Sleepfest for me! We've had a few rainy days here, so why get up early for no sun?

We've just been hanging out relaxing watching the drizzly rain, taking in movies, tv, and almost playing Mille Bornes.

Here are a few pics from our trip to Seward Wed/Thurs. last week!

These bears were found injured (in Alaska of course) and deemed not fit to live in the wild anymore. Thus, for our viewing pleasure... and there was a fence for safety :)






Lastly, below check out this coastal paradise looking situation! If only there were a few sandy beaches, and Alaska might be a beach lover's destination - for at least one month a year....Doesn't it look like Malaysia (that movie The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio) or off the coast of Oregon? This was south of Anchorage on the glacier cruise.




Rome to follow soon - and if I could blame Blogger for my lack of blogging I'd like to - IT TAKES TOO LONG TO LOAD PICTURES! I have had a Rome blog prepared but pictures are clogging the reality! :) Have a good day until next time!

Today we will get some groceries (all the way in Wasilla) and watch movies again! Last night we watched The Forgotten (don't see it) and Nanny McPhee. Nanny McPhee! Fun and good!

Other than that report, today I will rip and post pics from our Kenai Fjords (glacier and wildlife) Tour! It was a great Wednesday and Thursday of that fun this week!

A post would have been up earlier if Blogger picture posting wasn't so ridiculous. I rewrote and posted twice earlier this week, but it erased everything.

More later today equalling Fjords and Italy!

The birthday was a goodie! Cheeseburgers, cake, ice cream: mmmmmMmm!

There were good greetings from many unexpected old friends and of course fam :) Thanks!

I'm jammin' to the Pipettes as I continue the 1,000 photo sort. Must pick best ones, compile, and eventually make a small video mix dvd this week (thanks to Mike's short tutorial in S.D.). Good goal!

Gooooaoaooaaooaooooaolllllllllllllllllllll! (an entire Italian village screaming this after Italy scored a goal early in that world cup deal) Teenage boys, old ladies, ancient men....Tracey.....me.....

For now, here are some current pics from our time togeth!

Well wonderfully, I don't have to pay 10 pounds to sleep-in, in my own home!

Lately/Today:
We have been lounging around just getting used to the time difference here in Alaska, me and Casey's family that is. Casey's parents were delayed in Salt Lake for several hours before they could get into Anchorage.

I myself was almost stranded in Dallas' sweltering and humongous airport. First the automatic pilot needed fixed, and while that was being fixed for a half hour there was no air conditioning on the plane. So they tried to fix that too.

After taxi'ing all the way across the large, LARGE airport we had to go back to fix our air conditioning for real. While trying to fix that they decided that the rutter was malfunctioning. 2 and a 1/2 hours later and feeling like passing in my second middle seat of the second almost double digit flight length, somehow I'm in Alaska right now....

NICE TO BE HOME! And I don't feel like flying until the year 2014! wink, wink that one to Michelle and Tracey. And a double reverse wink, wink freak out to the feeling of 2014 even existing......?!?

Well, we have all our food and festivities for the weekend of my birthday! WHOA! Already!? Okay, then. Great! We'll celebrate with a nice store made cake and ice cream, and I have chosen Casey's excellent cheeseburgers for my meal. YUM!

Side bar: dad you have to check out The Pipettes! I will send you a disc next week sometime!

The trip:

I have successfully loaded all 800 pics from mine and MattandTracey's pictures from the memory cards and pods! SO MANY GOOD ONES!

The trip report shall go as follows if I can get some more gumpsion focus to pursue it:
Regular blog report, plus, a country of a report each entry. Italy. Switzerland. Ireland. Scotland. England.

Italy

We stayed right by the Vatican! Seems really safe, right?


Ireland

A good 4 hours in Gus O'Conner's Pub in Doolin, Ireland, waiting for the traditional Irish music!


One of the most amazing days at the beach in western Ireland!

London

Myself in the underground escalator scene!

After organizing and settling.....more for you all to view and absorb later!

It only took about 1 hour and 15 minutes from Belfast to reach the Giant's Causeway area!

After a nice and interesting tour of "The Old Bushmill's Distillery", I was a group of 4 select people to whiskey test. DISGUSTING! HA!

