Alaska...a Long Time Coming!

I know...it's a little late in coming. I just downloaded my pictures two days ago. Again, late in coming. And since I don't have a real life right now (i.e., I'm jobless), I have no excuse, other than I just didn't want to blog. What's new? I always start out with the best of intentions :)! In any case, here is my first post. Once I downloaded the pictures, I realized I could not do it justice in one posting. Tooooooo many photos.

A little over a month ago, I went to Alaska for a week with my good friend Janet, or J.Phil, as we affectionately like to call her. It was AMAZING! Loved it. I'd actually like to go back in the summer to see the greenery. The fall foliage was spectacular, though, so I'm very glad we went when we did. It was perfect. The trees were bright bright yellow and so beautiful. I love fall. It's my favorite season!

So this was the hotel where we stayed. It's Alaska's premier ski resort, Aleyska. This is the the front side, the view we woke up to every morning! Those were some good mornings :).

This is the backside of the hotel. It faces a double black diamond ski slope. The landscaping was lovely, of course...we enjoyed that view from the hot tub.

The first day we just drove around a bit in the morning to see what we could see. We ran into a photographer who recommended we head up to this river . It was gorgeous.

Here's J.Phil...getting in a good shot at a lake fed by the surrounding glaciers. And yes, the water is COLD! We tested it out. Don't you love how the mountains reflect on the water?

This was the first glacier we saw, so we pulled over. I wish you could see how blue it is. I need to do some research and find out why. And this is a smallish glacier. Still pretty awesome!

This bridge overlooked the river above. Again, so pretty.

More views of the scenery by the river/bridge. I'm sure all you outdoors men/women are wondering how many bears are up in the hills. I wouldn't know. We didn't even catch a glimpse of a bear until we went to the wild life preserve. And we didn't see any after that either. I'm sure that is probably a good thing, not meeting a large, carnivorous bear in the wild.

This is me...just to prove I actually was in Alaska. First day, again, on the inlet leading to Aleyska.
This is just a small sampling. More pictures/posts to come! Needless to say, it was a great trip, and I can't wait to go to Alaska again!