ALASKAAAAA!!!!

I've been back from Alaska for five days now and have yet to post any pictures. Why? you ask. Well here's the scoop. We got in at about 1:00 AM on Saturday morning, exhausted from a day of traveling - 7 hours of plane rides, a two hour layover in Minnesota and a four hour time difference are enough to make the best traveler tired. And of course, I could not fall asleep until after 4 AM. I had promised to help with the parish picnic, so when I finally got up, I was off to help with the prep work.Some much needed grocery shopping, mass and a quick dinner out rounded out the day.

It was another late night and I didn't fall asleep until after 3. Sunday was spent in the kitchen at the picnic. At least Sunday night I was asleep by midnight. Monday, running errands and working on cleaning up the pool - two weeks of not running the filter does not a clean pool make. And we've had a bit of a mustard algae problem to boot! Oh, and laundry - two weeks worth of heavier clothes. It still isn't finished!

Tuesday began with a trip to the dentist to have a new crown installed - about 8 injections of anesthetic were needed to numb the spot, but the crown is in and feels great. The pool needed one more vacuuming to clean up after the algae killer had done it's job and the grass needed to be mowed since the forecast for the rest of the week is for rain.

So here it is, early Wednesday morning and I'm still not asleep. But hopefully soon since tomorrow morning I must travel to PA as my mother is having back surgery. I'll stay with my dad and keep him company for a day or two and for the next several weeks, I'll be shuttling back and forth to help them out. We are hopeful that this surgery will give her some pain relief for some disc issues. She had surgery about three years ago and it was not successful.

So tomorrow, when I head out, I'll pack my laptop and the memory cards from the cameras and will use the time waiting for her surgery to be over working on pictures. According to my husband, who downloaded the photos to his camera last night, there are about 2,300 photos for me to go through and decide what to put on my computer. Rest assured, not only will I not download all the photos, I will not subject you to that many either.

So in the next few days, I'll post some photos with a synopsis of our trip. For now, suffice it to say that it was one of the best vacations I have ever taken.