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“What the heck is that?’ Dave asked upon awakening this morning. The sun was actually out and we had some blue sky mixed with the low lying gray clouds. With no reservations for a tour, we headed down to the docks first thing and booked an 8 hour tour of the Kenai Fjords National Park on the Major Marine Line. Our next stop was the Alaska Sea Life Center. There are lots of interactive exhibits, but the fun part was the live sea life pools. In the seabird habitat we saw puffins and red-legged kittiwakes. A Stellar Sea Lion swimming underwater and harbor seals above entertained the crowd. We also saw deep sea fish, jellies. Crabs, an octopus and so much more
Once at the dock for our 11:45 am sailing, we were greeted by the Captain, who called the little hole of sunshine above us a “Sucker Hole.” He indicated that it wouldn’t last and looking out into the water it was pretty gray. We were assigned seating in the upper cabin and we settled in. For $15 you can have the all you can eat buffet of roast beef and Alaskan salmon, which we both decided was a
great deal.
Once out in Resurrection Bay we started seeing some wildlife. A mountain goat mother and baby were on the hillside. Seals were sunning themselves on the rocks in a cove. Three Orca Whales swam by together in unison. During our trip we also saw sea lions, porpoises, a couple of black bear and lots of birds. A sea otter floated past our boat on his back, but just slept through the whole encounter. The coup de grace for me was seeing a whole pod of Humpback Whales. First we saw the spouting, then their backs as they arched into the water, and then their tails as they dove deep into the water. How awesome it is to witness these creatures in their natural surroundings, just doing their thing.
We went to Holgate Glacier instead of Aialik Glacier because there was too much ice floating around and we would not have been able to get close. This glacier was smaller and we saw a few small pieces slide into the sea, but no real “calving.” The Captain was able to get in close, about an eighth of a mile away and the view was impressive. The blue
Harlequin
Pretty unigue bird ice was awesome, especially in the cracks. We also saw Bear Glacier in our journey, many waterfalls and lots of rock formations sticking out of the water.
The water outside of the bay was pretty rough and I got seasick, very seasick. Just before they served the buffet on the way out and again just before they served the desserts on the way in, I was heaving overboard. Needless to say, I was unable to eat anything, even the piece of cheesecake that Dave brought up for me. I was green in the gills for the rest of the night.
It was a great day for us. We saw all these beautiful animals, sea life and birds and the sun came out and shined on us most of the day. And Dave even smiled. It was a good day.
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