Alaska and some (bad) art
So, we took a cruise to Alaska! Alaska is one of those places where a cruise makes a lot of sense since a lot of the places there are only accessible by boat or little plane. The joke we heard many times from locals was “there are three ways to get here–by boat, by plane, or by birth.”
We were warned ahead of time to bring heavy-duty rain gear and that it would be cloudy the entire time–especially since we were at the very tail-end of the season. Our ship was doing their last Alaska cruise of the season. We did a side-trip to see whales, and it was their last trip. We went canoeing in Ketchikan, and it was the last time they were doing that this year.
But we ended up with amazing weather. It did rain a little, and it was often cloudy, but we had lovely clear weather at the same time as a big solar storm, giving us two nights of breathtaking auroras!
(I think I’ve mostly excluded photos that included one of my fingers — an ongoing issue for my photography).
We had gone to Iceland specifically to see auroras, but didn’t see any due to the weather. We didn’t expect to see them on this trip (okay, I was hoping a bit) but everyone said we wouldn’t. We may have spent many hours staring at them and taking pictures…
At first you could only see them through the camera, but not with your eyes (and, full disclosure, they are much more vivid in photos than in reality) but after a while we started seeing gray dancing lights, then we started to see the greens and the reds. It was truly awesome, using the original meaning of the word.
We saw some amazing sights on the trip. We’d specifically chosen a smaller boat because a) we hate people we don’t like crowds (although even the smaller boat was much more crowded than I was expecting) and b) the smaller boats can go into Glacier Bay.
Inspired by my cousin, who put together an entire illustrated book about he and his wife’s trip to the Congo, I did a little bit of art on the trip. The big difference is that he can actually draw! Here are a few of my pictures:
Wow – I love ALLLLL of this! Thanks so much for posting it. The aurora photos are amazing! And i love your art, too!
Thank you 🙂
So delighted (albeit a *little* jealous) that you got to see the auroras! Like you, I spent a week in Iceland and we did see some of the wispy gray scarf ones, but no colors. Sounds like a fabulous time! Also impressed by your art and the typical Arlen puns.
WOWEE love this!! :O)
Seriously delighted by the artwork! Keep it up… You have a good eye, and it will get better and better with practise.
You are very kind :-).