My Last Weekend is Alaska.....and she isn't disappointing me! Jane and I took the longer, 6 hour, Kenai Wildlife Cruise on Saturday.
The weather was beautiful, clear and no fog or rain. Jane thought it was too cold and windy and she may have had a point....at least when we went motor boating at 40 knots across the bay. Yep, then it was COLD and WINDY...but, when cruising slowly looking for wildlife or sitting at the face of the tidewater glacier it seems nice. And today it is cool, cloudy and alternating drizzle and rain...a perfect day for sleeping late (which I did) and packing (which I am trying to convince myself to do...any minute now).
But, to back up a little. I want to tell you about the cruise.
Welcome aboard our ship-it was the newest in the Kenai Cruise Line and designed specifically for the long haul out to the tidewater glacier (our trip was 120 sea miles). It looks like a pontoon (however you spell that) boat on the bottom-two big floating things along each side that don't join in the middle (guess I should have gotten a picture). There is a main salon downstairs that houses cafe type booths that are three rows across (two next to the windows and one in the middle-each sitting six in theater type seats). The bar and snack area is in the back of this and there are TV screens throughout that constantly display a map of where we are). Above this is a smaller room with the same type seating-in front of that top area is the captains navigation area. Behind the smaller upstairs salon are seats in rows facing the right and the left of the boat. However, my favorite place was on the lower deck in front of the main salon-the prow. Greatest view!!!! You can see 180 degrees all around the boat-basically the captains view only one level below! That was my hang out for the day!!! Jane stayed up there most of the time even though she was about to freeze to death! Then there were 3 college guys and every now and then some kids would show up for a few minutes, get in trouble by me or the first mate or the captain for jumping up off the deck and leave (to everyone's sigh of relief-there was a rule about no kids on deck without parents but a few parents chose to ignore this and made their kids the responsibility of the crew who had to come up when they were there or the captain who had to stop the boat and tell them to stop jumping).
Now to get a feel for this experience first let me tell you were were MOVING BUTT! This was no leisurely little putt-putt. We were motor boating on a BIG boat-I think I heard 40 knots but I wouldn't know what that means....just that the wind was blowing past my face, my hair was streaming out behind and my ears where flapping in the wind! And boy was it beautiful! OK....and cold (she reluctantly admits).
We were moving so fast in order to get out of the Bay and further into the ocean to some other islands and to a tidewater glacier. First stop was Fox Island to take on provisions.....gotta feed the masses. And those kids (well, young adult workers) loaded that boat so fast I wasn't aware we had acutally docked! Then off we went in search of THE BIG WILD LIFE (that's Anchorage's slogan).
Well, we found it! We found a mother and child Orca (can't remember the name for a baby Orca), porpoises (very entertaining-they charged the boat, circled it, swam around and under it-the captain was not too impressed with them I don't think-he was after the big stuff), Humpbacks, eagles, horned puffin, sea lions, seals, and too many birds to remember all the names.
I did the best I could with pictures so I hope you enjoy them-it was not too easy on a moving boat (sometime moving really, really fast) in open sea with shakey hands! I think the best way to view them is with the slide show because you get full screen-although you will miss my explanations and pithy comments.
I was thrill when I got home and saw some of the pictures-everyone was so excited about seeing the humpback lunge feeding and I was bummed I missed it. I actually somehow caught her on film as she was coming up! Here is what I know about lunge feeding. You will see a lot of birds in a tight knot diving-that means there is a school of fish. Well, the humpback will dive below this and then lunge upward with the mouth open-they then filter the water out and eat the mouth full of fish (and occassional puffin or bird, I suspect) that was in the water. Cool. I learned too much information to put here about whales (like they stay with their mothers and there are transitory and permanent ones and they never, ever mix and don't even eat the same type food even though they are the same type whale and Orcas aren't even whales). And check out the seals-we were moving at a pretty good clip and I wasn't even sure I had a picture of them....I was using both the optical and digital zoom and that is hard without a tripod...anyway I thought maybe I had a picture of a white one and a dirty one but looking at the camera screen it looked like I just had blobs of color without any detail-well, check out what I actually ended up with!
Before I let you go look at the pictures I want to comment on the crew. The captain was awesome! He NEVER stopped with the running commentary! Everything from the wildlife to the history of the area and just about everything in between you would want to know. He had a head set for when he was in his tower and a microphone for when he stepped out on deck to check something out closer-I saw him downstairs at the back bar during dinner and he plugged into a jack on the wall and was still talking! I think he is probably from the area...however, I talked to one of the young men who had to step out on deck for unattended child patrol and he said he was from California and he and hsi girlfriend were here for the just for the summer working for Kenai Cruises. They even have employee housing! What fun would that be!!!! However, he had been warned that people sometime come down and do this, love Alaska so much they don't go back.....hummmm, until middle of the next winter!
Hey, but I did it the other way-I did fall and winter first and now summer....and I sure hate to leave! Jane and I made lists all the way to Seward yesterday of all the things we will miss and all the things we were going to do and never got to! It was very long and I think we just depressed ourselves!!!! We are pretty sure no place will ever hold a candle to Alaska!!! And I am pretty sure I will somehow, someway manage to make a trip back some day!
Well, check out the pictures from the
Kenai Wildlife Cruise.
Zane Micheal Logan arrived July 19 after hours and hours of labor. Poor Mindy labored for 24 hours at home then went to the hospital where they spent roughly another 12 hours trying to have this baby by vaginal delivery but it was not to be! She had a C-section at around 8:43 in the morning of July 19 and this lovely baby became part of our family. I am a very proud grandmother! Mother, father and baby are doing very well! Mindy and Brandon have taken to parenthood like they have done it all their lives-they are just the most wonderful parents!
