My Time

Farewell Shelly squirrel

I am sad to admit that our Shelly squirrel has left this world. 

Shelly started coming around 5 years ago, and immediately won our hearts.  She was definitely a different sort of squirrel. 

She would reach out to us to get food, and take it from our hands, bouncing from foot to foot if we were not fast enough.  

She would "knock" on the door by running back & forth across it. 

She would put her hands on the patio window and look in, looking for us. 

When she saw me in the yard, she would come running toward me. (insert visual of the squirrel version of "10").  There was something uplifting about her excitement.

I had to rescue our mail lady a couple of times, from Shelly expecting peanuts as a toll to enter the yard.  And a UPS driver one time told me "wow have you seen the squirrels around this place?" when she was following him one day.

Shelly brought her babies around each year, teaching them where the endless supply of nuts and seeds was.  That in itself was a huge show of faith.  Now I am heartbroken, and in a quandary as to if I should continue to feed this year's babies (almost grown now).  It makes me sad to see them, and there just will not be another Shelly.

She came to us about 10 days ago in obvious distress.  She was weak and having trouble breathing. This broke our hearts because there was really nothing we could do for her.  As much as we thought of her as a pet, she was still a wild animal and would have been more distressed if we had tried to get her to a vet.  (yes, that means I was thinking of it).

She stuck around until well after dark, which is a real no-no for squirrels.  We believe she was saying her goodbye's.   Then suddenly, she was gone.  I held out hope that she would be back and all well, but that has not happened and now I must admit, it will not.

She was getting older, and had started looking it recently.  So as sad as we were to say goodbye, I suppose it was not a surprise.  Something had made me take out my camera a few days before her goodbye.  So all of these photos are all from a few days before she left.

Farewell dear Shelly.  You have touched us for sure.
 
 

 

 

 

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Our Alaska cruise started and ended in Seattle.  We visited Chihuly Gardens and were amazed at the beautiful glass gardens.  Definitely a must see!  I have never seen anything like it.  Gorgeous blown glass.  Cannot imagine the amount of time that went into this.   Just enjoy the pics.......  And if you're ever in Seattle - visit it! (right next door to the Space Needle).

 



 
 

 

 

 

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In Ketchikan we visited the Rainforest Sanctuary, which basically involved a mild walk through part of the rainforest.  The excitement here started after we exited the rainforest.  This gorgeous bald eagle was in a tree just watching us.  Isn't she fabulous? (and aren't I glad I have such a good zoom on my camera!)

A little farther along, we came across this other eagle sitting on a log, also watching us.  I suspect they were a pair.  Did not see a nest though.

That log is in a dry spot in some marsh land around the rainforest.  The guide was showing us how the native trees have adapted, since they cannot take root in the marsh.  They instead take root in fallen trees.  See this photo, the fallen tree has other trees sprouting from it.  I thought that was interesting.

At the edge of this forest was an old saw mill.  Just take a look at the size of the trees that come out of this forest.  HUGE.

Val tried his hand at sawing through one.  Though that effort didn't last long LOL.

 

 The Alaska Raptor Rescue was showing off some of their rescued birds.  And they were amazing.  This wide-eyed owl posed for us.  She lives in the rescue because she had a broken wing that healed but did not give her full use.  So she will spend her life with the rescue.

They also showed us this girl, who had been found as a chick on the side of the road, starving.  She has a deformed beak, making catching /eating food a problem for her.  The raptor center clipped part of her beak, to allow her to eat, and they give her bite-sized food.  This allows her to be a healthy beautiful bird, and they use her in their education programs.  She was unfazed by us ewwwing and awwwing over her.  It was very humbling to see such an amazing creature up close.
you can see how her beak is deformed.  It crosses and just isn't shaped right.

NEXT STOP - Crab feast!  We stopped at George Inlet Lodge for crab.  Val and my sister Wanda were very happy campers!  I am not much of a seafood eater, but I was there for moral support!

 That was it for Ketchikan.  Our time here was much too short.  After the Sanctuary walk and the crab feast, we got back to the ship with no time to spare.  We didn't even get to walk around this cute little place. 

 That wraps up our Alaska adventures.  Next stop, Victoria, Canada.

 

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This was the day I was least excited about on the itinerary, but boy was I wrong.  Between Val and myself, we took over 500 photos in the few hours we were in the Fjord.  It was just AMAZING.  This is one of the twin Sawyer Glaciers we saw in the Fjord.

Oxford dictionary defines a Fjord as a long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between high cliffs, typically formed by submergence of a glaciated valley.  The icebergs essentially cut a path through mountains. This was the opening of the Fjord.  Here we go.....  (not as clear as the one above as the one below was taken a few hours earlier).

We bundled up and got out on our balconies very early.  We entered the Fjord around 6:30am.  Although we had unusually warm weather the entire trip, at 6:30am it's darn cold!  Also, that's "unusually warm" by Alaska standards.  This LA girl was cold!

This is what the cruise line calls "scenic cruising", meaning we do not actually stop or dock at a place.  We just cruise at a slow pace for the view.  This Fjord extends over 30 miles.  The ship had a naturalist onboard to point out wildlife and things of interest.   About half way through the "scenic cruising", the ship stopped and some of us boarded a catamaran that would take us further in. Here's the little boat coming along side the ship for us ......

