Wednesday, July 15, 2009

My husband is famous! Who would have known?

Fred is becoming well known in the Mortgage Technology industry these days! He has written many articles in mortgage lending and technology magazines, that are published nationwide. For those who don't know (as it says in the article) "Fred Gooch is Chief Legal Counsel and Director of Compliance Department at Idaho Falls, Idaho-based DocuTech Corp. Since 1991, DocuTech has provided compliance services and documentation technology for the mortgage industry. DocuTech's software interfaces with leading loan origination systems (LOS) and enables mortgage professionals to generate documents locally." Basically, I don't really ask a lot of detailed questions about his job or "what did you do at work today?" because I will get a length answer that I hardly understand. He really enjoys the work that is doing at DocuTech and is becoming well known around the nation in his profession. Congratulations honey, we are all so proud of you!

This is a link to one of his latest articles that has been published:

Monday, July 13, 2009

Our Wonderful Cruise Vacation to Alaska

This is where our wonderful trip began, the great city Seattle! I love going there, I don't know if it's b/c I had a great time there when we went on road trips in college. I love it every time!
Great picture of Mt. Rainier in the background.


This was part of our room, it's where Mark stayed.




The dinning area


Sitting/TV area and balcony

This was our bed, so romantic at night!


The bathroom, with a window in the shower (to the right) also.
I actually saw some whales when I was taking a shower one day!
It was one amazing room! Thanks Mark!!!!

Our first dinner on the ship, so good.

Fred and I at dinner!


Mark getting ready in case of an emergency!


Our first stop Juneau, Alaska were we went to Mendenhall Glacier.
The first glacier I have ever seen, wow!


WOW!!!


Water fall that was to the right of the glacier.
There were a lot of locals playing in the water that day b/c it was 80 degrees!

Fred found a friend!

This Bald Eagle had been shot and can't fly higher than a few feet off the ground. She was so pretty!

Another wild life we saw in the great state of Alaska.
It looks like a ground hog to me but I'm not sure.

Fred trying to spread his wings out as far as a Bald Eagle.

Here we are on top of the WORLD! Just kidding we are just to the look out area on Mt. Roberts in Juneau, Alaska.

That is our cruise ship below us!

So cool carving in the tree on the mountain top.

White Pass and Yukon Route train ride in Skagway, Alaska

A must if you ever go to Skagway. So pretty and amazing that a train can go on the side of a mountain like it does.

I was so happy when we didn't go over that bridge! It was built in 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush in Alaska and B.C.

The top of the pass where our trip ended. The train we were on only goes one way during the day. So if we didn't get off, we would have ended up Carcross, Canada.

Fred enjoying the train ride!


Back to Alaska after being in Canada for maybe a half hour.

We stopped for a visit at Liarsville, Alaska.
I had a great time there, very interesting place.

Teaching us how to pan for GOLD!

Panning for GOLD!!!

During the gold rush there were about 70 brothels in the city of Skagway. It is a tiny town with a population around 862 during the off seasons, and doubles during the tourist season.

Bar in Skagway!

One of the trains!

This was amazing, they use this train to clear the snow off the tracks during the winter.

Another train


Mark and Fred on the hand cart.

Fred and some more friends.

Our ship The Norwegian Pearl.

Leaving Skagway.

I think it was about 11 o'clock at night when I took this picture.
A cruise ship that was following us into Glacier Bay

The water was just full of little blocks of ice and silt from the glacier. I say little b/c that is what they looked like to us up on the big ship, but we saw some people kayaking out there and the little pieces of ice where huge compared to them. It was amazing!

Our camera doesn't do justice to how big and how pretty those glaciers are.

Fred and I at Glacier Bay

More glaciers
On the top level of the ship looking at the glaciers.

Some sweet guy in the pool, who looks like he is naked at first sight.

So pretty!


The guy who discovered this land back in the day, thought from afar that this rock was a enemy ship coming to fight him!

The Misty Fjords

Fred and I in front of a waterfall in the Misty Fjords

Which were not misty on the day we went b/c there weren't any clouds in the sky that day.


Seal on the rock, they blend in so well.

Rain Meter in Ketchikan
They get an average of 160 inches of rainfall a year.

Did you know where Darth Vador is these days?
Playing his violin in Victoria, Canada!

Very pretty, I loved all the old building in Canada.
Last day


We got off the ship in the moring and our flight didn't leave until that night. So, we caught a MLB game, which I love. There is just something about pro games, I love them.


Take me out to the ball game....

We had a great vacation, it was so relaxing and so pretty, great food, great room, etc., etc. etc.

Thanks Mark for taking us on a wonderful trip.