Alaska (part two): Humpback Whales

We arrived in Juneau after a few bleak days of continual rain. The sun was shining and it felt great to step off the cruise boat, stretch our legs, and explore the nature that belongs in an outdoors magazine.
My family received a complimentary shore excursion in Juneau (one of the perks of travelling with a small army) to go whale watching in the surrounding ocean inlets. Although the brochure listed a dazzling array of animals for which we would 'be on the lookout,' I did not board the catamaran with exceptionally high expectations. But after a few minutes of sailing through beautiful (but animal-less) scenery, we hit the mother load...
Our boat was surrounded by two different pods of humpback whales (a total of around 30 whales) and for a solid hour and a half, we experienced the absolute adrenaline rush of seeing these beautiful whales up close and personal. And they were active!
The great part of having an awesome camera (thank you Christa!!): I was able to take rapid fire shots, capture the entire progression of their dives, and basically felt like a National Geographic photographer. The not-so-great part: having to later choose which pictures to put on the blog. (I took over 450 pictures of just the whales).

We got to hear their songs to each other and see a mother instructing her baby. But perhaps the most spectacular scenes came when all the whales would Bubble Net feed together. The entire group dives down into the ocean, sends bubbles up to the surface in circles to herd their food into a compact group, and then they all feast together in one sudden, synchronated lunge.

The naturalist conducting our trip told us a lot about humpback whales. Unlike killer whales that you can see in Sea World, humback whales are too big and consume too much to live in captivity. Consequently there is a lot that we still don't understand about their species. For example, marine biologists previously believed their lifespan to be 70-80 years. Then as recently as 2005, Alaskan Native Americans found a dead humpback whale with a 120 year old New England explosive (previously used to hunt whales in the Atlantic) that had lodged into the head, failed to detonate and was sealed into place by scar tissue. Experts now believe humpback whales can live to be over 150 years old.

On the way back, we stopped for pictures of the Mendenhall Glacier (above the center tree line). Here we are with my five older siblings and their spouses. It is so fun to do things with the people you love.

So for anyone contemplating a fantastic trip, I have just two words for you: Juneau, Alaska.

Two years...that's the huge diamond anniversary, right?

It's amazing how every day, when you're married to your best friend, can feel like this...

...even when it's sometimes actually like this.
Hahahahaha, Rob's going to kill me for putting this up, but hopefully it doesn't scare you too much and maybe even makes you laugh a little.

And, I'm just kidding.....I'm pretty sure the huge diamond comes next year.

Alaska: The Last Frontier (part 1)

Stan and KK Ellis have a wonderful tradition of making memories with their children by taking them all on family trips each summer. One summer everyone comes, including the grandkids. The next summer the grandkids are shipped off to whoever will take them for a week so their parents (all of the Ellis children/spouses) can have a week of vacation without having all of the responsibilities of being parents also. This summer was a non-grandkid vacation and we all got to go on a week-long Alaskan cruise!

The adventure started with a plane ride from Houston to Anchorage. The flight was supposed to be about 7 1/2 hours but ended up taking 12. First they had to fix the broken air-conditioning (and when you're sitting on the tarmac in Houston it can get pretty sweaty). Then, after we took off we found out we didn't have enough fuel to actually make it to Anchorage (a minor detail), so we made a pitstop in Calgary. Luckily, Stan and KK brought their travel-sized Settlers of Catan board game to keep us entertained. After we landed in Anchorage we went over to Uncle Jess's house for a King Crab feast. I don't know how well you can see them in the picture below, but each crab leg is at least a foot long. I think they bought about 40 lbs of king crab for all of us.
Even though it was after 10 pm by the time we finally arrived (and still totally light out...you've got to love Alaska in the summer), I'm pretty sure we managed to make a good-sized dent in Anchorage's crab supply.
The next morning as we were getting ready to leave for the cruise the Ellis boys suprised Papa Stan by coming down in classic Travelling-Stan-Ellis gear--the khaki cargo vest. It has a pocket for everything; I don't know how he keeps track of it all, but he seems to keep it stocked with pretty much anything we could possibly need.
So Mama KK didn't feel left out, all of the girls came down sporting very chic fanny packs. She is also a modern traveling miracle; it should not be physically possible to fit as much as she does in her fanny-pack, but when one of us needs something random and the fanny supplies it, we are all very grateful.
In order to get to our cruise boat we took a 4 hour train ride through some of the most beautiful, lush country I have ever seen. The top half of the train was entirely made of windows so we had spectacular views.

So after four hours of this

and this...

we came to....our all-suite cruise boat.

Don't worry, after this I'm just going to post a few of my favorite pictures and call it good, because the week was just too jam-packed with beautiful, fun experiences to blog them all...and I'm pretty sure nobody else wants a minute-by-minute recap of the entire trip. :)

Travelogue: Rio de Janeiro

So last weekend Rob and I jet-setted to Rio de Janeiro strictly to get some practice in for our future of being independently wealthy, having a private yacht, an indoor bowling alley, our own island, etc. etc.

