Had a big breakfast before heading down to the meeting area for our whale watching group. Day starts off pretty foggy but no rain so that was nice. Find our group, get on the bus and head out of town towards the dock for the whale watching boat. On the way out of town, notice bald eagles everywhere; on light posts, flying around in the sky, chilling on the ground throughout the marshes, etc.
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| Get off the boat and the clouds are low but there are some cool buildings across the way. |
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| The funicular is disappearing into the clouds. |
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| I bet these guys found something... lets check it out. |
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| Found an orca swimming around these boats. |
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| Yep, follow the boats and they will lead you to victory. |
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| Momma whale swimming around. |
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| Little dude swimming. |
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| One of the other boats is also interested in this educational display |
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| Cool mark on the back there. |
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| The 2 swimming along side each other. |
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| Whale swimming with the birds flying close to the water in the background. |
Orca swimming
Orcas thrashing in the water
As the day progresses, the clouds melt away and the sun comes out with clear blue skies which make for a beautiful day. Get on the boat and are joined up with our guides and then head out to see the whales. We cruise for a little bit and head to a place where some other boats had gathered to see a killer whale teaching their kid how to hunt by attacking and presumably killing a seal; was cool seeing this education happening right in front of our eyes. After that settles down a little bit, we head farther away from the port and find a pod of humpbacks which are in the process of bubble feeding, which they do as a group and is apparently pretty rare to see. Was pretty awesome seeing the whole process and being able to see ahead of time where they will be coming up. After allowing the whales to swim around, we head back to the dock and stop by a buoy to see some sea lions chilling on it and playing in the water nearby.
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| Looks like this guy farted haha |
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| These guys are close. |
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| Apparently you can identify whales based on the underside of their tail fin. |
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| I wonder how they got their names... |
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| Little early to catch all of them. |
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| Kinda a cool sight, disturbing the calm waters. |
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| Lots of of whales breaching the surface |
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| Whales after breaching surface on one of their feeds. |
Humpback whale fins diving
Example of the Humpback whales bubble feeding
Another video of the humpbacks diving
Whales swimming/diving next to the boat
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| A little fish boat wants in on this sea life action. |
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| Those birds make this pic look like it is dirty. |
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| Beautiful day to be out at sea. |
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| That buoy looks a little weighted down |
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| Sea Lions chilling on a buoy. Poor guy in the water tried to get up, friends won king of the rock. |
Now that the sky had cleared up quite a bit, we noticed while looking back into town that the Mendenhall glacier was visible from the boat/road/etc. - it was pretty close to town and was interesting being able to see a glacier not too far away as you drive around town. I wonder if that ever gets old. We dock and get back on the bus and head to town. Driver stops a little before the drop off point to let some people off so we get off as well and start exploring the city. It is a cute town with food stalls and food trucks everywhere, gently sloped streets, and ravens the size of toddlers. We eventually get back to the boat and go into a presentation by Libby Riddles (famous dog musher/ first woman iditarod champion). When she was finished, we head to the dining room for a wine tasting that we signed up for on the first day; the presenter was funny and very well informed, while the wines were good but with small pours (which I guess it was a tasting so that makes sense). After finishing our wine class, we head out onto the walkway to enjoy the coastal scenery for a bit before heading to dinner with yet another group, feasting on escargot, lobster tail, and prawns. We finish up the delicious dinner then go back out onto the deck to watch the sunset and enjoy the weather for a bit before ending the night watching a comedic magician do his thing, which was extremely entertaining.
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| Mendenhall Glacier from the road back to town. |
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| Other side of the bay now that it is nice out. |
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| Waterfall! |
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| Totem center. Pretty cool. |
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| Look at the size of that bird!!!!! |
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| Cool hillside houses in the neighborhood. |
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| Self explanatory. |
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| Front of the Governor's Mansion. |
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| Drive way in the back of the Governors mansion. |
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| The funicular just floats in the sky. Magic Alaska. |
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| That's a beautiful mountain up there. With some long waterfalls. |
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| City street with a little charm :). |
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| Another cruise ship off in the distance. |
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| Beautiful sunset. This was kind of a trend on this trip. |
