What have we been up to?

Saturday we were able to attend some of the activities at Gold Rush Days, in between our morning and afternoon Cruise Departures.  Saturday was Miner's Day and Sunday would be Lumberjack Day.  Miners from Kensington and Greens Creek Mines competed, showing off their mining skills like Jackleg drilling and mine support building.

The above picture is of our landlord, Travis,  giving his best during the drilling competition.  This is how he use to do his job while working in Montana.  Now, I guess, they have a machine that actually does the drilling, so he just pushes buttons and levers to maneuver and push the drill.

Above is another friend, Ben, during his attempt to be the fastest "Spike Driver".  

When we left the competition to finish working,  the one that was is in the lead was the 65+ year old man who was a miner most of his life. (He also lead in the Jackleg Drilling.)

After work, we went hiking over by Mendenhall Lake, as we heard that an ice dam may have let loose Friday night and it was flooding.

When we got there it was very high water.  There was a Canoe Trip of the Mendenhall Glacier preparing to take off.  We were able to take some pics of the replicas that are used for the native canoeing tours.

Sunday we were able to get on one of the tours that Allen Marine offers.  We tried a "Whale Watching and Orca Point Lodge Salmon Bake.  While whale watching and on our way to Orca Point Lodge we were able to see a couple of eagles building a nest on the support of an old channel marker.

We were also able to view two different pods of Humpback whales bubble net feeding.

After watching the whales for a while we headed for Orca Point Lodge.

We had a great meal of grilled Salmon, grilled chicken, rice, cranberry coleslaw, steamed vegetables and brownies (not pictured).  Wait...where did that brownie go?...

Then we hiked Sunshine Cove where Gwen and I found many rocks to collect and we saw Sea Anemones, Loons, Humpback whales and eagles. There was even a sea lion that swam around near us, calling out in his hoarse barking voice.   Alaska is an amazing area.....

As I am writing today's blog we are experiencing our third thunderstorm in three days and the fourth one of the summer.  It is like a midwest weather system.  It will warm up all day till a storm rolls in to cool the day off.  A lot of the residents are saying this is really weird weather for Alaska.  After the first lightening strike today all of the neighbors were out looking up.  This is not normal for Alaska...