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Published: September 18th 2007
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We got up early and hit the road, with a quick stop at Fred Meyer (everything store) for motion sickness bracelets and medicine. We were off to Seward for a wildlife cruise. Well, we were barely out of downtown before we had our first wildlife sighting. A mama and baby moose crossed the Seward highway in front of us as we were leaving town (right near Potter’s Marsh). The sun was shining and it was shaping up to be a beautiful day (at least in Anchorage). As we drove south, we were once again awed by the beautiful views of the Chugach Mountains, Turnagain Arm, Kenai Mountains, and countless glaciers. As we worked our way south on the Kenai Peninsula, the clouds rolled in until we really couldn’t see much with the amount of fog that was around us. Fortunately, as we neared Seward, the skies cleared a bit and it turned into a pretty nice day!
As we came into Seward, we caught a glimpse of a bald eagle. We found the boat dock and had time to stop at the Kenai Fjords visitor center to pick up junior ranger books for Gabbi and Jacqui to work on during
our 6 hour wildlife tour. After our little detour, we checked in and decided to rent binoculars for the day (having learned our lesson from our Denali tour). We boarded the Alaskan Explorer and prepared for the best. We were a little early, so we scoped out the best seats we could and waited. A couple of eagles flew by while we were hanging out on the open deck of the boat! We were barely out of the harbor when the captain slowed the boat and pointed out the sea otter floating nearby. Apparently, the sea otters will not be bothered as long as the boats just motor on by, but if they stop, the otters take off… We were headed south in Resurrection Bay, around the Aialik Peninsula and up to the Aialik Glacier. The boat slowed and turned toward a group of birds as we were headed south. We had been so excited to see 4-5 puffins in Kachmak Bay a couple of weekends ago, now we were staring at 40-50 tufted and horned puffins! We stopped and said hello to some Stellar’s sea lions (endangered species) and motored up to the glacier. After a while, we heard
some thumping and went to check out what it could be…it was ice! Obviously we were getting closer to the glacier (based on the ice in the water and the cold temps outside, we’re brilliant…) The glacier was incredible! As we looked at it, the captain let us know that it was a mile long at the face! The face of the glacier was easily 400 to 500 feet high. As we were sitting there, the sights and sounds were absolutely amazing. We were about a third of a mile from the glacier and we could here the cracks and as small pieces broke off and hit the water the noise was tremendous. As we were getting ready to head away from the glacier an enormous piece broke off and sent a huge wave out from the glacier. By the time the wave reached the boat, we barely felt it. This was mostly because the Aialik Bay is about 400 feet deep at that point, which absorbs the wave. On the way out of Aialik Bay we caught a glimpse of a minke whale.
Our route back to Seward took us south to the Chiswell Islands, where we saw
more sea lions. The captain took us toward another group of seabirds, puffins and kittiwakes. He told us that when you see large groups of sea birds, it is a pretty good indicator that there is a good food supply around and a chance to see other sea mammals. We were in luck!! We caught a glimpse of a young humpback whale. We watched it surface a number of times and saw it breathe and dive a dozen times or so. The boat started to move out, when the whale started to slap its tail. It was really neat. Tail lopping is not well understood, but may be a way that whales communicate. It slapped its tail on the water about 40 times before we left. We saw another group of sea lions at Noname Island and more incredible views (including another bald eagle) on the return to Seward. About 1/2 hour before we returned to the harbor, Miss Gabbi passed out sitting up with her eyes and mouth slightly ajar! She was beat after staying up late the night before and an early rise that day. Jacqui had a good time watching her sleep with her eyes open. She
wasn’t totally convinced that she was sleeping.
On the way back into the harbor we spotted a Coast Guard Cutter and got a picture for our friend Kieron who had just asked us last week if we had seen one!
We headed to Miller’s Landing, about 2.5 miles from downtown Seward, to check in to our cabin. It would be complete understatement to say that we were disappointed. The website looked like a cute cabin in the woods. There were broken down trucks behind us, a big blue bus camped right next to us, and the cabin itself certainly hadn’t had to bother with things like building codes… Oh well, the day was great and we were ready to crash!
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