Today was a brilliant day in Paradise 🙂 We’d booked a cruise with Kenai Fjords Tours and we cruised the Fjords from about 9am this morning till we returned around 6pm. It was a good choice for a tour and I happily filled in the customer survey card saying that I would recommend this tour to my friends without hesitation.

A Fjord, in case you were wondering, is the valley formed when glacial ice recedes enough to let the sea water fill it in. And glaciers have been around for millions of years and so when they recede they leave quite a mark on the surface of the earth. Geography is so much more interesting when you can actually live in it 🙂 Here endeth Simone’s very brief Fjords 101 lesson.

The weather today in Seward was just stunning, perfect in fact and a rare day in the recent weeks according to our boat captain Sherry. They’ve had nothing but rain the last couple of weeks but today the sun was shining, a few wispy clouds in the sky and you could see for miles. A photographer’s dream you might say….well said photographer nearly cried this morning. I gave Tim my camera to hold very briefly while I stowed a back pack. You can see where this is heading I’m sure. Yes my brand new Nikon D3200 with the 1000 dollar lens hit the deck of the boat with a loud bang. One smashed UV lens later which had dented itself on the side so hard Tim can’t remove it now without proper pliers and this was one photographer decidedly pissed off, but doing well not to offend too many of the other passengers with all the expletives she really wanted to say. Tim and I had some quality alone time on the boat *vbg* whilst he sat in the cabin and tried to save the day by pulling out the UV lens glass piece by piece. The rim of the UV lens is still wedged on but mother of all mercies I could still use my 18 – 200 magic lens (I call it magic because honestly can’t believe I’m that good a photographer yet to take full credit for the photos it’s producing). Which is a good thing because Tim handed me his 24 – 70mm lens to use in the meantime and whilst I tried it, I could see even in just the viewfinder that this was no 18-200! So the day was saved camera wise which was great because the amount of wildlife we sighted on this tour was phenomenal! And yes Tim and I still getting along just fine….but this one will keep for a little while 😉

One of the favourite things Sherry (the Misty tour boat’s Captain – who started off as a Reservations chick and worked her way up to Captain) likes to do in the mornings is mess with the Gulls. They all have to scatter to make way for her.

The morning sun was like a blanket of warmth and I soaked as much up as I could as I knew it was definitely going to get colder on the boat.

Random rock island photo number 1.

We were leaving some sort of cove, I turned around to look back and this was just shouting to be framed in a shot. I love interesting landscape outlines.

How trees grow this big on a rock is still baffling me.

First Orca sightings! This wasn’t very long into the 8 hour cruise at all and the morning light was perfect. This was a Mama up front named Chevelle. She has her offspring with her, including a grown boy who doesn’t want to leave home yet.

First glacier sighting of the day is one called Bear Glacier. Maybe if you squint really hard you can interpret a Bear’s paw or something. Sherry did say sometimes the names make perfect sense and other times they do not.

The pod on the move.

First Otter sighting! They look like they laze their days away but grooming that magnificent pelt takes time and effort. Floating on your back is the best angle apparently.

Our first sea lion sightings of the day (we saw Harbour Seals as well but they were a bit far and not great lighting – Tim probably got better shots of them). This whole tableau for some reason vaguely reminded me of the staff room meeting scenes at the end of the school day. Can’t think why.

There’s always one that has to be the centre of attention.

Gratuitous sky shots – it was just such a vivid blue with a paint brush splash of white.

See now Alaskans would be perfectly within their rights to use the whole “That’s not a Gull…this is a Gull” line when they see our gulls back in Australia. Alaskan Gulls – big, loud, with wings longer than your average arm span.

See now there’s one trying to give the impression he’s the lord of all he surveys, but then there’s always the sycophant imitator in the back trying to sneak in to grab all the glory and power. The rest of them are clearly of the “Carry on, we really don’t give a shit” variety. I like them.

Still trying to lord it and impress the passersby. I’m with the one having a snooze combination sun bake on the comfy seaweed covered rock there.

Sometimes I wonder if the dinosaurs ended up being pretty dextrous with their tiny arms and hands and used a giant chisel on the earth’s surface to make these fabulous looking monolithic formations. Then I go “Wow that’s a fantastic idea for a children’s book I should write this down” and promptly forget to do any of it.

I couldn’t help it in the end, he was just trying so hard to be all regal and important looking I thought “Fair due….I’ll snap a photo then you magnificent bastard.” The background is only fitting.

This is a Puffin. Evidence that when it comes to birds evolution had already grasped the concept of clown makeup. There are women who pay to have fake eye lashes that thick. There are three types of Puffins round here. All three look bizarre and they also totally suck at the flying part of being a bird but are extremely good at the fishing and diving and the swimming and the holding their breath bit. They are nearly as good as penguins but since they can actually fly (once they’ve psyched themselves up to it, flapped their wings frantically and generally looked completely comical for several hundred meters) they do actually beat penguins in the flying department so it would not do to give them the ultimate diving, swimming ability too. Penguins have enough insecurities as it is.

A ha! A flying Puffin up high! I had to try and catch this because once you watch them trying to get up off the water into the air you have great suspicions that this is even really possible. Not bad for a non-action, not so speedy fast lens 🙂

Here’s one of the other varieties of Puffin in the midst of trying to convince himself he really can use these wings for more than just a sponge bath. Honestly though, I watched several attempt take off and I saw several just go “Arghhhh! Stuff it…I wanted to swim round here a bit more anyway” and just quit the whole attempted lift off game then and there. I’m not sure they were motivated enough, I suspect that if there were large sea lions, sharks or Orcas around they’d all of a sudden find hidden reserves of persistence and determination.

One of the highlights of the cruise for me, a school of Dall Porpoise (black and whites – the best kind of course) came and played with the bow of the boat! It’s was fantastic! My face hurt by the end from grinning so hard at their exuberance and playfulness. I tried to take pics but again Tim’s lens was the best for this activity so I grabbed these and then did a video. These are all on Tim’s blog here. You’ll also find the Humpback whale shots in that post as well.

This Otter pair are madly in love with each other and probably a little ticked off that a bunch of humans came blundering in and interrupted their canoodling. They were canoodling too, no hanky panky, just sweet romantic, floating on their backs in near freezing cold sea water snuggling.

The final glacier of the day is the biggest in the area – called Aialik Glacier and this really was a mountain falling into the sea. Sounds of ice crashing into water sounded very much like thunderclaps. We stopped here for a bit hoping to catch a big chunk falling off.

So we waited.

And waited. I suggested poking it with a stick….anyone good with the archery bow?

Got my one and only reflection shot for the day here. Can’t believe this is the ocean! Captain Sherry turned the boat off and every one was still and quiet just willing the glacier to deliver us a great splash down. So whilst we were waiting I snapped this one.

Finally pay dirt!

Not absolutely massive but enough to make quite a splash and a noise.

We turned back to harbour after this and saw a couple more Orca and humpback whale sightings. This area really is a seriously prolific whale watching area and the great thing also about the weather today meant the surface was pretty flat so much better for photo taking and for those prone to sea sickness. We saw heaps of wildlife:
Humpback Whales
Orcas
Dall Porpoise
Harbour Seals
Sea Lions
Puffins
Otters
All manner of bird species which the “birdies” on the tour just loved.

A great day in all, I can grab a new UV lens in Vancouver and despite being dropped the Nikon 3200 is working fine and my lens is intact so it could have been much worse. Tomorrow we have no plans as such, other than a desire from me to go hiking again. This is indeed one of the nice things about being on holiday. If we don’t have a plan it’s no big deal 🙂