Day Five

Hey guys! Today was a LONG day... There isn't all that much to say because a lot of it is best translated in pictures so I included quite a few. We got up early and drove down to Seward, a port city in a bay on the Pacific Ocean. Along the way we stopped at a bakery in Girdwood and I got a ham and cheese croissant which was delicious but horrible for me and Katy got a triple berry scone which also looked delicious. In Seward we got on a 6-hour cruise tour and saw lots of wildlife.

Boats in the harbor in Seward.

Watching for whales!

We saw all kinds of wildlife, mainly whales, but we also saw bears, dall sheep, and sea lions. Lots of birds, too. Whales are really hard to catch well on a camera so I stopped taking pictures to just watch them. We saw porpoises, orcas, and humpbacks. It was really, really cool. There were TONS of them, usually swimming together.

Orca!

Black bear

Glacier.

Katy and I in front of the glacier.

On the last part of our trip we had to stop and "take on some new passengers" from a charter boat that had lost an engine. That was kind of dramatic. We had to slowly sidle up to the small boat and then lash it to us so the passengers could board.

The boarding.

Like I said, we saw a lot of wildlife. On the way back, we saw fewer whales and more sea lions and dall sheep. The sheep were my favorite part--no idea why. The sea lions were pretty cool, too. There was one bull in particular who was regally poised on the top of a high rock, his snout in the air, not moving a muscle as we noisily drove past in our boat.

Lazy sea lions.

Dall sheep!

After our long, but enjoyable cruise, we headed back up the beautiful (it really was) highway to Girdwood and ate pizza at the pizza place next to the bakery where we had breakfast. The pizza was really good, greasy, and cheesy. After dinner I treated Katy to ice cream because a) she rocks and b) we had both wanted ice cream for a while.

Driving back into town, we stopped at WalMart to get stuff that I'll need when I move in Friday night (we moved it because I'm going to be working all day Friday and Saturday (soft opening for the museum on Saturday). That was quite an adventure in and of itself. The people here are, as I have mentioned, peculiar. We saw quite a few characters. Katy saw one that had only rubbing alcohol, ketchup, and plastic bags. I saw two ladies in full-length floral dresses from Dress Barn and we both met a guy looking for nail polish "that won't come off" to mark his arrows with. Shopping in the food aisle, we came across this lovely scene of deliciousness: canned meats galore (see below)!

This picture doesn't do the scene justice.

After WalMart we were wiped out and headed back to crash in the hotel room where I am now writing this. Tomorrow we have nothing planned. We might go bike riding but I really have no idea. I want to try to find a bike, but we'll see. I would be perfectly fine if we didn't end up doing anything except hang around here. We're both drained from the perpetual activity.

Anyway, have a good night and I'll be back tomorrow.

P.S. Facebook album update tonight because we took so many pictures!