Ice, Ice Baby
In order to keep peace with the youth on the trip, we purchased supplies to cook breakfast this morning. Shelves were sparse at the Seward Safeway, but we were able to scrounge out enough to cobble together a nice breakfast. Our outing today didn’t require check in until 10:30, so we didn’t have to get up extremely early, so it was nice to sleep in a bit.
Our excursion for the day was a 6 hour tour of the Kenai Fjords National Park. It was a beautiful day for sailing, but the weather front that came in yesterday still had some residual swells on the part of the trip that was in open ocean. Some of the group definitely dealt with the effects of the sea motion. The boat had assigned tables for the inside area of the ship, and there were multiple outdoor platforms. Since we arrived early, we were able to snag a primo location on the upper deck. Sailing through these glacially-created bays provides an amazing view of the surrounding landscape. We saw multiple glaciers, as well as puffins, sea lions, porpoises, and many types of whales.
I think we were all doing fine with the sea motion, except for when they slowed down for us to take pictures of the sea lions. The bobbing motion became quite pronounced, and Pat, as well as several other passengers, decided sick bags would be helpful. She persevered, and we all made it to the glacier.
Being that close to a wall of ice (well, several, as there were 2 other glaciers emptying into that bay), was awesome. The wind, cooled by the massive ice, flowed pretty strongly over the bay. We stayed there for 30 minutes, taking pictures and such, then began our return trip. I think we all were pretty ready to return, and enjoyed the comfortable seats in the warm cabin.
Carrie was not feeling great inside, so we went back up top for the fresh air. It was a good thing, too, as we came across a few pods of orca. I took a ridiculous amount of pictures, and hopefully got a few good ones. After the orca, we were getting pretty close to port, so we went back downstairs to prepare to disembark.
We decided that we wanted something a little more casual for dinner, so we got some frozen chicken pot pies, as well as a nice round of appetizers whipped up by Carrie. The wind and sunburn had really taken a lot out of us, so it may be an early evening tonight. This is our last night in Seward, and Carrie really found us a winner of a stay. We have really enjoyed the Bear’s Den, as well as Seward, and hope to return some day.
