Day 36- Seward

  

July 17

We woke up to clouds but no rain!!  We'll take it. 

Actually the sun was peaking out here and there but things can change out on the water.

We got to the harbor and got checked in.  We were early so we hung out in the lounge until it was time to get on the boat.  

I wasn't overly anxious to get on the boat as they assign seats.  I was very happy for that after the riverboat  Karen that took our seats and pushed our stuff out to the aisle.  

We were seated on the first of three levels.  Your actual seats are just a home base for your stuff and a guaranteed spot to sit.  You're free to move around the boat as the entire third level is an observation deck as well decks on the other levels as well.  

The boat is a catamaran hull so it is much more stable as a traditional single hulled boat.  The captain and crew were fantastic the entire trip.  The captain also did narration and she was excellent.  Narration can make or break a trip or tour.  I really enjoy hearing about whatever we are doing in a fun and interesting way.  We have gotten very lucky this trip that every trip or tour have had great guides that provide interesting and informative narration.

Before long we were underway.  We were all a little gun shy after getting sick fishing.  I remembered to bring th wristbands this time so we put them on and we all took a dramamine.  Unfortunately this made Davan and Summer sleepy so they snoozed most of the first half.  They claim they saw the wildlife, hopefully they did.

On of the first things we learned is that the Seward area is a temperate rainforest.  A rainforest is defined as an area that receives more than 80 inches of rain a year.  When you hear the word rainforest you think of the Amazon, not Alaska.  It makes sense though since it had rained the majority of our time in the Kenai Peninsula.  

We were about halfway through Resurrection Bay when we saw our first humpback.  It was near shore and seemed to just be hanging out for a bit before.  We didn't see a whole lot of it other than a few spouts and its back.  It did show its tail a couple times. 

We continued out to the Gulf of Alaska.  There our Captain spotted a pod of Orca's.  Otherwise called Killer Whales.  For those that don't know, Orca's are the largest in the dolphin family.  We hung out there for a bit.  There was one orca just hanging out by its self and a few adults and young in a group.  No breaching but we did get good views as one did lift its head above the water line a few times.  A cool thing I didn't know is that Orca's use echolocation.  Scientist's even think that it is so strong that they can tell when a female is pregnant.  They think that because the males behavior changes.  At some point later a calf is present and the males are acting normal.  

We did see many migratory birds.  Three variety's of Puffins, Cormorants and one other I don't recall the name of but our Captain said it was a rare sight.

Shortly after lunch was served.  We had our choice of sandwich, chips and a granola bar along with a glass of pop.  The sandwiches were surprisingly good.  The chips were kettle chips made from an Alaskan company.  They were also excellent.  So good I think I'm going to buy a case before we leave Alaska.

We headed out to the first of two glaciers, Aialik.  It was impressive but it was just a teaser of what was to come.  We learned that the glacier's in this area received roughly 100 feet of snow a year.  It takes up to 10 years for this snow to become glacier ice.  As we all know, snow is generally light and fluffy.  Over time the snow melts and refreezes or is just compressed due to more snow above it.  As this happens the air in between the flakes gets pushed out and the ice is compressed.  Glacier ice is less than 10% air.  This makes it incredibly dense and is as hard as stone.  

On the way to the second glacier we came across a raft of sea otters.  That's what a group of sea otters is called.  I'm not sure who made up these names but some are just odd.  They were all just floating on there back just hanging out.

After a 30 minute trip we found ourselves in front of Holgate Glacier.  This was a much more active glacier as evident of all the ice floating in the water.  

As we got closer we could see dozens of sea lions resting on the ice field.  They hang out here because all the floating ice messes up the echo location of an orca.  

The boat was turned parallel to the glacier and said we would hang out for a half hour or so.  It seemed a long time to just watch a giant sheet of ice.  It didn't take long to find out why though.  Ice chunks started falling off.  Before long we heard a large boom and cracking and about a minute later a huge section of ice calved off.  It was amazing!  There was another area that calved off a few chunks along with cracking but nothing fell in the rest of the time we were there.  

While we were there the crew scooped out some ice floating in the water.  A few smaller pieces were passed around but the larger chunks were brought inside.  After we got back underway they broke it up for Glacier Margarita's.  They were pretty weak but when else can you say you had a drink using glacier ice.  They had virgin drinks for kids as well, but the girls all wanted hot chocolate.  

Leaving the glacier the captain got a tip of some humpbacks from other boats so we headed off in that direction.  We did get a good look at a couple more.  This group was two adults and two young.

Heading back we had planned to swing by a rookery.  Another weird name for a group of birds.  However, the captain got word over the radio of another whale sighting.  As we came up to the area the whales were in we came across harbor seals sunning themselves.  The captain described harbor seals as always having some sort of drama and a few of them certainly did.  They gave a pretty good show arguing with each other.  

We didn't stay long as the humpbacks that were spotted were putting on a pretty good show.  The were bubble netting for food.  This is where a group of whales dive below schools of fish and work together expelling air from their blow holes.  This net of bubbles coral the fish to the surface and then come up from underneath with their mouths open to eat them.  It's easy to tell when this is happening as all the gulls are flying around hoping to snag a fish or two before the whales surface.  We got several good shows of bubble netting but the real treat is one or more of the whales breached two or three times.  Unfortunately I did not get any great photo's.  There is no warning to a breach so I didn't have the camera in position and by the time I did I only caught the splash.  Still, it was incredible to witness.  Apparently breaching isn't as common as I thought it was.

We were soon on our way back.  The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful sea life wise.  We did have a couple porpoise tease us with a quick view but they were not feeling playful and quickly disappeared. 

We did learn that Seward was an important military naval base in World War II.  The outlier islands offered protection and the fjords are incredibly deep due to being carved out by the glaciers.  The depths right up to land were several hundred feet and watching the sonar display I saw depths upwards of 800 feet just a few hundred yards off the harbor.  

Once back we headed back to the camper.  There was an eagles nest in a tree right alongside the road so I checked it out. There was an eagle just sitting in the tree so I went back to get my camera along with anyone that wanted to see.  Only Heidi wanted to go.  As we were walking back a shuttle driver stopped us to tell us of another eagles nest that had visible Eaglettes as well as a spot on a creek where bears fish for salmon.  

The eagle flew off shortly after so we packed up the girls to go for a bear hunt.  I realized later that we went to the wrong place but we still had a cool find anyways.  A small creek with some salmon and rainbow trout.  They were just camped out before a culvert going under the road.  The salmon were reds and they were ready to spawn.  You can tell because reds are actually silver in the ocean.  They only change to their bright red color right before they spawn.  Their nose also turns into the hook shape most people are familiar with when they think of a salmon.  

On the other side of the road the river was blocked off.  It was from an organization that raises and releases salmon.  I'm not sure why there was no salmon ladder but there were even more salmon and trout below the dam and they would jump on occasion.  It was neat to watch.

We eventually headed back for dinner as it was getting late.  We had a request of spaghetti.  Everyone must have been starving because there were no complaints and we ate it all.

The girls had a small fire and made s'mores while Heidi and I rested on the recliners.  I was a really great day!