Farewell to Seward

The Guest Blogger writes again.

OK, I lied. We had one more day in Seward! We sailed (or zoomed along) on a Kenai Fjords Tour. We were fortunate to see bald eagles, cormorants, Horned and Tufted Puffins, sea lions, sea otters, Dall's porpoises flying along our bow waves, harbor seals and Humpback whales (three of'em!), and lots of glaciers flowing downward.

 

Guess it was very odd to see any Humpbacks this late in the season...by now they're usually on the way to Hawaii or thereabouts.

 

Hard to see these puffins, Here's a better shot of one:

 

 

Puffins spend their entire lives at sea and propel themselves through the water with their wings...their feet are only used as rudders. They only come to land when it's mating/nesting time. Puffins raise one chick that both parents feed.

 

 

The glaciers absorb all colors of the spectrum and convert them into energy...excepting blue.

 

 

 

Even though it was 65 degrees in Seward that day, we wore all sorts of winter gear...good thing, because we were continually blasted by a glacial wind as we roared along!

 

 

 

The captain was able to get up close and personal with some waterfalls and wildlife, since the rocks of the mountains plunged hundreds of feet deep at the water's edge.

 

 

ZzzzZZz...For some of us, the Dramamine and the cozy interior proved overwhelming.

Anyway, a good time was had by all. As in other parts of Alaska, we noticed visitors from many countries and all sorts of languages being spoken. Tres bien!

 

So we got up Sunday morning and drove north to Anchorage again...where we discovered the Anchorage Sunday Market...with 300 vendors promised! I thought, "Swap meets in Minnesota have nothing on this!" Except...maybe only 100 vendors were there today. I did see some nifty Alaska designed tees and purchased one. Score!

Sally, your sun dance worked: THREE days of sun for us! Tomorrow Mike takes me to the airport. All in all, a terrific state to visit...some parts looked eerily like northern Minnesota...and some parts looked like Norwegian fjords with snow-capped mountains. Loved it!