North to Alaska!!!!!! (days 3 & 4)

On Tuesday morning, Jed and I decided to hike up to the Exit Glacier. We drove a short distance from Seward and hiked up a trail to the beautiful glacier. It was very "cool".

This is an interesting place we passed on the way to and from the glacier. We didn't have time to stop and try it out.

When we got back to Seward, it was time for all of us to meet at the docks and board our tour boat for a day of adventure. We went on a Kenai Fjord tour.

The day was full of sightings of a lot of animal life. These eagles were some of the first sightings.

This is a cute, little sea otter. We saw a lot of them.

Here are some Dahl's porpoises. They were swimming all around and under the ship.

This is a Fin Whale. Or I guess you could say, a Fin Whale's fin.

And, there were a few "colonies" of Sea Lions.

We saw many, many Puffins. They are cute, cartoonish birds.

More Sea Lions

And, the most awesome experience of the day was when we saw a group of about 4 whales "bubble net feeding". There would be two of them that would dive down deep in the water and they would create a "bubble net" by expelling a lot of bubbles. This "bubble net" would capture a lot of fish that then would rise up to the surface. And then the other whales would be waiting to gobble-up this group of fish as it came to the surface. The crew on the ship dropped a microphone down into the water and we were also able to hear all kinds of whale noises from down under the water.



We were so caught up in the whale adventure that we were a little late getting to our dinner appointment on Fox Island but the salmon and prime rib were still delicious.

After dinner, we returned to Seward to our Bed and Breakfast. Here is a picture of the view that we had from our back patio at the Bed and Breakfast.

On Wednesday we loaded all of our stuff and ourselves into our large, rented van and headed out. We would eventually end up in Valdez that night but had a beautiful, eventful trip getting there. We made some stops along the way and saw some more beautiful scenery.

We visited with Smokey the Bear at the Visitor's Center before entering the Whittier Tunnel.
We saw the beautiful, Portage Glacier.




And then we traveled on a ferry through some amazing places and arrived in Valdez in the evening. And, yes, it is evening. It is about 8:00 PM in these pictures!

Javen enjoyed the little, black guests at our motel in Valdez

North to Alaska!!!!!! (days 1 & 2)

On June 12th, Jed & I, Jeff & Carol and Mark & Tam departed from the Salt Lake International Airport and flew to Anchorage Alaska. Our week-long adventure has begun. The next few posts will show where we went, what we saw and what we did there. WARNING: There will be a lot of pictures!!!

This first picture is of Anchorage.

After landing and being picked up at the airport by a shuttle, we left our luggage at the motel and then went to a museum. It was pretty interesting to learn about the Mommoths and Mastodons that were here on the earth many, many years ago.


This was our only activity planned for our first day in Alaska. We were tired and ready to return to the motel for the night. But, since it is Summer in Alaska, there is around 23 hours of daylight. We went to bed at night in the bright daylight and woke up in the morning in bright daylight. Crazy!!!
The next morning, at 5:30, we went to the train station and caught a train headed to Seward. The train ride was beautiful and we loved it.
(Obviously, this isn't the train we traveled on since it is only an engine!)

This is a picture of some airplanes and an airstrip (grass) right along the coast line.

These are Dall's sheep on the cliffs along the way. We also saw a moose from a distance and some of the people on the train saw a bear. There was also an eagle's nest (with the eagle perched in it watching us go by).


We were greeted in Seward, by this cute Puffin!!! We eventually saw a lot of "real" Puffins. They are so cute!!!!

Cory, Crystal and their kids (Javen, Navy & Paisley) met us in Seward with our rented van. Our first activity, after they got there, was to visit the Alaska Sea Life Center. Very cool!
We got to touch anemones and starfish.

This is an eel kind of fish thing. Creepy!!!!

There were several huge aquariums with some very cool exotic fish.
And there were a lot of puffins (this one is real), ducks, sea lions and other sea life. It was a fun place to visit. We enjoyed our afternoon and evening in Seward. After eating, we went to our Bed and Breakfast and tried to get some sleep. (remember that it is bright daylight most of the night).