Gone (and back)

Greetings all people of planet Earth! I realize I've been absent from Blogger lately, which is unforgivable of me, especially when I left you in such suspense after my last post. Don't worry, I haven't given up on my short story yet, it's just not far enough along to be revealed as of right now. Be a little patient people, seriously. Anyway, last week I returned from my trek around southern Alaska/Canada and let me tell you, it was FABULOUS. Onboard the cruise I ate every two hours, sucked down several virgin strawberry daiquiris and won many rounds of BS, Egyptian Ratscrew and Kemps. Overall, a pretty relaxing and eventful week. Off-board (if that's even a real term), I got to dogsled, hold adorable baby Alaskan Huskies, watched six killer whales spy-hop not ten feet in front of me, zip-lined hundreds of feet up over Alaskan ground, saw reindeer, exited the United States for the first time in my life (CANADA COUNTS AND IS AWESOME), ate freshly baked salmon (delicious as it sounds), and acted like a crazy tourist, which I didn't really like honestly. I would much rather have pretended to be an integral and long-lasting part of my surrounding environment, but the tour buses and multiple cameras/camcorders made that an impossibility. Alas, I had an exceptionally good time. Met some new people (cute people, to be quite frank) and some not so cute people (someone wanted to watch me sleep) who scared the living, sorry but, hell out of me. I hope I do not offend anyone with my curt and coarse language but really, I feel like I should have a pass on that one. It's not everyday a seventeen-year-old is stalked on a cruise ship by a nineteen-year-old Texan. So, come on, cut me a little slack (MOM). Other than my persistent follower, my cruise was spotless, although it was pretty chilly and I did have a serious case of homesickness and even a little seasickness. Open waters are no joke people, not even with a giant hunk of ship like the Golden Princess (How lame does that name sound, on a scale of 1 to 10? I give it a 7.5). Anywho (word?), I have videos I will upload to share with everyone, as soon as I get them back. My camcorder didn't have enough memory space so I had to save some on my friend's laptop during my vacation and I still haven't gotten them back. Trust me, though, the whale videos are worth the wait. Speaking of whales...

I know I already said this but...WE SAW KILLER WHALES! How awesome is that? If you think that's no big deal, I really should explain more. Our whale watching expedition took place in Juneau, the capital of Alaska. Our tour bus drove us from the cruise ship port to the whale watching port and we boarded a cool double decker along with maybe two hundred other people. I was pleasantly surprised as they had a giant buffet inside the boat and a bar where you could order drinks. I wasn't really hungry, plus the buffet was savagely attacked by all the other passengers, so I settled for some goldfish and a diet coke, which I shared with Brie. Anyway, the whole point of the excursion was to spot some humpback whales and see some of Juneau's glaciers, which are pretty cool, all tucked away in between two gigantic mountains. Seriously, those things are huge. Pictures do not do them justice. Moving on. We did see some humpback whales, but not as much as we'd like. There were only two, a mother and her calf, and they were looking for food, diving down deep to get krill, the only fish they can actually eat. Did you know that the size of a humpback whale's throat is so small, you couldn't fit your foot into it? If they get so much as one salmon in their mouths with krill, they have to spit everything out and start over or risk choking themselves to death. It's ironic, a mammoth this size and they can't eat anything over maybe 4 inches. (Our tour guide was really cool and very informative. She also had a very nice speaking voice.) Anyway, the humpback whales were cool, but once they dive down to get food, they can be under for up to 20 minutes, so we moved on. Amazingly enough, we happened upon a pod of six killer whales. Now, the reason this is so amazing, our guide told us, is because they usually only encounter killer whales 10% of the time they're out on expeditions. We were extremely lucky, especially because the pod was pretty large. Six whales, one of them a calf, four females and one male. You could tell a calf by its size, and by a slightly orange tint that occurs because their blubber is so thin at birth. Therefore, you can see the blood vessels beneath. Another awe-inspiring occurrence was something called a "spy-hop." That's where whales jump out of the water to get a look at their surroundings. Basically, looking at us. The calf spy-hopped probably 6 or 7 times, which is crazy because our guide told us they only see spy-hopping once or twice out of 4 spottings of Killer whales. We really must have been a lucky bunch, because the day was nice and we saw something only 25% of 10% of people whale-watching get to see. You'll get to see the video later, hopefully soon. I know this was a long post, but my mom says that blogging is my summer job, and if I don't continue, I'll have to get a real job. Yuck. So long for now!