My husband and I (Juli) got home a week ago today from the most wonderful summer vacation.  The two of us spent 5 months planning a trip to Canada and Alaska.  We spent hours researching each city we visited including spending a few weeks narrowing down the cruise ship we would sail on from Vancouver to Alaska as part of the trip.  I’m one of those frantic travelers that makes lists for everything and well we won’t even talk about my overly detailed itinerary.  We were all set for an amazing trip filled with chilly days, animal photography, hiking, biking, kayakying, mountains, boats….you name it we were prepared.

On every well planned trip you have to expect the unexpected.  And, I did…and I planned for it…really!  I expected us to get colds (and we did) and I expected it to be colder than my husband anticipated (and packed for him extra items accordingly), but on this trip I realized the that little unexpected things are sometimes things you don’t want to plan for (duh- they are unexpected!) because they make the trip so much more fun.

I did not anticipate how beautiful and plentiful flowers would be this time of year in Vancouver and Alaska.  All the locals we met up with kept saying how they thought Summer was never coming and that Fall would arrive quickly surpassing Summer all together yet here is what we were greeted with in Haines, Alaska (a 45 minute ferry ride from our cruise port stop of Skagway).

I definitely did NOT expect that we’d be driving in Juneau (where there are only 70 miles of roads) and we’d see an animal we’ve never seen before or even heard of before right on the side of the road.  This is a Hoary Marmmot – we had no data service on our phones in Juneau so the two of us spent hours guess what this little fella could be before we finally were able to find a reference book on board the ship that identified him.  What a strange little critter!

There were lots of other little unexpected surprises along the way that I was actually able to catch on film, but I have over 3, 000 images still to edit (yeah, we went a little crazy with our picture taking!).   Even though I’m one of those people who like to plan for everything this trip was a great reminder that in life sometimes the unexpected things that come along are some of the best things that happen in our life.

So keep yourself open to the unexpected and when life gives you a little unexpected surprise cease the moment (and your camera) and go along for the fun!

Speaking of fun here is this week’s Layout of the Week by lizzyfizzy titled 2 Sweet Cousins…I just love the bright colors on the white newspaper background!  What a great eclectic, summery feel!  Congrats…watch your PM for your prize.