The cliffs at Tracy Arm Fjord were huge granite walls.  And even through we were cruising very close to the mountain walls, the waters were deep enough. Deep enough that we passed another Princess ship.  There must be huge demand for these Alaska cruises, because there were at least 3 Princess ships at many of the places we went.  Impressive right?

 There were waterfalls, or "cascades" everywhere.  Really, everywhere.  As the snow on the mountaintops melts, it has to go somewhere.

 




And then, as we get further into the Fjord, we start coming upon ice in the water.  And much of it is blue ice.  So darn pretty. 

 

And then we came upon the Sawyer Iceberg.  Let's just say...... WOW.

 

 

To give you an idea of how massive this thing is-- see the little black dots on the left side, about 1/4 of the way up --- those are seals.


 
 And the first photo up top (the teaser!) is the other of the twin Sawyer icebergs.  It was all just so beautiful.  This is just a few more random photos of this amazing day.

 So, if you do an Alaska cruise that goes through Tracy Arm Fjord you will see some beautiful things from the ship for sure.  But if you can swing it - take the catamaran that takes you further in as well.  We are so glad we did!

 

 

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Now we get to the REAL bear sighting.  This young (but BIG) bear was on the shore as we passed in a small jet boat.  Our guide was able to stop the engine and maneuver us over closer to shore for a better view.  We were probably 10 or so yards away.  And this guy stuck around a minute for photos.  Isn't he beautiful?

Our guide believed he was around a year old.  If he's that big at a year, then I'm glad we didn't come across mom or dad!

This was definitely a highlight of the trip.  So..... exactly how did we come across a bear?  Here is where the adventure comes in.  Our ship docked in the tiny port of Skagway.  That's our ship at dock.  Pretty right?  So scenic around there.

This is the very little town of Skagway.  Tiny.  

 

From here, we took a 45 minute ferry ride over to the even smaller town of Haines.  From Haines, we took a bus ride even further into nowhere, to the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve.  The ad had said "where the road ends, your adventure begins".  They weren't kidding!  I kept catching myself listening for the banjo from Deliverance.

We boarded these little boats and cruised through miles of scenic waterways.  Much of this is marsh land which the animals love.

It was so pretty and peaceful here.  The scenery alone would have been worth the trip.

We saw many amazing Trumpeter Swans.  It was entertaining to watch them take flight.  They are so big - huge really - that they need to take a running start.  They run along the top of the water.  They are supposedly the largest water foul, and can weigh up to 30 pounds!  Still so graceful.  And always in pairs.

Graceful until they need to take flight.  Then things get a bit dicey for a moment while they get those big bodies in the air.

Now let's not forget this was an Eagle Preserve.  And we were not disappointed.  Look at this momma sitting in her nest.  Our guide said it is hatchling season, so there could be babes soon.

Dad does stick around, from a distance, keeping watch over the family.  And.....here he is.  So gorgeous.  Right?  He was not fussed by our boat going near his tree.  Click on the pictures to see bigger.  He is just a beauty.

Those are the highlights we have for photos.  We also saw a moose (or two, not sure), running in the wooded area near shore.  But they outran our boat so no pics. The way they do this trip is good because although they may have a few of these boats out at a time, they all go in different directions.  That way one boat doesn't scare the wildlife away for the next.  We were the only boat that day that saw a bear and moose!  

This was definitely one of the best days of our trip.  If you are ever in Skagway (or Haines), it is the Haines Wilderness Adventure.  Through the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve.  Check it out!

 

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Juneau was our first taste of Alaska, and it was just beautiful.  We woke in the wee hours as we approached Juneau to start looking for Whales.  Note one funny looking Aussie on the lookout......

We saw many water spouts, and watched as the huge shadow of a humpback whale floated near the ship.  Unfortunately, the only photo was of him waving a flipper before he floated by. 

We saw 3 orca's near the ship, and one turned it's white belly up for us.  Again, no photos.  I was too stunned to even think of it.  Then we went on a whale watching excursion.  Maybe those should be called whale chasing trips instead of whale watching trips.  We did a lot of chasing.  Wondering if there are a lot a paranoid whales out there ...... "Really, they ARE following me, they are always following me".  haha.  

I did get a couple photos when we came across a humpback whale and her calf.  The naturalist on the boat was so excited when she saw the calf, as they had been wondering if this particular whale would have a baby this year.  She could tell which whale it was by the fluke (tale) as those are evidently unique to each whale.

 

 

The landscape around Juneau was gorgeous.  And we didn't have any rain, which is evidently unusual. 

Look how the waters reflect the mountains. 

 

We visited the Mendenhall Glacier.  Wow.

This is a waterfall that was beside the glacier.  To give you an idea of size, look at the TINY dots at the base of the water....... those are people!  Huge waterfall.  It is over a mile away in this photo.  Val was the adventurer and actually walked over to it.  Well, more like speed walked over to it, and actually made it back to the bus in time. 

There were eagles everywhere (though Skagway turned out to be the spot for eagles, as you will see later).  Just looking up as we were walking, we saw eagles soaring so majestically.

 

Next stop -- Skagway.  And the photos will be stunning.  Stay tuned.......

 

 

 

 

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