage in one of the small Cessna planes that are really popular down there. Most of Alaska is unreachable by road, so most of the locals own or travel by planes.





The scenery was gorgeous.



My favorite part was that one of the mountains was called "The Sleeping Woman" by locals. The legend was that during the time of Giants, the woman's lover was killed in a war while she slept. The townspeople couldn't bear to wake her. She slept for hundreds of years, being blanketed by wildflowers in the summer and snow in the winter by the people until she became part of the mountain herself. Now, she sleeps until war is gone and peace reigns.

We also went to a town called Girdwood and rode up a mountain.

(This is the only picture I've ever seen where my Dad is smiling.)

This is where I found this little fellow.




You'll learn more about him Wednesday.




After a tasty lunch, we visited the Alaska animal conservatory. I chatted with the moose, giggled at the porcupine who was dancing instead of burrowing and inquired about the black bear's eating habits.





While the black bears were more interested in digging for worms, the buffalo were happy to talk to me. They wuffled as they ate.





After that, we stopped by a little tourist center that had the world's biggest chocolate fountain. A Iditorod racer was there with his dogs, so we stopped and chatted with him for awhile. Then we went to a museum, where Dad desperately tried to inject us with culture.





It didn't work.




The next day, we hopped a train that took us to Whittier, a town about two hours a way. While most people took photos of the scenery, I hopped to the back of the train and stuck my head out like a manic dog.






At least I was happy.






Other highlights of the trip included meeting Ben's father's buddy for lunch, dancing with a bear and visiting with a moose.

The moose was rather quiet.He was a nice bear...but two left feet.

Meanwhile, back in Shreveport, the city was trembling in fear at the new dictator that had invaded town.







While we dined on fresh fish and explored a new frontier, poor Ben's parents dealt with poo-smeared kitchen floors, shredded puppy pads and a terrorized Ace. The poor dog couldn't even have lunch without Bitty snarling at him and sending Bear to bite after him.

Fear me.

And Bitty would have had it no other way.

We had a fabulous time with my parents and sister and appreciate their generosity. And we greatly appreciate Ben's parents watching the spoiled Babies. I would say we'd go again next year, but....







I don't think she will allow it. Unless she comes too.