Back from the North

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a woman in possession of a digital camera must be susceptible to the frivolity afforded by such a camera. Despite the ease of taking any and all shots that strike my fancy, there definitely seems to be an inevitable exponential drop in number of pictures taken as one progresses into a vacation. I can count some two hundred pictures snapped on the first two days of our trip and only fifty-odd for all the remaining days. Still, it all makes for a whole lot of pictures. Here is a photo-serial of the trip highlights.
It wasn’t all just rocks and beaches.


There were also bogs filled with carnivorous plants, cobra lilies to be exact. The domed tops of each modified leaf is beautifully translucent so that light can filter through to further confuse trapped insects to prevent their escape.


There were many cave swallows adroitly flitting through meadows of grazing elk. Neither made for a good pictures: too fast on the part of the swallows and too far away on the part of the elks but the swallow nests were still and near and quite amazing looking. Most of the nests were empty but there was one that held two adorable (and loud) hatchlings squalling for food. I wish I could show them to you but the one photo I managed to take turned out with the little birds looking quite blurry with demonic red eyes.


There was a sea cave filled with snoozing Stellar’s sea lions...


... a marble cave with Byzantine calcium carbonate induced rock formations. (These particular ones are called draperies.)


...and a limestone cave chock full of more beautiful rock formations.


And wedged in between all that sightseeing, some knitting happened as well!


Speaking of knitting, there was also some rather unexpected stash enhancement. More on that tomorrow!