Alaskaaaaa!

Ever since seeing "The Proposal" I can't think of Alaska and not say it in my mind the way Sandra Bullock did. Silly, I know!

But anywho, we had such a ball. Jared and I flew to Seattle a few days early to do some exploring on our own. We had the BEST (and when I say BEST, I mean absolutely, positively BEST) weather the whole time we were there. It was tempting us to want to move ;)

Now, as far as pictures go, there are so many floating around between my siblings' and parent's cameras, but here is a taste of what our trip was like. Maybe I will do another post of more pictures once I can track them down... ha, who am I kidding, I will be lucky to track them down before next year ;P

 The Kubota Gardens in Seattle

  Welcome to the Kubota Gardens...

 Jared and the bell!

 It was so beautiful, almost like a modern Garden of Eden.

 We hiked up to the top of the hill and looked down at the gardens and stood at the top of one of the little waterfalls/streams.

 It was the cutest thing, there was a little duckling following the mama around and being all curious :)

 Smelling the flowers...this is the good life.

Snoqualmie Falls

 It was gorgeous, even though the lower sight location was closed.

Pike Place Market...

 {One of my absolute favorite places in Seattle!}

 {Of course the Rhubarb Piroshky is to die for...}

{Not to mention the amazing fish tacos that I had to order a second of because they were soooo good}
Leaving Seattle...
Alaska movie set

 Ok I say movie set because we woke up to this and I felt like it looked so fake, like a movie set.

 The big rock the cruise boat bumped into lol.

 It was shocking to see that even though it was so cold everything was still green and beautiful.

 The glacier..

 After breakfast, next to the waterfall.

 Looking at the glacier
We went on a salmon bake and had so much fun...

 We got to go into the rain forest and see another waterfall and pan for gold ;)

 The moss that even grew on the trees...

 My dear friend I made Diane
Glass blowing!

 We had to get all our protective gear on.

 Jared heating the glass

 forming the globe

 getting it ready to be popped off the pole.

 almost done...

 the final project...

 getting my glass

 Rolling it out and dipping the clear glass into the colored glass

 keeping it warm and from cracking...or shattering...

 Rolling it out again...

 In order to get the hurricane look its named after I had to go in and use tweezers to mix all the colors together...

 Side picture...the huge heated drum full of clear glass

 glass blowing..

 its almost finished!

 melting the final piece on to give it a flat bottom...

 all the broken glass leftover on the poles shatter off the poles due to the rapid drop in temperature.

 flattening the glass out

 Viola!

 The men demonstrated a bowl...

 Spinning the bowl out...you can imagine the end result...

 Lunch in the tea room...

 The beautiful garden outside of the shop...

 Dinner at Butchart Gardens...

 Jared looking so statuesque!

 Overlooking one of the gardens

 the shooting water works..

 some of the beautiful flowers

 The man picture...

 My sweetheart in the perfect garden...

 The downtown in Victoria

 Ohh..we received out glass globes a few days after getting home...Jared's final product...

 my final product...

 Side view...I love the Hurricane!

What a great vacation...it was so fun to see this part of the world and meet such great people. ok...now Im really signing off on the technology ;p