Alaska with Momma T, Part 2: Glacier and Wildlife Cruise

Day two in Seward with the mother-in-law was spent on a boat tour of the Kenai Fjords National Park. It was on this boat tour that I actually learned what a fjord is. Many years ago when there was much more ice in this area, enormous glaciers ran between mountain ranges. As they moved (yes glaciers move, some as much as three feet per day), they carved out huge crevasses in the mountains. The earth warmed and these monstrous glaciers melted back, and as that happened they are filled in with sea water. And that is what we call a fjord: a glacial out-carving filled in with ocean. 

Our boat trip was for nine hours, giving us all day to see amazing stuff. Like our last similar boat trip, the weather was overcast and a little rainy. One of the first things we saw was a sea otter floating out in the water. Now, the picture below is not the same otter we saw that day, but from another day when I snapped a photo of this guy eating a fish. The point is, we saw an otter, and here's a good picture of one.

Just after, we spotted these two regal eagles perched and watching for food. Really cool. Factoid: bald eagles were once seen as a nuisance by early Alaskans.

Bald eagles are endangered in every state save Alaska

This day was humpback whale day. We probably had two-dozen humpback sightings. And if you look closely (or click to enlarge), you see this whale jumping partly out of the water. This is called a breach.

Humpback breach

Here's a group of sea lions slapped up on some rocks. They're so funny to watch, because they spend the majority of their time either trying to mate or just bothering the one next to them.

Sea lion haul-out

Here's two glaciers we floated past. I believe they are both stemming from the Harding Ice Field from the previous post/day. Notice the one on the right has arced bands of dirt and rock in it. Some glaciers rub the side of mountains and knock rock and dirt off and onto the glacier. These are known as "dirty glaciers." There's something about the different bands in them being like the rings in a tree trunk, because they help scientist track the age and speed of the glacier, but I don't remember all the details.

Two tide-water glaciers

Behind us in the below picture is Northwestern Glacier. It's name doesn't come at all from its geographical location in relation to anything, but rather it was named after the school which has done lots of research on glaciers in this area, Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

My sunburn from hiking is showing nicely here

Glacial calving is when pieces fall of. This glacier had a huge calving event while we watched. Not so much of a chunk breaking off and plummeting to the water, this even was more like a waterfall of snow and ice that lasted for over a minute. It's difficult to get a size proportion from this picture, but the point at which the ice is pouring is about 100 feet high. And the sound that it produced was dauntingly loud.

Glacial calving

Here's an awesome video of some glacial calving. Hopefully it will give some perspective. (I hope this works on everyone's computer. But I must warn, sometimes the videos are screwy.) 

As I said before, it was a humpback day. Above is a video of some humpbacks feeding. The end is especially nice.

Momma T and daughter in front of some pretty waterfalls we drove right up to. All three of them, pretty, pretty, pretty!

This picture gives you a sense of the weather conditions, and as well it shows that the scenery was still gorgeous.

General picture of Kenai Fjords National Park

It was another great boat trip into the Kenai Fjords. Afterwards we jumped in the truck and drove the 2.5 hours back to Anchorage, once again very tired.
______________________________________________

Other highlights on Momma T's visit to AK was a chance to see her cousin Kenny  who lives in Anchorage.

Momma T and Kenny

We snapped this picture of a momma moose and her calf one night on the way back from dinner at Heather's and my favorite restaurant.

Moose family

Lastly, before she left for the airport, Tzena had to have some lovin' time with her two grand-dogs. If you don't know, Tzena is Dakota's most favoritest person in the whole world. When Tzena first got here and we took Dakota to see her outside, Dakota melted. She ran to her whimpering and wagging, and layed down belly up on the grass trying to absorb as much loving and Momma T as dogily possible. She loves her Ana (pronounced (on-uh, which is Eskimo for grandmother).