8/11/2009 - Seward, AK - Day Three

On Tuesday, we had arranged to go on a 6 hour Kenai Fjords National Parks tour. After parking our truck for the day in their parking lot and catching the shuttle to the waterfront, we went aboard the Orcas Voyager at about 7:30am. It wasn't very warm out yet, so we went to the top deck, found a seat and awaited the tour.

As we left the Seward harbor, we went by the City of Seward waterfront camping area. There's our RV...2nd one from the left...with the satellite dish sitting out front.

Here's a bald eagle sighting.

These are some common murre...they look a lot like a small penguin.

There's a couple of splashes at the front of the boat. They are some porpoises who have decided to chase the boat for a while.

The stellar sea lion on the left has just come in from a swim, and has decided to show who is in charge of this rock.

He starts climbing up the rock and chewing out the other sea lions.

He's ready for a fight!

What!?! You dared to challenge me?

Well...we guess he is king of the rock...this one dove off (or was pushed off) before the fighting continued.

The tour continued into the Holgate Glacier which is considered a tidewater glacier.

Another look at Holgate Glacier...the blues in the ice are amazing!

In this photo the glacier is calving from the top left.

...and it splashes on down into the fjord below.

We also had several humpback whale sightings during the tour. However, the grays of the misty day just didn't do the photos justice. We think the photos of humpbacks from our trip out of Skagway are still the best.

As we cruised back into Seward Harbor (Resurrection Bay), we had a sea otter sighting. They just seem to float gently along with the waves.

Hey! Don't bother me...I'm having a great time out here.

And we cruise on back into the Seward boat harbor. It was a great day!