Alaskan Cruise

We went on our Alaskan wildlife cruise the other day. It poured the entire time, and there were 10ft swells in the ocean - but it was still pretty cool. We had all our rain gear on and it wasn't anything as sketchy as "Deadliest Catch", so I figure we were pretty good. Ian however is not immune to sea sickness, so he was a little queesy through the rougher patches of ocean waves. I have some of the highlights from the trip here.

This is a dall porpoise that was riding along beside the boat for a while. There were really fast!

This is the humpback whale we saw.

A tufted puffin - they had the brightest orange feet (just like their beak).

Aialik Glacier - a tidewater glacier that we were able to see calving into the ocean.

Aialik Glacier

Ian was pretty serious. :)

Stellar sea lions

After the cruise, we were walking back up the docks and were able to see some sea otters eating a late dinner. We stopped and took a few pictures (maybe 600..)

A funny little sea otter

What a cutie!

We went to the Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Center, lured in by stories of how the animals are rescues, that they have a real focus on "research" and "breeding for reintroduction". It was a glorified zoo. I'm sure they do accomplish some good, but it's dissapointing to see a dozen elk penned into a small enclosure. It did afford some decent photography opportunities, so here they are!

Elk

Coyote. Apparently he chose to be there! He dug his way into the 18 acre (they were the only animals with a big area) grizzly pen. They decided to let him stay, and he seems to be enjoying it.

We watched him catch this mouse, play with it, and then decide to eat it.

Two of the three grizzly bears who shared the 18 acres with the coyote. You'd think that you wouldn't likely get to see bears in this large of an enclosure... but no no, they are trained. They come, sit, stand, pose against their little wooden log house (and look over their shoulder at you) all for pieces of a hot dog. So even though they have the whole complex they spend a lot of their time at the front doing little tricks. Ridiculous. The trainer left eventually and they did act a little more like bears then.

On the way back north from Seward to Anchorage, we stopped to see if we could find the belugas again, but no luck. We did see this ram dall sheep however, which was cool.

Here's another shot Ian made from the beluga whales:

Beluga whales!

We are headed to Denali National Park today.

Cheers!