Whales?...Oh yeah!!!

Yesterday we took the 9 hour cruise from Seward to the Northwestern Fjord of Kenai Fjords National Park. I was a bit apprehensive for 3 reasons: we already spent the money on a four hour trip and saw no whales, I can get very seasick and this cruise went into open waters a longtime, and most important, we were worried about leaving Remy and Cinder for 10-11 hours. We convinced ourselves that in the big scheme of the trip, this one additional cruise wouldn't break us and we didn't want to look back saying what if...Although Remy and Cinder are getting up in years, we decided the worst that would happen would be a accident. As for my seasickness, I started on Dramamine at 7:30am for the 9am departure!  The port at Ressurection Bay is a busy one for fishing and sailing...

Off we went, up Ressurection Bay.  The Kenai Fjords Tour Company was different from the start, getting much closer to wildlife or landscapes.  The Captain was very experienced, knew where to look and was in constant contact with other boats on what was out there.

The day was just perfect, sunny, nice temp, beautiful scenery...

 

Lots of wildlife, from cute sea lions to porpoises to cormorants to the star of the bird show, the puffins!

The Captain told us he looked for places with a large area of birds feeding on the water as the whales were eating the same food and what do you know, our first blow hole!!!

And there he was...

After watching several whales we moved on to the glaciers, quite magnificent...

When we got close he cut the engines and just let us listen to the calving glaciers, just amazing, you could hear the cracking before you saw pieces break off, so cool and soo blue!!

It was interesting to see the baby seals hanging out at the glaciers...

We went in back out to sea and caught up with another humpback...

And a beautiful waterfall along the coast

Then we saw a mama whale and her baby calf in the distance so off we went to get a closer view.  It was wonderful watching what looked like her teaching him to breach. First she would do it and then he would follow, over and over.  This was the highlight of our 9 hours, and made it all worthwhile!!

This whole trip was so special...thanks to our friend Ian for convincing us we should try again.  And the kids?...they were just fine, no problems.  A great day!  Now we move on to Valdez!