SPRING BREAK!!! :) woot woot!!

I was able to go play with Bradley in Anchorage for a few days over Spring Break!  It was so fun to explore Anchorage - I've never really spent any time there.  I am always going for the shortest layovers at the airport with Portland in my sights!  :)  So Bradley offered to show me around.  It was beautiful everyday - sunshine and blue skies!  

My first day in town, we ran a couple of errands for friends and then dinner and a movie.  The next day we went for a drive along Turnagain Arm.  The tide was on it's way out, so we got to see the muddy flats.  Pretty cool!  And the water was so calm that you could see the mountain reflections in the surface - gorgeous!  :) 

We stopped in Girdwood to snap a quick picture of a friend's house and a lunch break.

 

We missed out turn-off to Whittier, so we got a little more mountain scenery.  :)

Finally back on track...we found the Whittier turnoff.  

To get to Whittier, you have to go through this tunnel which goes through a MOUNTAIN!  

Made it through the tunnel - safe and sound!

Made it :)

When we got back to Anchorage, we headed to the MMA fights.  Bradley and his cousin had a friend fighting, so we went to cheer him on.  I had never been to a fight - it was much more fun than I expected!  :)

with Bradley's cousin, Jen, and another friend

It was such a fun trip!  Thanks for playing tour guide, Bradley!  :)

I flew back to sunshine in Dutch, too!!  Such a fantastic place - especially in the sunshine!  Managed to squeeze in a dive, too!  My dive buddy was wearing a camera, so here are some shots from our dive.

Me under a barge

Me and my chipmunk cheeks :)

Juvenile Red King Crab ball - they are about 3" across the back of their shell

These are all molted shells from adult Red King Crab

And we watched the Xiang Rui Kou come in to Captains Bay.  It's a pretty impressive ship.  Here is a description written by my friend, Josh:

Here are some pictures of the lift boat that is here to pick up the oil rig (Kulluk). The rig ran aground on New Year's Eve on Kodiak Island and was pretty bashed up. So they towed the rig back here, and now they're taking it to china for repairs, and this boat is like the tow truck. It fills up with water, sinks down, and they'll pull the rig over it then raise the boat back up so the rig is out of the water. Then off to china.

Here is an article about the boat:

http://kucb.org/news/article/heavy-lift-ship-arrives-to-retrieve-kulluk/

All loaded up and ready to make it's way to China...

Ok, that was Spring Break!!  Back to the grind...