Cruising the Alaskan Fjords (part 1/?)
Jun. 18th, 2024 09:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerAlaska Travelog #9
Seward - Sun, 16 Jun 2024, 9am
Today we're embarking on one of the centerpiece activities of our Alaska trip: a cruise through the fjords to see Northwest Glacier. Friends and relatives who've been to Alaska all tell us that the view of glaciers is so much better from aboard a ship, that you really can't see much of them while touring on land. So here we go.
After a stunning day yesterday, with brilliant sun and temperatures up in Anchorage reaching the mid 70s, today is a letdown weather-wise. Kenai is all fogged in, and the temperature today may not break 60. Of course, here at 8am as we boarded it was closer to 50.
"It's actually a sunny day today," the ship's first mate told us.
"Yeah, the sun is always shining, just today we can't see it," I snarled. That was a joke one of my high school teachers made every day the weather was cloudy or rainy. Every. Single. Day. The students all loved Mr. Rumberger... despite that overused joke.
We saw a fair bit of wildlife as we motored out into Resurrection Bay. The first, this bald eagle (above), we didn't even have to leave the harbor for. It was perching on a breakwater.
As we motored out further into the way we saw various other birds (though no more eagles) and a few sea otters. I noticed this group of 4 otters playing together and got my fancy camera up with a long zoom lens in time to capture it.
Link: Watch video on YouTube
A few fun facts about sea otters: First, they grow up to about 100 lbs., so even though they often look small at a distance they are the size (and weight) of fairly large dogs. Second, they stay warm in the chilly water because of their extremely dense fur. They have upwards of 1,000,000 strands of hair per square inch (150,000 per square centimeter). The average adult human has just one-tenth as many hairs on their entire head. Third, sea otters are members of the weasel family. Thus we really should call them sea weasels. 😅
Stay tuned, more (much more) to come!
Seward - Sun, 16 Jun 2024, 9am
Today we're embarking on one of the centerpiece activities of our Alaska trip: a cruise through the fjords to see Northwest Glacier. Friends and relatives who've been to Alaska all tell us that the view of glaciers is so much better from aboard a ship, that you really can't see much of them while touring on land. So here we go.
After a stunning day yesterday, with brilliant sun and temperatures up in Anchorage reaching the mid 70s, today is a letdown weather-wise. Kenai is all fogged in, and the temperature today may not break 60. Of course, here at 8am as we boarded it was closer to 50.
"It's actually a sunny day today," the ship's first mate told us.
"Yeah, the sun is always shining, just today we can't see it," I snarled. That was a joke one of my high school teachers made every day the weather was cloudy or rainy. Every. Single. Day. The students all loved Mr. Rumberger... despite that overused joke.
We saw a fair bit of wildlife as we motored out into Resurrection Bay. The first, this bald eagle (above), we didn't even have to leave the harbor for. It was perching on a breakwater.
As we motored out further into the way we saw various other birds (though no more eagles) and a few sea otters. I noticed this group of 4 otters playing together and got my fancy camera up with a long zoom lens in time to capture it.
Link: Watch video on YouTube
A few fun facts about sea otters: First, they grow up to about 100 lbs., so even though they often look small at a distance they are the size (and weight) of fairly large dogs. Second, they stay warm in the chilly water because of their extremely dense fur. They have upwards of 1,000,000 strands of hair per square inch (150,000 per square centimeter). The average adult human has just one-tenth as many hairs on their entire head. Third, sea otters are members of the weasel family. Thus we really should call them sea weasels. 😅
Stay tuned, more (much more) to come!
