Alaska Review! Day 12--Seward to Bird Creek

This was my favorite day.  It was simply amazing.  And I know we were lucky with the weather, and what we saw.  But as you read through this, you might agree with me.

We had a 7.5 hour Kenai Fjords National Park trip scheduled with Major Marine.  Originally, I was going to go with a 6 hour tour with the company called Kenai Fjords, which started at 8 AM and ended at 2.  Given that our time was already shortened in Seward due to the triathlon, it sounded like a good idea to be done by 2.  However, Cyber Monday rolled around and with it came 40% off the 7.5 hour tour, which started at 10 and ran until 5:30.  Even though it would completely change any other plans, I went for it.  When you are paying for five people, with three of them being considered adults, you have to consider cost.  I figured, as long as we got out of Resurrection Bay, we'd be good.  This tour also had a ranger, which would be good for the kids (and big kids, too).  😛This tour cost us $477, even with the discount.   In the end, I added the all you can eat salmon/prime rib lunch for an additional $81.

We ate our breakfast in our apartment and while we were packing up, I went downstairs to the Sea Bean coffee shop, which is also owned by the same folks who own the Sauerdough Lodge.  We received a $10 voucher, which wouldn't go very far for five of us, but I bought three chocolate chip cookies for the kids at $3 apiece.  Done.

The harbor was about a mile away, so we drove and parked in the lot as directed by Major Marine.  They reimburse for parking, which is nice.

While we waited, the kids posed with some wildlife:

 They also posed with our boat, the Glacier Express:

 

 We waited to board and once we did, we went to sit at our assigned table.  The kids were given junior ranger book (e.g. Kenai Fjords National Park) so that they could earn their third junior ranger badge. 

 We set out right on time.  This ship wasn't nearly as crowded as our trip on Monday in Valdez, so we actually were able to spread out and sit at two tables, which was nice with our gear.

Free coffee and tea!  The boys tried it out and didn't really love it.  I'm not really surprised.

 As always, so lovely.

 Our first wildlife...a little sea otter, just hanging out.

I missed the Dall's porpoise, as it was really fast and didn't reappear, but above we have our first humpback whale siting, followed by the harbor seals on these rocks.

 Quintessential Alaska, no?

And a little puffin or two, all by themselves.

 What's that I see?

 The show was really getting started!

 Synchronized swimming of orcas!

 And my favorite for this series:

Whales and mountains--sums up a bit of Alaska.  The above photo is edited.  We watched these guys for a long time, as did another boat.  It was so awesome.

By then our table had been called for lunch.  The lunch is a buffet, and it is salmon and prime rib, salad, rice and I know I'm forgetting some food.  Also included one soda or $1 off a bar drink.   It was good!

 While we were eating, this eagle flew by the window.  I didn't have a lot of time to capture it.

It wasn't long before we approached Holgate Glacier.   There are two glaciers on this cruise, and normally, Holgate is second, but not today.

 Yes, we were all on the cruise.

 Again, it's hard to get an idea of just how big this glacier is...but there is a boat closer to it on the right side of the picture.  I think this glacier is about a mile wide, but don't quote me on that.

 This is also part of the glacier, to the left of the main part.

We stayed at Holgate for about 30 minutes.  All the while, the Ranger Lynne was telling us different things about the glacier.

As done on the Stan Stephens cruise on Monday, glacier ice was collected for viewing...

 and using to make "glacier-ritas".  Chretien and I got one to split.  They were fun to look at (and tasty, too).  I've forgotten now, but I think they were $4 or $5 each.

About 25 minutes later, we started seeing Aialik Glacier.

With a nearby sleeping bear to the left of the above photo:

Some kayakers paddling by our sleeping bear. 

The boat is dwarfed by the sheer size of the glacier.

Do you see our kayakers in the photo above?  There are two kayaks.

There they are, with just a bit of the glacier behind them.

Ranger Lynne spoke about having a conversation with the glacier.  When the glacier started calving, we understood.

Calving is interesting.  The sound made when the ice crashes into the water is sort of like thunder, but not really.  And since it's unpredictable, you can't be sure you'll get a photo of it.

However, we stayed by the glacier long enough to see which part was the most active, and I did manage to capture this last bit of a particularly impressive bit of calving.

That bright white is the ice falling and the water splashing up.  We were so excited to see it.

After about 40 minutes or so, it was time to go.  As we departed, we see that our bear has awoken and is starting to head off.

 On our way back, we encountered more wildlife.  We didn't linger as long on wildlife going back, as we were already running late from our whale encounters earlier.

 But we continued to bump into humpbacks.  Darn!  😏

 And our favorites...more puffins.

Trust really liked them.

 Steller sea lions.  These were similar to the large group we saw in Valdez.  Fun to watch.

 Not done with whales, though.

 I spied this eagle without Chretien's help.  Easy when the white feathers stand out.  I think this is where there was a second eagle, but I wasn't fast enough to photograph both.

Around 4:30, they bring out the dessert--fruit compote with cakes, I think.  The kids also got sworn in as junior rangers for the third time. Three sets of badges for each kid.  You can see the fabulous Ranger Lynne swearing them in.

This is the map of our route, with all the wildlife we saw annotated on it.

I always read that you need to get out of Resurrection Bay in order to see the bulk of the wildlife.  Although we saw sea otter and Dall porpoise in the bay, that adage was certainly true for us.  The most exciting sightings were all well into our tour, past the bay.  

I will also add that the trip was fairly calm.  The kids and I did medicate with Dramamine an hour before we departed, but I don't know if we really had to.  I didn't see anyone who was sick.  I could have missed them, or it could have been just a calm day.  It was terrific.

We disembarked around 5:30 or so--so yes, we were late in returning.  We stopped in the office for our parking refund, and picked up Subway for some of us for a light dinner.  Subway was $23 for three sandwiches.  The rest of us had leftover pizza from Pizza Hut that we had been carting around and keeping cool since North Pole.

 Requisite city mural.  Definitely had to include our puffin friends.

As we head out of town, we stopped at Safeway for bread--I found a bargain loaf of wheat for $2.

We debated doing a quick hike around Exit Glacier.

 We pulled into the parking lot and got out of the car.  We were immediately attacked by the most mosquitoes we had encountered.  Between that, our being tired, the 90 minute drive which awaited us, and the possible length of this hike, we decided against it.

I will note that we did see a few of the famous markers which show where the glacier used to be.  These were on the road on the drive in, and they were from 200 years ago.  This placard describes the receding glacier.

We traveled back up the Seward Highway to Bird Creek Motel and RV Park.  The road was a bit cloudy, so any pictures I attempted didn't come out all that well.  This motel is right on the Seward Highway, so it's convenient.  The room wasn't all that big, but it was clean and served its purpose.  We paid $267 for two nights, and that included a charge for the rollaway bed.  

We brought out stuff in and crashed.  This was the last time we needed to move until we departed in two days.