Day 25 - Jul 8

Day 25 - Jul 8 Anchorage to Kenai Penninsula

This was a misty morning day. We left Anchorage heading for Homer on the Kenai Penninsula; little did we know God had other plans. We missed our turn for Homer and ended up in Seward; I must have been nodding-off when we passed the directional sign; I'm supposed to be the navigator. What a neat experience the trip to Seward was. The entire drive was visual feast. 

Baby seagull is brown spotted right at the edge of the weeds.

Have you ever seen a baby seagull? We passed a large bird refuge along the Turnagain Arm (check the map for this body of water south of Anchorage)and the babies were in the rocks and vegetation. 

Snow-capped beauties on
the penninsula side Turnagain Arm.

Glaciar along Turnagain Arm

To our wonderment, all the mountains along the way are covered with various amounts of snow, and we saw our first of many glaciers.

How's this for a view from
your backyard. The base
of  that mountain literally
ends at the back of those
homes in downtown Seward.

Upon arriving at Seward, we visited the Library and saw a movie on the 1964 earthquake. It was actually a 9.2 trembler; classified as the world's worst recorded earthquake. The devastation and recounts from the survivors was astonishing. That anyone survived was a miracle.Once the 4 minute shaking stopped, a 30 foot tsunamis engulfed the entire town (about 4k000 inhabitants). Shell Oil's storage tanks caught fire, as well as a train fully loaded with oil, and a good portion of the town burnt down.

Seward has many, many murals throughout their small
town. (They have a mural society.) I love this one
 particularly because the artists did not feel compelled
to surround these graceful denizens of  the deep with
 any suggestion of water. And I was also intrigued
with the birds above each window.

Giant Pacific Octopus

Then we went to the Alaska Sealife Aquarium and were fascinated by all the various types of saltwater sea life that are in the area. It was great fun looking at all these species, even the baby giant octopus (which are smaller than your pinkie fingernail. However, mom was approx 6-7 feet. She was busy nursing the balance of her babies that were hatching daily. In March only 10-20 babies hatched per day. At this time there are hundreds hatching per day. When she is done taking care of her children, she will die. That's the cycle of life for a giant octopus female.

Humpback whale surfacing
for food.

Stellar Sea Lions - they're nocturnal
so they were all asleep when we saw
them .

AT 6 PM we boarded the Star of the Northwest for an evening tour around Resurrection Bay and out into the Gulf of Alaska/Pacific Ocean (slightly) to have dinner and check out all the wildlife. Dinner was an all-you-can eat salmon and prime rib feast (delicious!); some of the wildlife consisted of a nesting eagle, mountain goats, puffins, a colony of the endangered Stellar Sea Lions, and a very entertaining couple of feeding humpback whales.

Tomorrow, we will be on our way to Valdez. (We've modified our itinerary and will not be going to Homer since we covered our wish list in Seward. This was the best part of the vacation so far. It was on Keith's bucket list to at least see a whale in-situ, and God provided - thank you!