August 7, 2008

As you know from Sterling we went on to Seward which is on Resurrection Bay. We were not impressed with this town. It was over priced, heavy tax just felt like you were getting ripped off here. However, one day we went to Exit Glacier. I know funny name isn't it. We climbed up part of the mountain to get to the edge of the glacier. It was pretty cold with the wind coming off the ice. That was pretty interesting.


Then the last day in Seward we went on a dinner cruise out to a tidewater glacier. We left at 3:00pm and traveled out of the bay to the Gulf of Alaska. (got a little rough but we both had taken our Bonine) We saw quite a bit of wild life, mostly birds. Puffins which I had never seen before. They are quite a small bird. They are call heavy bone birds. They can swim under the water with remarkable speed. Cormorants, these birds have to open there wings to dry as they have no oil glands to help them repel the water on their feathers. Then of coarse tons of sea gulls. We saw sea lions, river otters, doll dolphins, and sea otters (my favorite, cause they are so cute). No whales on this trip. Those sea otters stay around the bay just floating on their backs. They have the densest fur of any mammal with over 500 thousand hairs per square inch. The fur is so thick because these animals do not have any blubber to keep them warm. The fir somehow gets air in it and it protects the animal by floating on their backs without touching the water! Something like that anyway. The highlight of this boat trip was seeing a tide water Glacier. It is the tidewater glaciers that Calv. Approaching the glacier are chunks of ice, they look like mini iceberg's but the captain assures us they could be bigger than they appear. Glacier ice is denser than regular ice, it is compacted so it about like a rock. The captain tells us that he wants to keep it away for the prop of the boat. Anyway we saw some calving of this glacier. I think what was so unexpected was the noise it makes when it breaks off. Very loud crack like a very loud thunder. The when it drops in the water it displaces the water and creates a wave. Nothing big when we were there but guess it can be at times. The noise is constant even if it doesn't drop. It come for the back of the glacier. It was something that's for sure. This glacier is advancing!

So the next day we were off to Anchorage for more supplies before we head north. Went to Sams, got Mike's hair cut (it was pretty bad as it is the first cut since we left Florida), and laundry done. Got all that done in one day so we had a second day to play. We went moose hunting and actually found one, a male! Very exciting. So we got that under our belts and decided to go into town and do some shopping. The weather has been cooperating with sunshine with temps getting in the high 60's. The flowers in the downtown area were so beautiful I had to take pictures. They are so much more vivid that any flowers we grow in the north or south east. They are so vivid they almost don't look real, very very pretty.

Okay so now you are all up to date, we are on our way to Palmer and then Denali. Let you know how it all is soon.