Alaska!! Top 10 things I loved about it!

These are just a few of the things I loved about Alaska. In fact there wasn't anything I was disappointed in or didn't like. I never really thought about visiting Alaska until Faren had a business trip there. He was there for 5 weeks helping the Sheraton Anchorage install a laundry facility. I joined him the last 9 days he was there. The flight I had was a straight flight, no layovers from Dallas. It was 7 hours of flying time. Like I said I never really thought about going to Alaska, but I would of missed out on a trip of a lifetime. So to Faren's job I am very grateful.
I have lots of beautiful pictures and tried to capture the awesomeness of it all. I will post them later. Here it goes, I will try to describe it to you.

1) The air smelled amazing, and was cool and clean. My lungs have never experienced such a thing. I couldn't get enough of it!!
2) The water tasted amazingly good, right out of the tap or faucet. It was better than any water I have drank from a bottle or otherwise. If the airline would of allowed me to bring it on the plane I would have brought it home by the gallons.
3) The scenery and landscape. We took alot of pictures but nothing compares to the magnitude of the seeing it and being there. It was majestic and well, God did good. It was breath taking.
4) I never knew there were so many shades of green. The mountains, were a colorful rainbow of green and shades of green.
5) Glaciers are blue. We took a day cruise and saw many wonderful and amazing glaciers. They were beautiful. The boat stopped by one of them and we could hear the glacier. It cracked and creeked as we all just stood and listened in awe. Then all of a sudden a big chunk of ice would fall and drop to the ocean, sounding like thunder.
6) We hiked to a glacier that was in the crevous of a mountain. It was really cool to be able to see one that close up, we could of touched it, and to see the amazing formations the wind or rain
had caused.
7) There are moose crossing signs everywhere. I wanted to see a moose so bad, everywhere we drove I looked, but it was moose hunting season, and I guess they knew it. One of Faren's co workers saw one in the Wal-mart parking lot. I guess I should of looked there, I knew Wal-mart had everything but really, a MOOSE! We went to a wildlife conservation place and saw moose and bison and brown and black bear and other wildlife associated with alaska. It was amazing to look into the eyes of the moose and be that close to them.
8) There are only about 470,000 people that live in the whole state. They are very friendly and everyone that lives there loves it. The goverment will pay you $2,000 a year to live there. It is expensive to live there, groceries were high and so was housing. But not so far out of reach that it would be outrageous to consider living there. No I am not planning on living there.
9) There are hundreds of campgrounds and hiking triails. Motor homes were everywhere. There are great places to stop off the road and see. We hiked to a waterfall. It was fun, we waded in the creek to get better pictures. I was very adventerous. I started to cry as I could feel the spray of the waterfall on my face. It was beautiful and worth getting my white pants dirty and having wet cold feet.
10) Salmon do swim up stream! We saw them!!! We stopped at this off road look out and went over to this stream and there were red and gray salmon swimming against a current that seemed impossible. They would swim and inch and be pushed back two. I wanted to help them. I have pictures, it was an act of nature that was amazing to witness.

I guess you can tell I was excited about everything. I hope you enjoyed hearing about it. I will send pictures soon, when I get them on my computer.
Love ya, Cindy

More of Disneyland!

These our good friends Robyn and Richard, we are standing in front of a horse drawn hurse, in front of the Haunted Mansion!!

Eyeore is one of my favorite winnie the pooh characters, when Staci was little she use to watch the show and I asked her one day why eyeore was so sad all the time, she said, "He's not sad he's depressed." It was hillarious.

I put this picture up for my granddaughter Autumn. She loves Winnie the Pooh! Well who doesn't!

Here's Mickey. Yes that's my autograph book in my hand. We got to walk through his house in Toon Town. It was such a cute house. Everything was big and oversized and colorful.

Richard and Robyn with Gipetto. They love Disneyland they live in Huntington Beach and go there all the time. They are so lucky. Thanks again for a wonder time.

The Happiest Place on Earth is Pretty Happy!!

Me and Cinderella, it's hard to tell the difference between me and Cinderella, but I'm holding the green autograph book, yes I got her autograph, along with Mulon and Sleeping Beauty.

Don't we look happy!! This was our first trip to Disneyland. It was so amazing. Our friends Robyn and Richard Coyle have been trying to get us to go with them for years. We finally made it. They were great tour guides and showed us a great time.

Faren getting hugs from Tigger and Dale they were such friendly characters.

Cinderella's castle was beautiful, there was a fireworks show their at night, that was awesome. We saw Tinkerbell flying high above the castle and Dumbo too.

Us with Minnie, we had breakfast with our friends the Coyle's at this restaurant in the park where we got to meet alot of the characters. We road alot of fun rides, Space Mountain, Star Wars, all sorts of fun rides. I loved this place in the park called toon town. It was like walking around in a cartoon. We got to meet Mickey there. It was a great day, we spent 15 hours there. We thought we were going to die, we were so tired but I would do it again.

Noelle and Ryan's Bundle of Joy

Proud great-grandparent of Mason. He's 5 weeks old and such a good baby. I'm so glad we got to see him. He's tiny and cute and weighs only 8lbs. (He was only 6lbs at birth)

Mason sleeping like an angel on his daddy. I didn't get any pictures with Noelle, sorry. I guess because when she was holding him she was feeding him, that would not of been appropriate.

I think he looks like Noelle, but he has blonde hair and blue eyes like his dad. He's just cute, and grown alot since Amee's adorable pictures after he was born.

How to eat a New Orleans Po-Boy!!

You have to smile, it's the best food on the planet. I know my dad has eaten a million, but he said this is the best he's had.

You have to take a picture of it, it's a work of art. This is a roast beef, ham and swiss po-boy! My dad's new favorite.

Open your eyes really big and take it all in!! My mom would close her eyes everytime I took a picture of her trying to take a bite, that's how good it is, but I asked her to open them wide for this one.

Open wide and let the gravy run down your arms to your elbows!!

Wash it down with a cold Barq's rootbeer!! When we decided to go to New Orleans last weekend my parents asked me what we wanted to do. I said what else EAT!! And eat we did!!

Just Random Stuff

Thought I'd share these beautiful orange and yellow roses Faren gave me last week when I wasn't feeling well. They were just little buds and bloomed into these gorgeous flower.

This Brayden and his great invention. When ever the grandkids come over to play, Brayden likes me to take pictures of his creativity. He's a cutie isn't he!

This is Adam and Marilyn in our backyard sitting under the willow tree. It's one of my favorite spots in our backyard. Don't they look happy!!

This is Autumn and me sharing a bag of Zapp's chips. A few seconds after this picture the bag ended up in her lap. Yep she's got that New Orleans gene. Those chips are pretty spicy too!

Stone Mountain Georgia

Faren and I went to Atlanta and got to visit Stone Mountain. It brought back alot of memories, when we use to take kids and family there. We just brought blankets and sat on the ground and at dark they have a laser light show that is spectacular on the mountain. It's really cool.

I wish I could remember more of the history, but someone carved this right out of the side of this huge rock. I think he died before he could finish the legs on the horses. It's pretty awesome the way that it is though. It is so pretty in Atlanta so many trees and lots of green.

We use to bring picnics, like most of the people here and the kids would run and play. Faren and I had fun just watching and reminising about old times with the kids and family visits on that hill. By the time the show started the place was packed and it was a Tuesday night. We tried to take pictures of the laser show but they didn't turn out, it was too dark.