Seward

We finally made it out of Anchortown and down to Seward for the weekend.
Sadly, we hadn't been down to visit since last fall. Although we get to see a lot of friends R/L and L, as they routinely make it into the big city, its always nice to spend a weekend in their little town.

Winter was LONG here in the north, and Seward saw record snow as well.
It appears that it may be a very long time until they have bare ground. Don't you agree?  Seriously, I brought daffodils from our yard, and we showed up here... on May 5th.

Incidentally, this is Rocket staring down a moose. Doesn't he look fierce?

We had a great weekend, eating, and visiting. Jade and Lydia LOVE each other so very much. This makes my heart happy.

We were lucky enough to have Captain Rich take us out on a whale watching tour.

(This time, I only managed to be ever so slightly nauseated instead of actually feeding the fish. Yay me!)
Although we were hoping to get a last glimpse of the migrating Gray whales, they eluded us. We managed to see many Orcas and a few Humpbacks though, which was pretty grand.

I learned from another boat captain, Dan O, that Orcas specific to Resurrection Bay are part of the AK 6 Pod. You can learn more about this at Whales of Alaska.org.

The day was overcast and gray, but the whales Lou and Hive were putting on quite a show. Hive has the curvy dorsal fin and Lou has a nick in his (hers?). 

Check out Hive's distinctly curved dorsal fin. He is a known male who is 44 years old. Forty-Four freaking years old!!!!
Lou is much smaller and his/her sex is unknown. They swam very near each other the whole time and many of us on the boat thought they were mother and baby...  I did not know the truth until later when I got my AK 6 pod educational lecture. I am now informed, and a fan.

 Another shot of Hive with Lou's water bubble on the right side of the frame above.

And then Hive and Lou together.

 It was very calm inside the bay.

As we meandered closer to shore, there was quite a lot of Stellar sea lion action. Strange, beautiful and noisy creatures, they are.

Although the puffins haven't returned, there are thousands of other birds nesting along the rocky shoreline.

This will be tricky, and the close up of this photo below will not likely help, because the image is blurry, but check out the white blob that is a mountain goat, carefully perched about 3/4 of the way up this rock face. Can you find it?
Its just above the light green patch of ground, dead center, 1/3 of the way down the frame from the top.

Humpbacks are BIG whales in comparison to Orcas. We probably saw 3 or 4 of them. It is difficult to keep track and the water out near open water was also BIG.
Swaying boats and large lenses, do not good photos make.  But, I tried.

 There are two humpbacks in the above shot.

And a quintessential tail shot.
Today we headed out to Lowell Point and walked the beach before heading back home.

Summer is slow to come to Alaska, and we are ready.