The Champagne IS Korbel

So, it's been awhile. You may be asking yourself, "Where the hell have you been?" Well, allow me to attempt to show you.

We just got back from an Alaskan cruise, compliments of my mom and step-father, to commemorate their 20th wedding anniversary.

If you have never been to Alaska, GO. SOON. It will blow your mind. We:

• Saw an abundance of bald eagles - We visited a temperate coastal rainforest in Ketchikan. We probably saw north of 20 bald eagles, just at this site alone, in their natural habitats. I can see now why they're the national bird of this country. Probably one of the most amazing animals we saw. I'll have some more pictures soon; the eagle I shot in this video was probably about 30 feet away from me, and I was told it's body is 3 feet tall and wing span is 6 feet across. Amazing.


• Fed reindeer - granted, these gals were in a pen, and they're technically not native to Alaska (Russia, in fact), but how often do you get to hand-feed a reindeer in the lower 48? Their antlers were the softest velvet that you've ever felt, and they were fairly adorable animals.


• Witnessed a black bear mother tree her cub to protect it from us. She is, seen here, strolling away from the park path that we were on, but to see her chase the cub up the tree to get it away from the humans was pretty cool. We also have soe good photos of brown (grizzly) bears that we saw at a wildlife refuge that I will try to post soon as well.


• Went out to sea and watched many humpback whales - this was quite possibly the most amazing wildlife that we saw. These whales were about 40 feet from our boat, and we were told they were about the size of the tour bus that we rode in on, and weighed at least 45,000 pounds. The video from our digital camera doesn't have a zoom, so this won't really do them justice. They were mind-blowing.


• And, most completely stunningly of all, parked about a quarter or half mile from a fuh-reaking glacier! Like Al Gore will tell you, glaciers are probably a disappearing species on this earth of ours, thanks to our friend global warming. However, we suspended our dislike of global warming while watching the calving of the glacier (video clip), because it was just so amazing to watch. The glacier in this video clip is 300 feet tall, which makes the piece falling into the water about 50 feet tall. The sound on our camera didn't do it justice, because it sounded like thunder rolling in. It was the most amazing thing I think I've ever seen in nature. The Harvard Glacier is a mile and a half across, and 300 feet tall, and it actually advancing (as opposed to the many, many retreating glaciers that we saw, thanks to global warming).

Other glacier shots:


This shot shows about half of the glacier from closer to a couple of miles from it. Gives you an idea of how massive it is.


This is a nice close-up of part of the glacier. It doesn't have any of the glacial till that you can see in the other shot and also in the clip. The ice is so amaizing, though, when you get a close look at the colors. And again, not to beat a dead horse, but the ice is 300 feet from top to water-line.


This is a great shot of two of the glaciers up in the mountains that feed the Harvard Glacier. This shot also gives you a good perspective of how the glacier grinds out the rock particles and deposits them as it all merges together. The black striations seen in the glacier come from the points where the glacial moraines meet and cram together.

All in all, it was an amazing trip, and we didn't want to come home. Jet lag and a red-eye flight from Anchorage to Detroit didn't help either. But, we'd do it again in a heartbeat, and we'd consider moving to Juneau if the right opportunity ever presented itself.

In other news, we rocked the Newport. I was also bummed to come home from vacation to find that LeCharles Bentley had apparently knocked himself out for the year. But, then, he was a Browns fan growing up and should have known the franchise is jinxed.

Also, much to my wife's chagrin, the Indians traded Ronnie Belliard away, as well as Broussard (her favorite player was Ronnie B.). I wasn't sure about the deals, but it sounds like we got some decent returns (I think Hector Luna will be a valuble player, and watching Choo hit a grand slam tonight as well as showing off his arm in right field makes me feel OK with giving up Broussard). Tonight was the first Tribe game I've watched in over a week, so I don't know if Marte got called up at all or not, but Boone started tonight. At least he went yard tonight.

So, back to work this coming Monday, and our anniversary is this weekend. It's been quite a week!