I was to smell, sip, and sample 5 different whiskies. 3 from Bushmill's, 1 from Scotland, and 1 from America. All nastiness aside, it was an enjoyable education session and a unique experience to win all in all! (I won it by raising my hand the quickest of about 40 people. Tracey so totally won too but he picked some chick from across the room, and then there had to be 2 guys.

Hilarious! They topped the "winning" experience off with a certificate making me an official whiskey taster, and it had my name on it and everything. FUNNY!

Other than that we just settled in today. Tomorrow we hike! Wish I could post pics! Sorry about only boring words. More to come!

Belfast has some charming character to it, in its well dressed people and architecture. There's a nice feeling here and it sure did help that the sun was shining with a nice blue sky!

We arrived around 3 p.m. and parked near the city centre information center. Finding out about a hostel rather quickly we decided to get that all settled before exploring town. Not so good b/c once we got back downtown at 6:00, almost everything, EVERYWHERE was closed around 5:00.

Sadly for us and Belfast, we'll head out tomorrow early to go up north to the Giant's Causeway. I really wanted to check out the Gardens at the University here in Belfast, and there seemed to be at least 2-3 things on the free list to do, like a tour of City Hall and a couple museums. Oh well, we tried.

The hostel here is nice and large like our last but more hotel like. We get our own room and really need it for some good rest and a good shower. The two nights in Dublin were fun, but with a window opened on the busiest street and 16 others in the room it was not conducive to a real restful night.

Tomorrow we head to GIANT'S CAUSEWAY for some beauty, isolation, and hiking! YES!

p.s. they do not except the Scottish pounds here....And I remember in Edinburgh 2004 that they did NOT want the British pounds floating around their gift shops. Yeah, the money is so light it literally floats out of people's pockets for little plastic souvenir trinkets. hahahahahahha picture it floating for giggling purposes

Two Orange Mint Orbitz gum pieces to blow bubbles with and I'm good to go with some downtime, some internet time: A BLOG FROM IRELAND!

This morning, MATT JOINED US! We are so happy to see him and to trek all over the country with him!

After Matt crashed with a much deserved rest, Tracey and I went walking about 10 minutes to Trinity College (Dublin's big college - 15,500 students, but only 600 live on campus) very small campus! We toured it b/c it holds the Book of Kells which is one of the original Irish translations of the 4 gospels. VERY COOL! Like from the 7th century.

So as soon as Matt gets rested up we plan to go to the Guiness Factory tour and museum. Neat old posters and ads to enjoy! So far one of the best things on the trip has been finding some vintage postcards in Switzerland! They were reprints but STILL SO AWESOME!

Later tonight we'll eat dinner at a pub and enjoy live music like we did last night! It was so cool - I think I told you that already :) An acoustic guitar, accordion, and some smaller banjo type thing.

Tomorrow we'll get the car we have rented for the whole 1 and 1/2 weeks (really cheaper than renting in America) and Matt will drive us all around the country! YES! We are so excited to see the entire round about coast! Starting north to Northern Ireland and Belfast, then all the way around the country.

So there you have the plan, now here's the impression:

Dublin - bustling and great!
People are busy moving and working and touring - so many tour buses
This town is a lot bigger than I thought
We are enjoying every second of Dublin, but we know we will love the countryside
HIKING!
This hostel is run like a college, nice though, spread out lots of room and lounging options - like internet and phone and tv
I already lost this blog once due to "bolding" erasing it! :)
Many streets are cobblestone, many horse drawn carriages (for tourist trapping, but cool!)
It took 165 baby calves' skin treated with ammonia for the pages of the Book of Kells!
When scribes messed up in translating the Book of Kells, or any scribing, they just turned it into a decoration or drawing!
No cricket or rugby! The Irish wanted to be different than England by having hurling and Irish football - hurling baseball and hockey mixed. Such rough sports ideas!
Today Tracey and I read a page from a funny "Spelling Book" - Short Stories of good and bad boys and girls in words of one syllable only. From the Trinity library, HA! I want a copy of it!

Good boys brush their hair.
Good girls are neat and clean.

More to blog!