Seward

View of Resurrection Bay from our hotel:

Otter that lives by the rocks at the south end of town:

We headed down to the Kenai Peninsula on Tuesday morning. The drive alone the highway was beautiful, Seward (on the eastern side) is surrounded by mountains so the town kinda hangs on a small area of land. There is a great aquarium with native species and sea otters that live in the rocks right off the parking areas.

Di and Michael on the "Alaskan Explorer"

Wednesday we took another boat tour out into Resurrection Bay. This was a bigger boat (about 94'). We did get close to one of the Glaciers but it was a totally different experience then the last trip we took. The waters were colder and so there wasn't as much ice in the water. The glacier was active and there was quiet a bit of calving going on.
We saw a tremendous amount of sea birds nesting...at points there would be so many birds on the rock face it looked like a hive of bees. Both Ben and I loved the puffins...ungainly little fat things that only looked graceful when they were in the water.
We saw Sea lion rookeries, Orca and Humpback whales. We stopped to watch a Mom and baby humpback and when the Mom would dive down the baby would stay up top and play. He would roll over, stick his fins out and swoosh water with his tail and try and breach but with his fins up instead of this head. He wasn't very coordinated but I guess that's how they learn.
We stopped for a Salmon dinner on an island on the way back. The dinner was good and the beach had perfect flat, round stones that the boys spent the majority of their time trying to skip.

The "Alaskan Explorer" docked at Fox Island for dinner:

Thursday we went to Exit Glacier National Park where we could actually walk up and touch a glacier. One of the guide books that if you spend enough time in Alaska you get tired of seeing glaciers but not me. It's kinda like the Eagles that are all over and most people here take them for granted. Mike says the natives in Juneau don't really like the Eagles since they are scavengers and are a nuisance.

Family by Exit Glacier:

Kittywakes nesting:

Sea Lion rookery:

Humpback whale breaching:

Puffins nesting: