Alaska, again

Well as promised last week I have a few lot more pictures I could show you of Alaska. I think I am finally edited/ cut down as much as possible and I'm left with 355 pictures. Don't worry, I won't show you all three hundred pics but just a few of my favorites from the "real" camera. I'll try not to completely overwhelm you, its just so hard to narrow it down!

Pike's Place Market- just can't get enough of it! (If you couldn't tell from my last post we loved Seattle as well and want to go back to spend more time there now!) 

Leaving Seattle- with the space needle retro'ed out for its 50th birthday

Olympic Mountain Range leaving Seattle

sunset at sea

Ketchikan- the rainiest city in Alaska, true to form it misted early in the morning but cleared out for a beautiful afternoon

Creek Street- the old Red Light district. There is very little water flowing in it right now as not much ice in the mountains has melted yet. By late July they said the water would be up almost to the deck!

We took the little funicular tram up from Creek Street to the Cape Fox Lodge and had a beautiful view of the town and harbor

Entering into Tracy Arm EARLY as in like 5:45 in the morning! 

One of many waterfalls we saw! Its the ice and snow from the mountains melting back into the water. By July there will be very few waterfalls as everything will have already melted! 

View from our balcony

Mount Roberts Tram in Juneau- much bigger than the Ketchikan tram which was on a ramp! 

Bald Eagles

Whale watching in Juneau

glimpse of Mendenhall glacier through the trees. Our excursion in Juneau (whale watching and hike to the glacier) was our favorite!

Christmas card??? we'll have to photoshop Sam in there :)

Sunset leaving Juneau

View from our balcony as we docked in Skagway

Riding up the White Pass Yukon Route railroad in Skagway

Cinnamon bear sighting! 

View from the dinner table that night :)

Victoria, Vancouver Island- Legislative buildings all lit up at night

It was an amazing trip and I'm sad to be back home! Now I have to start working on putting an album together and that it just overwhelming! 

Key lime pie

• So, I don't know about where you are but it is just plain hot here, and humid! I think it's especially hard coming back from the cool weather in Alaska to this heat! Now that we are in full on summer mode, key lime pie just seems so right. It feels just like summer, but I had never actually made one. After a somewhat lengthy search on Pinterest, I've combined two of the best recipes I saw (from Martha Stewart and Paula Deen) and made my own! 
• It's so easy, you'll be able to whip it up in no time, for an anytime summer treat or just in time for Father's day! 

Ingredients

• graham cracker crust (you can buy a pre-made one but I think you'll be surprised how easy/ fast they are to make) 
• 1 1/2 cups graham-cracker crumbs
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• pinch of sea salt
• 
  

filling

• 1 can (14 ounces) can sweetened condensed milk
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed key-lime juice
• 1 tablespoon grated Key lime zest, plus more for garnish
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream

topping

• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, chilled
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees

2. Combine graham cracker crust ingredients and mix until you have a mixture resembling wet sand. 

3. Press into a 9-inch pie plate, and bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and transfer to a wire rack until completely cooled.
4. Squeeze and squeeze all those little limes- should be between 10-15 key limes to get 1/2 cup of juice

5. Lower oven to 325 degrees. In a medium bowl, gently whisk together condensed milk, egg yolks, 
Key lime juice, zest and cream. Pour filling into the cooled crust.

5. Return pie to oven, and bake until the center is set but still quivers when the pan is nudged, 15 to 17 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack, then refrigerate for 20 minutes
6. Shortly before serving, combine cream and powdered sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whisk on medium speed until soft peaks form, 2 to 3 minutes. Spoon or pipe over cooled pie

ps- pardon the pot mark where I stuck my finger before it was completely cooled. . . 

Alaska trip

So I don't usually announce when I'm going to be out of town for an extended period of time but now that I'm back I wanted to tell you all about my anniversary gift! Well anniversary trip I guess is a better term. P took me on a cruise to Alaska! It's something I've wanted to do for a long time and it was amazing! It's like nothing else!

I have tons, like seriously tons of pictures and I've been holed up in a room trying to pare them down and edit them. Actually being the smart one I am, I edited almost all of them, then went back through paring them down. . . . lesson learned! I've gone from 771 pictures to 500 or so at this point!

But in the meantime I do have some glorious iPhone pics to share- 21 of them actually! That's the least I could show out of the 125 I took! Of course they aren't as good as the real deal but I'll get those finished and post some (or a lot!) up next week!

flying over the Olympic mountain range

view of Pier 66 and downtown Seattle from our hotel room

our hotel room

new ferris wheel going up right near the aquarium

too funny not to post a picture of- they are ice cube trays that look like the Titanic and icebergs. . . P didn't find it as funny!

Our hotel

Top Pot Doughnuts. . . amazing

embarkation

Day at sea

Best fish and chips ever with amazing homemade tartar sauce- The Halibut Hole in Ketchikan

Ship docked in Ketchikan

icebergs in Tracy Arm Fjord

Tracy Arm

Mount Roberts tram in Juneau

Mendenhall Glacier- Juneau

docking early morning in Skagway 

Same mountain in Skagway in the afternoon

coming down the White Pass Yukon Route Railroad

downtown Skagway 

sailboats right up next to the boat when we were a few hours outside of Victoria- there ended up being 5 of them and its was amazing to see in the fog! 

That's all for now! HA I'll post a few of my favorites from the real camera next week! 

Happy Friday

Sam growing up

Sam is getting bigger and bigger and more curious! It's so funny to watch- i just had to post this series of pictures! He's so curious and wants to know what everything is. Look at this progression- it is the epitome of his behavior right now!!

What is it dad?? What is it?? Open it, open it!!

It's cool I can be patient, I'll just sit over here and watch

could you please be a little faster!

Is that paper?? Can I chew on it for a little bit? This is so exciting

AHHH what is it?? I can't wait any longer! 

Oh wait is that a bird? 

Don't mind me, I'm just going to grab some of the paper and rip it apart, don't worry! 

Wait, give it back to me- this is for me, right??? 

By the way this was P opening his anniversary gift- 3 years = leather gift! I think I did pretty well :)