Alaska Photos 6

Alaska Photos Page 6
Whale Watching Cruise, Part 1

On Tuesday (April 21, 2009) we drove down to Seward, embarking on a four-hour whale-watching cruise aboard a large boat (small ship?). The scenery on the drive to Seward was breathtaking and well beyond. Seward Highway runs along the Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet and the tides at Turnagain are incredible. One moment the inlet is full and Turnagain resembles a lake; 5 hours and 22 minutes later the tide is out and the inlet looks like the surface of the moon.

Oscar Hartman accompanied us on the trip, offering more than a scrap of amusement when he managed to dump a cup of coffee all over his immaculately-pressed-and-starched snowy-white shirt. Oscar was an incredibly good sport though, joking about it with considerable enthusiasm, and he even took a picture of the big brown rusty stain, using his cell phone camera, and then he sent a message to his wife, saying, 'Having a great time. Wish you were here. Wish this was your shirt.'

I decided not to embarrass Oscar by taking a picture of his shirt, but I did shoot an entire collection of photographs of the cruise that day. We spotted four whales (I don't know - maybe it was the same pair twice) and along the frigid journey we encountered two large schools of porpoises. As it turns out, the little rascals love to play with the ship, dancing all around its bow with incredible speed and grace. The cruise itself was nearly beyond description. The air was colder than cold although even moreso pristine. Along the icy way we saw glaciers and mountains and islands and huge pillars of rock rising up from the sea, at least a zillion pine trees as well as dozens and dozens of caves and coves and inlets and every imaginable rock formation. We watched whales, porpoises, sea lions, otters, and flocks of birds of every kind. What follows is only a VERY small sample.

The view from the highway on the the drive to Seward.

Brad and Jodie, freezing to death but having a GREAT time!

View from the ship

We spotted two whales. Here's one of them.

The classic view of a whale making his dive.

One of dozens of porpoises we saw.

Sea lions basking in the sun.

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