Dehydrating

I started out with yummy ripe strawberries! This one was ginormous!

Then I cut them up.

Then put them in my new (to me) dehydrator for several hours. Two pounds made about a cup of dried stawberries!

Alaskan Cruise

My boyfriend, Will, invited me on his family's cruise to Alaska. We left out of Seattle. It was a really fun trip!

This is an obnoxious "gum wall" where thousands of people have stuck their gum. Morbidly awesome!

We walked by the Aquarium, but it was closed because it was at night. There was a cool aquarium outside we could look at, though. :)

Even though it was kind of chilly there in Seattle, I still wanted some deliciouse ice cream!

Some cool Ecuadorian singers and pan pipe players from Otavalo.

On top of the hotel where Will's brother stayed in Seattle.

Some Seattle skyline

Will in Seattle. We didn't take any taxis so we ended up "hoofing it" quite a ways...probably like 3-4 miles or more!

Will and I getting ready to board the "Rhapsody of the Seas" ship.

Onboard activites: Dressing up for dinner, scavenger hunt, a view of the cabin Leesa (Will's sister) and I stayed in, hot tub. Very nice!

We found a mossy spot on some giant boulders up a few feet up off the path back to the ship. We sat for a bit, just enjoying the non-ship, non-peopled, non-touristy environment. Peace at last.
Of course, I had to steal a little smooch! :)

The tundra above Skagway, Alaska. The tree line was at about 3000 feet and this is above that. My first real tundra!

It was pretty chilly--even though it was JULY!!!!

Glaciers are "rivers of ice" gradually moving along. It was a glacier (a long time ago) that carved out where we cruised into to see this glacier. Glaciers are massive~this one is half a mile away!

There was a rock wall on the back part of the top deck of the ship! Sweet!

All those goodies on the cruise ship did not do good things to my waist!! They were both beautiful and delicious.

This is a chocolate sculpture, but on closer examination, it was Styrofoam covered with some chocolate. (I think it would have been too heavy as solid chocolate!)

Dance cards from a mansion we toured in Victoria.

A room in the mansion.

We ate with Johnny and Christi at a Vietnamese restaurant in Victoria. Yum!!

You can see a piece of this giant watering can in the left corner. It really DID spew forth water!

This was part of a museum display. I love butterflies!

There was a really cool museum in Victoria, British Columbia that had native masks. This one reminds me of the Skeksis from The Dark Crystal!