Another weekend full of excitement - I planned a (hopefully) fun filled trip down to Seward! Matt thought the whale trip we did earlier this year would be fun with his parents. Of course, the whales aren’t migrating this time of year, but I figured there would be enough sea life to be entertaining.
Thomas seemed pretty excited about being back in his favorite sea side town. It seems like we always find something new and exciting when we visit. We found this otter bench by the tour check-in (after I went to the wrong place the first time - whoops!). Thomas was pretty excited that Iet him crawl up on the otter - though I don’t think he even noticed it was an otter.
But he was more excited about the boats! This guy loves transportation - if it’s a train, plane, car or boat, he has to make sure and tell us. In fact his current favorite phrase is “Boat on the water!” - it’s mostly used in his tub with his toy boat, but here were a ton of real boats on the water. Cue toddler excitement!
We finally got boarded and headed off on the tour. Luckily it was a nice day for cruising around the harbor. Well for most of us… Seems like no matter how calm I think it is, I still manage to feel sea sick. (Matt’s dream vacation of sailing around to small islands may not include me. There’s some joke in there about his dream vacation being alone…)
In any case, I felt better when I was up on deck, so luckily it was nice enough to hang out there as much as I wanted.
Thomas is looking for the whales he’s heard so much about, but didn’t see much of last time. Unlike the previous boat, this one had railings that were made so that small kiddos could wander around the top deck without the fear of slipping through the railing. Wander might be a bit generous, we still were right behind his every step…
The first part of the cruise felt super boring compared to the last one when we saw whales right in the Seward harbor. They served lunch pretty quickly, but then we were just cruising and cruising with no stops to see things. Turns out it was intentional - one of the cruises had spotted Killer Whales out near the bay and the captain was trying to get us there before the pod took off.
And he succeeded - the whales hung out long enough for us to get close and see them. One guy even decided to wave hello to our boat!
I took *so* many photos of the whales playing. They kept getting closer and more exciting, so I kept taking more. They ended up getting really close to the boat for us. One of them even jumped up in the air and splashed back down, but of course I didn’t get a photo of that. It was still pretty exciting to see though.
Henry wanted to know what all the fuss was - poor guy misses all the excitement being stuck in his car seat.
After the orcas finally got tired of showing off for us, we cruised back across the open part of the bay (where I decided maybe some ginger ale might be in order…) to start our journey back. Although the big Humpback whale migration was over for the year, apparently this little guy didn’t get the memo and was still hanging out. Lucky for us!
I know this isn't a great photo - which I usually don’t include, but I wanted to show how close the little guy got. He was diving off in the distance, then kept getting closer and closer to our boat. He apparently saw our boat, dove under and surfaced right on the other side - look how close he is! So a photo of a whale’s back may not be thrilling, but seeing him pop up and spray water everywhere was the highlight of the trip for me!
I didn’t notice this block of buildings last time, but the captain pointed them out for us. These are a military outpost, circa WWII, which has quite literally gone to the birds. These buildings were built as a look-out and are on the top of a cliff on an island at the edge of the bay. That would not be my first choice of outpost - you know those things were super cold and damp. No fun!
I don’t think the sea lions ever move. They were all crammed up on this rock sunning themselves last time we were on a boat tour… :)
Matt’s mom had a list of things she wanted to see on this trip and an Eagle was pretty high on the list. The two of us were out on deck and I was telling her that we saw one in about the same location last time. She was sure they were all somewhere else for the day, but I managed to spot one hanging out in a tree - those white heads are pretty easy to see once you know what to look for. Check one off the list! (Whales may have been on the list too - so at least two checks!)
Thomas did a great job on the boat. He fell asleep on his Grannie for a little while, but it was nowhere near his usual nap length. So I was pretty impressed that we were only about 15 minutes away from the harbor before we had to pull out the iPad (also known as the last line of defense in toddler meltdowns!)
On the walk back to the car we passed by a guy who was the epitome of a hipster playing a violin for tips. Thomas paused to watch him, not surprising since Lindsey Stirling is a favorite of ours to watch on youtube. Anyhow, Matt gave him a dollar to put in the guy’s violin case, but Thomas had no clue what we wanted him to do. I think most of the people there were as entertained by Thomas and his slow-as-molasses delivery as they were with the guy making music!
All in all, a great day in Alaska - you just can’t beat the sunny summer days! And the fun wildlife certainly doesn’t hurt!