There's No Place Like Home

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel

until he comes home and rests his head

on his old, familiar pillow. ~ Lin Yutang

We're back from our Alaskan adventure, and what a journey it was! Hubby and I (pictured above in Resurrection Bay) hiked to glaciers and walked in autumn forests: watched caribou and spawning salmon; enjoyed gourmet meals and got soaked in the freezing rain. Alaska was everything we'd dreamed it would be.

And as for my main goal at the time I left? Yep, I saw puffins -- lots of puffins!

This shot was taken in the Kenai Fjords National Park, and it was really cloudy that day. You may have to click on it to get a better glimpse of the little guy hiding in the rocks because boy, is he cute!

We got a much clearer and closer view of puffins (and seals and otters) at the Alaska Sea Life Center in Seward...

I was like a little kid -- so excited, and couldn't stop grinning at all the puffins!

Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate with us on this trip. I think we can count the sunshine we experienced in terms of hours rather than in days. Locals we spoke with all over the Kenai Peninsula said the same thing: this has been the rainiest summer in Alaska's history. How could we have known that when we booked everything back in February?

For the most part, we said to heck with the weather and got out and enjoyed everything we wanted to do. This was taken during our cruise on Prince William Sound...

Those are glaciers, which are incredible to witness. But you can get a sense from this photo how cold it was that day. The wind was fierce and drove the rain even harder. Brrrr!

However, we also had moments like this, when we were able to get out and enjoy the gorgeous scenery...

Alaska is beautiful, vast and clean. I'll be sharing a few more photos over my next couple of posts, since I can't figure out how to load more than five pictures at a time. Maybe that's a good thing: saves you from having to view the 200+ shots we took! I promise to share only a few of the most interesting ones with you.

I'll be around to catch up with your blogs over the next few days. I've missed you all! Two weeks is a long time to be on the road, and I'm very glad to be sleeping in our own bed once again. I love to travel and hope to do much more in the years to come because it's great to go -- but it's even better to come home.

Until next time...