Alaska part deux

So after our first night of sleeping in the RV, we hiked around at the Eagle River Nature Preserve, but didn't see much. Well, we DID see our first round of bear poop. Lots and lots of animal poop up there. Then we headed south on Seward Highway towards... seward. Stopped at a place about 16 miles S of anchorage called Beluga Point. The local beluga whale population is often sighted there... and we were STOKED when we actually got to see them! We prolly saw 12-20 whales, nothing crazy (like spyhopping, where the whales pop their heads up out of the water to look around...lots of types of whales do that) but just to see the alabaster backs and spouting of those adorable whales...in the wild... was pretty fantastic. My heart actually skipped when I spotted one. Wasn't sure how we'd be able to see white belugas in the water, thinking they'd be about the same color as either the whitecaps or the greyish water... NOPE. these things are WHITE. as WHITE as Kathryn Morris (cold case tv show). can't miss them white... we watched them for a while til they all disappeared, then we got back on the hwy and off to our campsite at Ptarmigan Creek. (the ptarmagin is the state bird, and they kind of look like a cross bw a wild chicken & a quail. weird, jumpy ground-based birds that scared the shit outta me on a hike - they;'re quite camoflauged too).

Our site was a bit more secluded this time, but we could still hear everyone around us, particularly the fucking dog that wouldn't shut the fuck up. People- have some RESPECT for the others in the area! Why the hell do I wanna be in the wilderness and hear your stupid dog? Skooch tried to start a fire, but all the wood we gathered was wet...basically still alive, even tho someone had chopped it down. so we had a bunch of smoke instead. s'all good. helped keep the bugs away.

Next morning, we were up early to finish the drive to Seward, which is on the Kenai Peninsula. We were going on a day cruise thru the Kenai Fjords National Park. We went with Kenai Fjords Tours, which seemed to be the best option among all the companies. They were very organized and had a young, spunky and informative crew. Again, the scenery was breathtaking. Heaps of cool craggy rock formations jutting out of the sea (tiny islands?). We saw a baby humpback and its mama. Mostly just their backs and some spouting. Some folks saw another humpy breaching and got a flute (tail) sighting, but we didn't catch it. Watched puffins trying to take off and land, which was extremely entertaining, as they're terrible flyers and that was very obvious. when they were trying to take off from the water, they'd basically run on the water til they could gain some air. Many times it didn't happen. Kinda looked like a cartoon version with its legs going around in circles. Also got pretty close to a sea otter, which was so cute! A pod of Dall's porpoises (which look like mini-orcas) played around the boat for a while; we were really hoping for an orca sighting- we love orcas- to no avail.one of the crew members told me he witnessed itinerant orcas (not the native population) kill a sea lion. WOW. That would've been absolutely incredible to watch.

The coolest (literally and figuratively) we saw on the cruise was a calving glacier. It was really active, according to the captain, and we hung out there for a bit, getting ever closer. The glacier groans loudly, and snaps, crackles, and pops- sounded a lot like artillery fire. All the passengers' heads were swiveling trying to catch a big piece falling into the water. I hear it there! No, over there! and we saw some big ass chunks crashing into the sea, creating waves that we rode as well. And the blue color- you've never seen a blue like this. everybody was excited and hoping for more calving action, when Skooch yelled out, thank goodness for global warming! (joking of course, but we were pretty much cheering it on- more pieces melt and fall!!). The boat erupted in laughter...

OK, gotta get back to work. lunch is over again...