A Day On The Boat

I finally got to see my first Humpback whales of the season! I was beyond excited when we cruised around the Western tip of Shelter Island and Mike yelled "Jackpot! Whales straight ahead!" As far as I could tell it was a Mom and her baby but that seems fairly odd since it is so early in the season. It may have been just two whales feeding together, but one was definitely larger than the other.

The water was amazingly calm when we were out. Mike and I both wondered if we would ever see it this calm again while we live here. And the crazy thing was that there were almost no other boats out there! We saw maybe three boats during our whole four hour trip. But that made it even more amazing. It was just us, some sea lions, eagles, and the whales :) Couldn't be better!

I read in the paper this week that there was an Orca pod spotted in the Gastineau Channel on the same day that we were out on the boat (Sunday). The Gastineau Channel runs right next to downtown Juneau and it's not too often that you get to see whales there. Marine Biologists suspect that it was a transient Orca pod looking for seals to feed on. Wish we could have seen them but I was happy with the humpbacks and sea lions!

Captain Jack

Humpback Whale

The two Humpbacks

Sea Lions... there was another group of four or five in the water fighting with the group on the buoy. It was like they were playing a violent game of King of the Mountain.

The Skipper

My version of a self portrait :) 

Our Little Captain

Here are some new pictures of Jackson. Mike got the boat out of storage this weekend and has been working on it with his little helper, Captain Jack :) We've also been doing some playing in the snow which, I am happy to report, is rapidly melting. We still have another four feet to melt through but I'm hoping by May it will all be gone. Fingers crossed :)

A Photography Day for the Books

Yesterday was amazing. It was cold and windy and absolutely gorgeous outside. We loaded up the 4-runner with Jackson, the dogs, and all of my camera equipment and headed "out the road" with the intentions to drive all the way to the end. The end is 40 miles out of town and we had yet to drive all the way out there. We knew that with the wind blowing the way it was there were going to be some pretty giant waves, and we weren't dissapointed. It was such a fun day of taking pictures, and the icing on the cake was getting back into town right when the sun was setting over Auke Bay Marina. The Marina is by far one of my favorite places to take pictures in Juneau and last night it was AMAZING. I loved what I was able to capture (and hope you do to!).

After we got home and got Jackson to bed, Mike happened to look at the Aurora forecast. It said that in about 40 minutes there was going to be a big possibility that we would be able to see the lights in Juneau. I raced around the house getting all my gear together and managed to make it the approximately 100 yards to Mendenhall Lake right when the show was beginning. It was super dark and I had a very hard time trying to tell if I was in focus or not... turns out I wasn't. But I still shared a picture below because it was such an amazing experience getting to see and shoot the Northern Lights for the first time... and literally right out my back door!

Hope you enjoy the pics.



The beach at the end of the road, Echo Cove.



I was playing around in photoshop and was able to get this photo to look like someone might have painted it. I thought the effect was kind of cool and decided to share it.



Eagle Beach

This is for those of you who haven't had the opportunity to see Mike's purchase after he sold my beloved Honda. It's definitely a great example of what happens to cars in Juneau... rust, rust, rust. But it runs and the dogs can come with us in the cold weather so it works.



Auke Bay Marina



I was only about 30 feet away from these two. They could have cared less that I was there. It was pretty awesome.




This is my favorite pic of the day. It was just such a peaceful setting and especially in comparison to what the waters were like further out the road. I think I captured exactly what I wanted to with this picture.




The Northern Light, out of focus, but an amazing experience.