Saving Whales, Losing Lunch

If you wanted pictures, you've got them. And if you didn't, then that's just too bad. This weekend, Ben and I decided to be tourists. We found a great deal to go down to Seward and go on a whale watching cruise, and I couldn't pass it up, because I've always wanted to do it. Besides, we'll probably never be in Alaska again. The drive there was beautiful ( like all the drives here in Alaska). We saw this moose and stopped to take pictures, like tourists. Ben had the camera and got pretty close to the moose before it decided it didn't want to be photographed anymore.Ben jumped out to take some pictures of the scenery, and I thought he was better looking than the mountains. Doesn't this picture just say, "Welcome to Alaska"?
Our hotel in Seward was right on the harbor, this is the view from the pool and the lounge. It was quite nice. We spent the first night exploring Seward. We went out on the docks and decided to have a real Alaskan adventure - seafood!And we learned some very important things!
1. Fried scallops are less slimy than oysters. We had to sample the local fare - fish and chip stands lined the city's main street, so we braved a combo basket. Kortney likes the whiter, less slimy meats. (Ben writes in black for this blog, Kortney writes in green)
I've never liked seafood, but felt like I had to at least try it. The halibut and the scallops were good, the rock fish was ok, the shrimp wasn't a favorite and the oyster was disgusting!

2. Navy ships have big guns!!! Two big destroyers were docked just outside the commercial breakwater barrier. They dwarfed all the fishing boats and tour yachts. They were BIG!
We also learned that we should pay attention to things that are out of place- like two giant naval destroyers docked in a little harbor. Apparently, there was a typhoon off in the Gulf of Alaska, so the destroyers came in because the sea was too rough. See #3.

3. Ben is a wuss :) Or at least he is too stubborn to admit that he gets seasick.We went out of he bay and into the great gulf to see some grey whales, and I started to get seasick. I was really bummed that my pregnant wife did better than me with the sea-sickness. She was trying out some "accupressure" wrist bands that are supposed to relieve nausea; but I think she is just used to feeling nauseous so it doesn't phase her.

Ben thinks the wrist bands are hocus pocus, but I wasn't the one throwing up in the stairwell. I was actually enjoying the 20 foot swells, because it's the closest I am going to get to riding a roller coaster for the next 5 months. Now we'll see if this video thing works. You have to watch it twice. The first time watch Ben, it's funny. The second time watch the horizon out the window behind Ben's head. That should explain why he got sick.

Ben is a real trooper though, and 30 minutes after losing his lunch, he was back to enjoying the cruise again. Of course, the captain did head out of the open water pretty quickly, because Ben wasn't the only one getting sick. Needless to say, we didn't see any gray whales. But we did see a ton of other animals. First the humpback whale. Whale watching is frustrating, because they aren't very photogenic. They don't get close to the boat (I need to get a zoom lens) and they hold their breath under water for a pretty long time. And the shutter lag on my camera is ridiculously long. But you can see it in these pictures. The coolest animals were the porpoises. The second fastest animal. I don't have any pictures of them, but we have some good video. Maybe we'll upload that one later. Or maybe you'll just have to come visit us if you want to see it. The only animal that cooperated for pictures were the Stellar Sea Lions. They just sat there. And we got pretty close.
The next two pictures are a joke. They are the mountain goats and the black bear. I guess lesson #4 is that you need a zoom lens to get pictures of wildlife on the shore when you are on the cruise ship. And the sea otters, they were the very first animal that we saw. Here's us, nearly freezing on the back deck that we got banished to when Ben got sick. But we were still having fun! After the boat ride, we filled Ben's empty stomach, and then headed to the sea life center. It was pretty cool. The octopus was pretty cool looking. There was a touch tank, where we got sea urchin hugs and tickled the sea cucumbers. We'll save that video for another time too.This video is Ben's favorite. He laughs every time. You need to make sure you have the sound on, or you won't get it.