The point of our trip to Whittier was to hop on board a glacier cruise. I had previously done a Kenai Fjords tour out of Seward, so the 26 Glacier Cruise was the selection for the day. If you spend more than a few days in Alaska and have a radio on at any point, the 26 Glacier Cruise jingle will be forever in your head, so I also went just to satisfy the curiosity from being bombarded by that ad.
I wasn't sure if we would see a lot of animals. I was ready for scenic shooting, and this was going to be a great way to see a few mountains from a new angle. We pulled out of Whittier on a nice and sunny day, but you always need a jacket when glacier touring...cool winds on those waters.
Over the course of the afternoon, we would indeed see 26 glaciers. Probably more. After a while you sort of start to lose track. There are still a lot of glaciers in Alaska. But they are indeed a fraction of the size they were a generation ago.
These little islands are pretty much people free, unless someone makes a specific effort to take a boat out to them, and it makes me happy to know there are a few spots of land on this planet that people haven't mucked up yet. Some peaceful shorelines for seals to rest, for bears to nap in (they can swim there), and eagles can nest. Alaska still has some great wilderness.
It was a nice calm day on the water, barely a ripple in sight.
I got Shibby to pose with the life preserver so we would remember the name of our boat -- The Klondike Express. We spent most of the 6 hour tour on deck, with a few intermittent trips inside to warm up or grab coffee. There is a chair at a table for every passenger, but we wanted to be right out where we could see an animal if it presented itself.
Well, it didn't take long! We happened across a patch of sunbathing sea lions within the first half hour of the cruise. Sea lions are noisy! You can hear them barking, and they are always in the company of seagulls. The sea lions kind of blend in. But if you see a rock littered with seagulls, look carefully, and you start to pick out sea lions
So there were a lot of mountains, several salt water spashes on the lenses (hence black spots), but for a long stretch we didn't see any more animals.
They promised we would see sea otters soon, particularly as we got to the colder waters in Prince William Sound. And so we waited and watched the pretty scenery go by.
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