Friday night Rob came home from work a few hours early and we hustled off to the airport to catch our flight to Rio. We took a taxi from the airport to our hotel, and a lot of Reais later we made it to our hotel. We'll just consider this a warning to all y'all potential Rio de Janeiro visitors: beware of corrupt taxi drivers.

Although, when you wake up to this it's hard to be too upset. Before hitting the beach for the day we decided to visit the Corcovado and the Cristo Redentor (Christ Redeemer) statue. This is the little train that took us through the jungle...and up a mountain....until we reached this:
Although it's hard to really appreciate how magnificent and awe inspiring the Cristo Redentor is when you're just looking at the pictures, it really was amazing. I thought it was wonderful to see such an incredible testimony of Christ that can be a witness to so many millions of people. I definitely understand, now, why it's one of the new 7 wonders of the world.

After we left the Corcovado we were starving (of course) and decided to start lunch with one of Rob's favorite mission memories: Magnum ice cream bars. They were soooooo good. Then we found a little juice bar/sandwhich shop, called Big Bi, and had the rest of our lunch. We polished it off with one of the best vitaminas (a fresh fruit smoothie) I've ever had of manga e abacaxi (mango and pineapple). We were very happy campers. Next up on our gruelling Saturday schedule was a walk down Copacabana beach. I know, we have a hard life.

There are tons of volleyball nets on the beaches in Rio. And there are tons of people playing volleyball. But there are also quite a few playing futevolei (roughly pronounced "footy-volley," which is volleyball without using hands). It's seriously one of the coolest things ever. These guys do bicycle kicks to spike the ball...and they are usually wearing speedos.
Rob was getting pretty worried about me because after an afternoon of seeing so many guys unabashedly sporting the speedo, I must admit that I was becoming a convert. Man-thighs just aren't as bad as the majority of U.S. citizens believe! He wouldn't let me take any close-up pictures because he didn't want any solid evidence of how truly acceptable the speedo can be...although, according to him, it was because "The speedo betrays everything we hold dear in our culture!" But mark my words, Rob would look pretty darn cute in a speedo...

I wish we had a video clip of this! This guy, below, isn't going to use his hands here....he uses his FEET and gets the ball OVER THE NET, and somehow manages to place it perfectly in the back corner of his opponent's court. It's a Christmas Miracle.
We also saw some very cool sand sculptures...the artists were SO protective of their work because they want people to pay for any photographs they take. The sand sculptors would line up umbrellas in front of the castles whenever their backs were turned so nobody could sneak up on them. We thought it was worth the 2 Real fee. After an afternoon of futevolei, people watching, and sand sculptures we strolled down the boardwalk as the sun set.

Rio de Janeiro is an awesome city. For anyone planning on visiting Brazil, I would definitely schedule a stop here for at least two days.

Portal do Morumbi a.k.a. Fat City

Portal do Morumbi is the name of the Ellis' apartment complex here in Sao Paulo.

Most people in Sao Paulo live in high-rise apartments that are gated in for security. Unfortunately, the vast majority of those are just a tall building with a fence around the base; there is no place to spend time outside. For the first week and a half we were here, before we moved in with Stan and KK, Rob and I were living in one of those apartment buildings. Coming from Cambridge, where parks and greenery abound, I was getting pretty stir crazy being cooped up inside.

Portal, on the other hand, is great. It is a group of about 14 high-rise buildings with lush gardens, multiple swmming pools, tennis courts, playgrounds and a sweet gym enclosed in the grounds. It feels like we're living at a vacation resort!
This is a picture of our building: Flamboyant. We live on the 22nd floor and have an awesome view of the western half of Sao Paulo. I marvel at the beauty of the sunset over the city every night! And when there is a soccer game going on at the stadium nearby we get to see fireworks going off all over the city whenever the home team scores a goal. These Brazilians love their fireworks!
And here is the wonderful gym. Rob is offsetting the many hours of sitting behind a desk at work by getting studly lifting weights and playing tennis in the evenings.
This flower is called a Bird of Paradise. Can't you just hear Mama KK's voice saying, "Ooo la la! Look at those colors!"
There are three outdoor pools (a kiddie pool, a circular grown-up lounge pool, and then this olympic sized lap pool) and one indoor pool. You can kind of see all three of the pools from the picture below.

It may seem obvious, but I feel so blessed to be living here. Heavenly Father really does care about what is important to us; He's helped us find an inexpensive, convenient way to get Rob to work everyday (1 hour each way) which was the main impediment to us living with Stan and KK and so we are able to be outside and really enjoy this beautiful place for the time we're here.

More beautiful orchids growing outside our building.

The next adventure: Rob and I are going on a weekend jaunt to Rio de Janeiro! Who do we think we are having so much fun??