My first birthday in Alaska

I had an incredible birthday ... complete with brownies and ice cream -- yum. I went halibut fishing again. I did catch fish but none as big as the first time I went fishing. It was fun. Who wouldn't have fun seeing a bunch of porpoises while fishing?!? On the way back to the rig, I had my first black bear sighting! It was running across the parking lot and was really neat to see.

I've been on another whirlwind tour of Southeast Alaska. It started with a jet to Juneau and then a small plane to Gustavus for my birthday (near Glacier Bay National Park) then a small plane back to Juneau to get on a ferry to Skagway (for a conference where I had to present to an audience of 200 -- yikes!) and then back on the 18-hour ferry ride to Sitka. Make sure you check out my photos of Juneau, my birthday and more.

The hardest part about being in Skagway was the absence of any sort of reliable phone service and the presence of hoards of people. It was crazy and made me absolutely fu*#ing insane! The 10,000 people getting off the cruise ships were definitely not happy about the lack of phone coverage. (You will note that there are no photos of Skagway because that is a place I would like to block from my mind.)

In Juneau, I took the tram up to the mountain top. However, it was completely socked in so no views. It was so much fun being with all the girls riding to the top! I went to Mendenhall Glacier (awesome, awesome -- I must return!). They have a lot of bear issues there but of course, I didn't see any.

I was really, really happy to get back to beautiful Sitka by the Sea!