Alaska Bound: Day 33!!!

What a WONDERFUL day!!!! We drove down to Seward (about 90 miles south on the Kenai Peninsula) this morning because we had booked a glacier and wildlife watching cruise. It was a 8 and a half hour deal, so we were hoping it would be worthwhile. Well, we got everything we had hoped for and then some. We were to get lunch served on board the boat and we were to get off on Fox Island for a salmon bake. We knew it was going to be a great outing, because we weren't even out of the harbor before we saw our first animals. Perched on top of a metal pole was a beautiful pair of bald eagles!! So close we could almost reach out and touch them. We weren't gone another 30 minutes before we stopped for what Briana and I had been waiting for....the PUFFINS!!!! They are strange looking birds the look like a cross between a penquin and a toucan. Just adorable creatures. We were then back out to sea and a few minutes later a couple pods of Orcas showed up and stayed quite a while for us to watch. It was all so much fun that no one really noticed that the weather wasn't all that good. To top it all off, here came our first encounter with a humpback whale!!! There were about 5 of them around. They are HUGE!! Seeing them was somewhat surreal. We also encountered 2 more of the humpbacks sleeping. Yes, sleeping. The captain told us that humpbacks only shut down half of their brain when they sleep, otherwise they would drown. Crazy, huh?! They just kind of float on the surface of the water. We went on and saw seals and sea lions and TONS more puffins. We also went to an unbelievably huge glacier where the captain shut down the boat so we could all here glacier calving. What an awesome experience. It is not something that you can put into words or pictures. That was really a once in a lifetime experience that none of us will soon forget. While we were making our way towards Fox Island, the weather started getting rough....and I mean rough. The waves were huge! And to try to get across to you how huge....think Deadliest Catch!! Serious. At one time there were at least 30 people on deck throwing up. I'm not kidding. It was a puke fest outside and with every minute the party was getting bigger as the next person would run out. For those of you who want to know, Briana was one of the many that ran out to the "party" and Sheila had an invitation but didn't need to go but it was a close call. Sheila did put on a pretty green face just in case she had to run out. heehee It was so aweful it was amusing. But then our captain came on the speaker to inform us that there was a small boat in distress and we had to go rescue them. WAIT! WHAT?!! Yeah, now we were flying through the water with even more people getting sick to rescue a small boat from capsizing in the waves. What a bonus. You can't make this stuff up people. Well, to make this long story short, we saw dozens of people throwing up overboard, rescued a boat, saw tons of wildlife, witnessed a glacier calving and still made it to our salmon bake on time!! Whew! Now that is what I call a busy day!!!
-Jason