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After flying into Anchorage, we headed south down the Kenai Peninsula 125 miles to the small oceanside town of Seward.
Alaska Saltwater Lodge at Lowell Point, 2 miles past small, but touristy Seward. We occupied the top floor, which had 3-bedrooms, kitchen, and common area...and a GREAT view of Resurrection Bay:
The first day in Seward we embarked on an 8-hour (turned 10-hour) boat tour. We didn't like the idea of those big, 300-person, touristy tour boats, so we booked this intimate 15-person boat instead:
Jellyfish. The 1st sealife sighting, at the docks:
View back towards Seward as we departed on the tour, with sea otter at lower right:
Puffins!:
Steller Sea Lions:
Here's where the small boat really paid off. The captain casually asked us if anybody had to be back before 6:30pm (tour was scheduled to return at 4:30). Nobody had any evening plans, so the captain took us way off the planned course, past the Chiswell Islands, to see a superpod of Orcas (killer whales) that a research vessel had told him about. We got to see one do almost a full breach!
In front of Holgate glacier. Okay, maybe we were overdressed, but there was a pretty cold wind coming off the glacier:
We got to see the glacier calve off some 70-foot-high chunks!!! Check out the sequence below. The crackling/rumbling noise was quite loud, followed by a large, churning wave:
Here are some 500-lb 'crumbs' falling off, near the glacier's river (which is spewing muddy melt water. Hmm, doesn't make us want to drink bottled 'Glacier Water' anymore):
Another glacier next to Holgate:
Some porpoises rode next to us at 20 knots, swimming effortlessly and playfully in Aiayak Bay:
This humpback whale spouted and then breached just a 100 yards away!:
Bald Eagle, awaiting a tasty fish to swim by below his perch on Rugged Island:
Lisa, Linda, & Wai sitting out on deck and enjoying the absolutely perfect weather:
There are daylong fishing tours too (we did not go on one). When you return with your catch, the crew cleans, filets, and packages your fish for shipping right here at the Seward docks:
This is a smaller marina by Lowell Point, 2 miles from Seward, near where we stayed.
On our SECOND day in Seward, Wai, Dave, & Linda hiked to the base of the Exit Glacier, then up alongside it to the Harding Icefield.
Along the way, we saw marmots and rock ptarmigans and a black bear & cub:
3+ miles and 2700 feet elevation gain later, we enjoyed spectacular vistas of the mountains, the top of the Exit Glacier, and the hundreds of square miles of the Harding Icefield (which 'feeds' a dozen glaciers that 'flow' down the mountainsides):
Our legs were tired, but our arms were not. And there were many hours of daylight left...so we went kayaking in Resurrection Bay and Tonsina Bay. It is almost 10pm in that last pic:
Tufted puffins and birds that looked like miniature, fat/round seagulls:
