Photography-Life in Alaska-Random Thoughts
Photography highlighting Alaska, the most beautiful place on earth.
Working at the computer this afternoon when Xena jumped up on the back deck and was staring into the trees behind the house. Sure enough, a little black bear was up a tree, I think stealing peanuts from one of the squirrels stashes ;) It jumped down when I opened the back door, and I had just enough time to grab the camera and run out the front door to catch a couple shots of it out on the street in front of the house. Healthy looking little blackie!
Hello little bear!
I just love their paws!
One quick look back and then it jumped up the bank and was gone.
Back for another visit later this afternoon.
Peek-a-boo-boo :)
Geez, leave for two weeks and come home to full-on Springtime in Alaska! It's gorgeous. The snowshoe hares have turned color quickly while we've been gone.
We are back in Paris just in time for the national election day on Sunday, May 7th. We took a long walk, almost 10 miles, this morning and early afternoon before the rain drove us back to the hotel. Here are some random scenes from the city. Tonight we had dinner at a small Indian restaurant near the hotel. We were the only non-locals there as everyone concentrated on the tv set waiting for the election results. As the winner was announced, the place erupted in applause. Great fun to be part of that moment.
We wake up to crystal clear blue skies in Besançon and start exploring this large city, working our way up hill to the old Citadel towering over the loop in the river above town. An amazing feat of construction built at great cost during the reign of Louis XIV. The walls were never breached.
Leaving the marina in Besançon, we had to use the only old-style manual lock. All of the gates and lock doors had to be cranked open and shut by hand. Luckily, a couple of tourists came by and gave Devany a hand, while I manned the ropes holding us in place from inside the boat.
Our final stretch of the canal took us through gorgeous countryside until we made our final mooring of the trip at Deluz. This has been an amazing trip, and we're already planning on doing it again in some fashion. The canal boat experience was a nice step out of our comfort zone that turned out to be much easier than we had anticipated. Anyone can do this. We just proved that ;)
We leave Ranchot early because we'll have the most locks to go through (12) in a single day during our trip. We're escorted out by a swan and light rain, which comes and goes throughout the day. The land changes fairly dramatically as well. We move from flat farm country into hill country, with dramatic cliffs overlooking the canal and river Doubs. We arrive at the big city of Besançon just before 5pm. It's a bit stressful pulling into a big metropolitan city, but there's little boat traffic, and even though the entrance to our marina for the night is very tight, we manage to back into our slip with no problem and have the rest of the night to explore briefly before dinner and early bed.
