Alaska - Day 8

Seward is probably our favorite little Alaska town.  In hindsight we wish we could have spent more time there but at least the time we did spend was pretty spectacular.  The weather was the best we had had yet and everyone we talked to along the way said that if the weather was good we had to do a boat cruise in Kenai Fjords National Park.  So we took their advice and were treated to unbelievable scenery, a variety of wildlife, tidal glaciers, tidal glaciers calving, a little bit of sea sickness, and a really great day.

There were a bunch of different orcas swimming around us but my favorite was this mom and baby pair that posed perfectly in front of a the Chugach Mountains and a tidal glacier.  The male orcas were huge and we also saw a couple of humpback whales.

Lots of nesting gulls.

The only thing between us and Antarctica in this exact direction is the Hawaiian Islands.

I loved the puffins.  They only come to land to nest and can dive 300 feet deep! Turns out their colorful beaks are only present when they are mating.

Stellar sea lions. Much larger than normal sea lions.

Sorry for all the pictures of the glacier but it was awesome. We couldn't get closer than 1/2 mile to the glacier because it is calving so often.  The whole time we were there, even at such a long distance, we could hear the ice moving and cracking. When it would calve, or break large chunks off, it was so loud and would throw up a large wave and tons of water. It was so cool because we had never experienced anything like it before.

Seward is one of the most productive fishing ports in the world.  People were snatching up salmon and 300 pound halibut like candy.

On our way out of town we stopped by Exit Glacier.  Our original plan for the day was to explore the glacier and hike up to the Harding Ice Field but the perfect weather pulled us to the cruise.  We really needed one more day here.