All aboard!
The second day or our anniversary weekend we awoke and had a quiet and quaint breakfast at the B&B we stayed at. Not like a normal bed and breakfast where you have to show for a prepared hot breakfast at a certain time, we ate muffins, fruit, yogurt and juice which was already in our room and waiting. I didn't think I'd like it this way at first, but the convenience of eating when you're ready and together alone in the room was really nice. We'd definitely go back to this place.
We arrived at the port house of Kenai Fjords Tours just before 10am when our boat tour was scheduled to depart. This was to be an eight and a half hour tour through the national park all the way to view a huge tide-water glacier.
Our boat, the Tanina (pronounced Tuh-nine-ah), was about 100 feet long, two stories and held around 65 people. This tour was fantastic! We saw lots of wildlife, and the captain/tour guide, a former crab boat fisherman, was incredibly knowledgeable. It was cloudy all day and rained a little off and on, but the clouds were high enough that the views were still amazing! Mammoth mountains 360 degrees.
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| A family of Orca whales swam up to and then under our boat. |
Orcas whales, which are actually a porpus, travel in family groups their entire lives. They have a very sofisticated language, and even though the males are the largest the females call the shots.
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| The tail fin of a Humpback whale. |
Humpback whales, the 5th largest mamal, don't actually have humped backs. When they come up to take a breath before a deeper dive, they arch their back and body so much that from out of the water it just looks like one big hump. We watched this guy for quite a while while he was fishing. One of the Humpbacks we saw put on a good show jumping several times (not completely out of the water though) which is called a "spy-hop."
We also came accross a Fin whale, the 2nd largest mammal, which can grow as long as 60 feet long and weigh as much as 100 thousand pounds(!). Fin whale sightings are rare. These whales are not territorial or migratory, they travel their entire life to new place after new place. (Btw: Humbacks can weigh up to 90k pounds.)
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| Ialic Glacier: front face is 600 high at widest point. |
The above picture is of Ialic glacier (pronounced eye-al-ick), which is a tide-water class glacier because it ends in the ocean. This picture is from about 1/2 mile away. Notice the tiny boat on the water near the bottom of the picture. For some perspective, that boat is not tiny at all, but actually a 60 footer.
There were thousands of ice chunks floating in the water. The large ones the captain maneuvered as he slowly drove through, the small ones he just nudged out of the way. But the scratching and rubbing sounds they made hitting the boat sure didn't sound small.
One of the coolest parts about the glacier was listening to it. There are always chucks falling off. This process is called "calving." The chunks we saw fall looked little from so far away, but several of them sounded like thunder (several seconds after you saw it) when splashing into the water. We got an idea of just how high they were when we saw a few pieces (the size of two-car garages) fall from half way up and they, as if in slow motion, took several seconds to reach the ocean. This was really an opportunity to marvel at and be awe struck by creation.
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| We came around a corner and were surprised by a "haul-out" of sea lions |
We saw several different packs groups haul-outs of sea lions. The largest group hard probably 30. These were also fun to listen to, because they growl and bark and snort constantly. Kind of like the two hounds in my life.
The other wild life (not shown in pictures) that we saw was: a sea otter, sleeping in open ocean as we passed by, no cares in the world. He was literally sleeping and just floating along. Sea otters have the thickest furr of any mammal which is why they were hunted almost to extinction about 200 years ago. We saw Puffins, which are brown eight months out of year and only get colorful to attract mate. Several other types of birds, and we learned that there's no such thing as a "sea"gull. They're actually a type of bird, I just can't remember the name. We saw two regal bald eagles perched magnanimously in the harbor. Mountain goats with babies. Harbors seals which were real shy, and hanging out on ice chunks at the glacier. You might say they were...chillin'.
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| This guy just came from under our boat |
Near the end, one of the coolest moments was when several Doll Porpus (like Flipper) came and swam with us in front of the boat. They were popping up out of the water over and over again, crossing back and forth as if just playing around. But actually, what they were doing was resting. The boat pushes ahead of it a pressure wave which, when the porpus swim into it, pushes them forward making the swimming easier for a moment.
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| Heather, looking cold and cute. |
The entire day was a blast! It rained a little, but we didn't let that bother us. Though it lasted 8.5 hours, we didn't have much lag time. There was always a grandiose view to take in or new wildlife to spot. For those of you thining about visiting us up here in AK, this is definitely something you should do, and we're happy to do it again.
