June 9 - Kenai Fjords National Park Tour by Boat

Our tour of Kenai Fjords began at 8am, but we were instructed to be there by 7:15. The Ny-Quil worked well for Leon, so he got a good 10 hours of sleep. We arrived at the marina, checked in and loaded onto the boat. We were a bit far back in the line for boarding and ended up with a rear facing seat. This was worse than expected for viewing so we didn't spend much time in the seats. We tried to spend time outside, but temps were hovering around 38 degrees when the boat was moving.

We headed out at around 25 knots to get to the best parts of the park. At one point we were in open ocean, so it was a bit rough. The nice folks sitting across from us gave me a non-drowsy form of Dramamine, so I was able to stay awake this time.

The captain did a great job getting us to all the best viewing areas and of course of the area as a whole. Our wildlife sightings were huge, with lots of sea birds including puffins and bald eagles, mountain goats, harbor seals, sea otters (including two holding babies), Steller's sea lions, Dall's porpoises, two humpback whales, and one female orca who surfaced four times before we moved on.

View of the marina from our boat

Heading out of the marina and into the park

Sea lions resting on the rocks - this is birthing season

Aialik Glacier from a distance

The dark spot are harbor seals resting on the sea ice.

Sea otter with a baby on her belly

The 2 blurry spots at the top of the picture are a mountain goat and its baby. They were really, really high up.

Sea lions

A female transient orca - it was thrilling to see it!

We also spent a good 45 minutes at Aialik Glacier. It was calving heavily and we were so pleased to be able to experience this from just 1/3 mile from the face. 

The drive back to Anchorage was cool and rainy but Leon was lucky enough to see a moose and two bison next to a river. We had dinner at South, a nice restaurant in south Anchorage. The portions were large enough to get us dinner the next day. We shared a tapas appetizer, Gambas al Ajillo (garlic shrimp in olive oil seasoned heavily with paprika - delicious!). I had a seafood pasta dish, pappardelle with halibut, shrimp and scallops in an herbaceous tomato cream sauce. MMmmm!

We found our VRBO but had a few issues including getting in the door (who knew being 5 minutes early would lock us out) and the heat not working. They don't expect to use the heat in June but it was 47 outside and 62 in the house. We got all our stuff moved in, settled in, and Leon was in bed before 9:00 after the long day. This time of year we have not seen any real darkness in Alaska. Here, it is probably dark just 2-3 hours per night. When I turned in close to midnight, there was still plenty of light even though the sun had gone down at 11:40.