Friday, June 10, 2011

I Went to Alaska and All I Got...

...was motion sickness.  Seriously, I've been back almost a week and I can still feel the room swaying.  I was on an Alaskan cruise with my family last week, and it's taken me this long to be able to look at the computer monitor long enough to write a post without hurling.

But really, the cruise was great.  I have a hard time describing the cruise without sounding like a cliched cheeseball, though I will mention that on not just a few occasions was I reduced to a little girl jumping up and down, clapping my hands, and squealing because I saw the spout from a whale or the bobbing nose of a seal. I mean, I let the entire 1900-passenger cruise know if I saw something in a very loud, clear, and high-pitched manner.

One of the stops we made was in Ketchikan, where my sister, her husband, Kevin and I had the brilliant idea of going tandem sea kayaking.  I won't go into great detail, except to say that out of a group of 15 tandem kayaks, there were three that fell noticeably behind.  "Noticeably behind" means about a mile. Of the three kayaks, my sister and I populated one, Kevin and my brother-in-law a second, and a 70-year old couple in the third.  And while I would like to tell you that the other twelve groups were comprised of robust, Olympic-caliber kayakers, that was most certainly not the case.  I would also like to tell you that there was a shark that latched onto one of our paddles and was dragging us behind the whole group and my sister and I engaged in a heroic battle alternately using our paddles to row and to beat off the shark, but that would be a lie and I think you would know that.

But I did get a few *amazing* shots. Like, I am so impressed with myself I don't know what to say.  Let me set the scene.  I took the front seat of the kayak while my sister took the back (our instructor told us that the person who could walk and chew gum at the same time should sit in the back and steer, hence the ordering).  You can't turn/twist too much in a kayak because then you'll find yourself in a flipped kayak, upside down in the water, but I did want to make sure I got exciting action shots of me and my sister kayaking.

So I lifted my camera above my head, and lowered it behind me between my shoulder blades, with the camera pointing at my sister.  Then I hit click a few times. The results were, as I previously alluded to, absolutely stunning.

Wa-BAM!!

Ka-CHING!

Wa-HOO!

Ala-ka-ZAAM!

WOWZA!

GAZOOKS!

This is my optical illusion shot. Looks like it's just me in there, eh?

Well you would be WRONG! How's that for some photography magic? Boo-yah!

I am overcome with the awesomeness that is myself.  It's nice to be back and share it with you all.

14 comments:

  1. LOL. Love the self-photos. I also *win* at those. :)

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  2. HAHAHA. I love kayaking! It's hard work! Though I feel like total crap the day after. Don't feel bad about falling behind, the last time the Mr. and I were in Hawaii, we went sea kayaking and our kayak flipped over within the first 20 minutes because the Mr. was steering and decided to shift his big a$$ in his seat. I was paddling away minding my own business one minute and then the next we were in the water.

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  3. Sounds like lots of fun! Please show more pics! How did you like the cruise?

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  4. You should charge for awesome shots like that. ;) Hahaha

    However, you could have convinced me a shark attacked your kayak.

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  5. You CRACK ME UP!!! I hope your nausea will abate long enough to tell us more about your cruise. Hubby and I want to go on an Alaskan cruise so bad, but the best time to go is summer (longest days) and we don't have the bandwidth for another vacay so soon! Sad face. Hopefully next year!

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  6. haha! fabulous photography! and i thought people didn't get seasick on cruise boats?! i've been lied to.

    more more pictures!

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  7. Oh my gosh, I am truly in awe of your talents, seriously, you need to go pro! And when I was on a cruise a few years ago it took me a good week or two to not feel like I was moving anymore. I would be cutting someone's hair and all of a sudden feel like the ground moved. My clients all thought I was going crazy.
    p.s. your last comment on my blog was the 1,000th comment :)

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  8. perhaps we fell so far behind because you were clearly not spending a lot of time paddling.

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  9. Hilarious photos! Very modern in composition!

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  10. LOL. I love how this is a summary of your trip to Alaska! Sounds like a great time with the family except the motion sickness part. I love looking at boats on the water but not being on them.

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  11. Oooooh! Your mad photography skills have succeeded in making me jealous of your awesome trip to Alaska. Glad you had such a great time -- going to AK is something I reeeaally want to do. I demand more pictures!!

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  12. HAHAHA! Oh man, this post absolutely 100% brightened my afternoon. Your photography skills are astounding my dear!

    But seriously, I am jealous of your Alaska cruise! My in laws are about to leave for one next week!

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  13. Can you please photograph my next major event? I'm so impressed with your skills!!

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  14. allie, jessica, hot cocoa, megan, katie, kelsey: i know, it's like i'm a genius or something.

    nellie: you can definitely and squarely blame that on your husband!

    terri: the scenery that we saw during the cruise and the excursions were fantastic. i was not super impressed with the actual cruise boat or the food, but for the scenery and family time, it was definitely worth it!

    mrs. a: i hope you get to take that vacation!

    rabitstew and lobster: oh man, the ground was swaying for a solid week after i came back.

    penga: yes, they lied. absolutely lied.

    sashacleo: i'm going to ignore that.

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