Whales, seals, puffins, glaciers and so much more!

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DAY 36: THURSDAY, AUGUST 2: Well, who could have expected that we would wake up today and in about an hour we would be on a 6 hour boat tour thru the Kenai Fjords National Park? The weather was not the best but we decided to take our chances because we were down to two days to see whales. Something we have been waiting for this whole trip. Brett, Maggie and I made sure to take our Bonine based on our halibut fishing experience...and it was a good thing we did. Wow, we have experienced waves, but OCEAN SWELLS...YOWZA!! There were definitely some times we were all close to puking, even Hanna commented a few times on the big swells. I'm going to keep the story shorter today and let the pictures do most of the talking. I cant stess enough what an amazing day it was of seeing the REAL Alaska and boy, did we see it all...Dall's porpoises, orcas, stellar sea lions, humpback whales, harbor seals, puffins and awesome glaciers breaking off into the sea right before our eyes. It was truly one incredible thing after another and just when you thought it couldn't get more amazing...it did! By far the orcas probably won for best event of the day. We were below deck when the captain announced that he had good news for us, of the black and white kind, I couldn't believe what I was hearing, then once on deck there they were. They were called the AD8 pod and there were seven of them in all. They are recognizable by there calls to one another. One 33 year old mother and her 19 year old brother and the rest of the pod were her calves. At one point they swam at the boat and right under it...right in front of Brett, Maggie and I and while they were swimming towards us the captain had put a microphone in the ocean and we could hear their calls to each other. I actually got that whole event on video, calls and all. In the "Narration of the Day" below you can read Maggie's entire reaction to that whole once in a lifetime experience. Another time Aaron and I were on the other side of the boat and one whale literally shot like a bullet under the boat chasing a fish. Aaron got that on video. I still can't believe we witnessed that, the whale was moving so fast it left dots all across the top of the water with it's fin. Unbelievable!!! We have awesome pictures that I'll try to post when we are able to download them from Aaron's camera, my phone pics will have to do for now. Also incredible was the Holgate Glacier. I am still in awe by its awesomeness. We watched pieces of it break off into the sea and the sound is like lightening and thunder cracking in the sky. On our way back we watched a thrilling show put on by puffins and a couple humpback whales that never ended getting too close to us, but we still saw there blows from the boat. I also loved the stellar sea lions sunning themselves on the rocks of the Chiswell Islands.

So if the boat tour wasnt enough for one day, we came back to the camper, ate dinner and headed off to hike to Exit Glacier. We really want/need to het up and on the road tomorrow so we figured we would really cram it in today. They hike turned out to be short, but fun and well needed after at day at sea. Again the glacier is something to behold up close like that. I just know my pictures dont show the massiveness of these things. They are just amazing. Again, words just can't describe all the fantastic things we witnessed today, so hopefully all the pictures will.

Total Mileage: 120 by boat

Wildlife Report: What didn't we see today?

Narration of the Day: I need to include this because when we were in Yellowstone I ended up recording the funniest narration of Maggie watching a buffalo so when I listened to my video of the orcas I knew I needed to replay this narration for you too.

"They're coming at us. There's a fin right there. It's a mom, a dad and a baby. Ah, that's a puffin right there. Could they tip this boat? Whoa, that one's fin is big. There's three of them. Oh, there's four of them? Where's the fourth one mama? Whoa, you saw that one's mouth. Can they tip this boat? What's that white thing right there? Oh, ah! Whoa, that one's fin is really huge. Are those it's calls? How are they getting that? Whoa, there's four. There they are...Oh, my gosh!". What an awesome narration of an awesome event. One she'll probably remember forever!

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Photos

Dall's Porpoise swimming next to the boat
There were about a dozen of these cute little guys swimming with us for quite awhile. They were awesome to watch dive in and out of the waves.

Maggie and Aaron in front of Holgate Glacier
We watched this glacier for about an hour and there were bits and pieces constantly falling off of it into the sea. The sound just the littlest piece would make falling was thunderous!

An adorable group of stellar sea lions sunning themselves
We saw these guys, plus two other groups on different rocks, on our way out to the glacier, but the ocean swells prevented us from getting close the first time through. They must just sit and enjoy their safe sunning spot all day long.

Surprise Glacier located next to Holgate Glacier
Both of these glaciers are also part of The Harding Icefield...just like Exit Glacier. There are over 40 glaciers coming down off that one gigantic Icefield. These two here are called "tidewater" glaciers because they flow down into the sea.

Scooping up buckets of glacial ice
Aaron got to also try his hand at pulling up some ice. The amount and size of the ice was amazing.

Puffins sitting in their nests safely tucked into granite mountains
They are hard to see, but the puffins are the little white tufts in the middle of the walls. We sat here for a long time and watched these birds fly all around the boat. Aaron got amazing pictures with his good camera. I'll try to add one later.

Crumbling arch on Holgate Glacier
The whole time we were stopped to watch the glacier this arch was crumbling. I just can't imagine what that will sound and look like when it finally gives way. You could tell our Captain really wanted to see go too because he kept delaying leaving that site and also kept telling us to keep watching the arch...sadly it didn't happen while we were there.

Humpback whales
We were lucky enough to see two humpback whales from a distance.

Harbor seals relaxing on the rocks
The little white spots on the rocks are cute little harbor seals

Having fun on the trail to Exit Glacier
After our long boating adventure we decided to go hike to Exit Glacier so that we could just get up and on the road towards home in the morning. The number on the sign represents a year and how far out the glacier reached in that year. They start all the way back in 1899.

Up close to Exit Glacier
You can see Brett and Aaron in the front of it and Hanna and Maggie are tiny little spec to the right.

This picture shows the massive size of Exit Glacier
Exit Glacier moves one foot a day not much compared to the 1-10 feet a day the Holgate Glacier loses.

Too much information to keep in my head
I thought this info board was really cool...hopefully you find it interesting too. Glaciers are an amazing phenomenon.