We woke up early this morning and LJ decided to check and see if we could move to an earlier time slot for our boat trip. We were booked with Kenai Fjords Tours for a 5-6 hour boat tour of Kenai Fjords National Park. We had done this tour on a previous trip together in 2022 and L.J. had also done one on his own when we went on the cruise with Mom in 2017. Well, due to the time of year, the 11:30 AM departure was the earliest of the day, which was the one we were booked on, so he came back to the hotel and we headed off for some breakfast.
We walked over to the Lighthouse Cafe & Bakery which had good reviews, as well as some comments about the owner being quite a conversationalist, and he lived up to his rep. The food was delicious, you order at the counter and then sit and they’ll bring it out to you. I opted for a bagel sandwich with sausage, egg and cheese and L.J. chose the breakfast burrito. Both were very tasty! Fortunately, it was breakfast so I had opted for hot cocoa because, alas, my heart would have been broken by the sign on the soda machine.
Breakfast complete, we walked back to the hotel to finish packing out and prepare for our adventure. LJ wanted to go into the local hardware / sports store that opened at 10 AM so I checked out and brought my last items down then met him in the parking lot. He had secured me a neck gaiter because I had commented on the fishing day before that I was regretting not having something that was heavier than our lightweight one that we got on the ATV ride.
We headed over to check in for the tour (one hour before departure) and there was already a line. We quickly checked in, grabbed our bags from the car that we were taking on with us and then got in line. The sun was shining and it was an absolutely gorgeous start to the day.
We weren’t in line for long before they started us boarding the boat. It’s general seating but we were able to get our own set of seats (a real blessing later, we’ll blatantly call this foreshadowing).
L.J. of course, came prepared with the cameras for this day! We met some colleagues of Barry’s in Italy and when they met L.J. they nicknamed him Rambo so I had to send the pic back for him to share with them. He’s armed… with cameras!
We launched right on time and headed out into Resurrection Bay.
Unfortunately, the wind today was pretty high with predictions of up to 17 knots. L.J. has his sea legs, his sea stamina and his sea stomach. I’ve had two pretty severe bouts of sea sickness in 2020 and 2021 in Lake Ontario after never having it previously. Today would be number three.
Our first quick sighting was a couple of sea otters (my favorites!)but the waves were pretty strong so they were harder to capture but we managed to see them. Then we got to enjoy several seals that had made their way up on some rocks for refuge from the waves. They can grow as long as five to six feet and weigh a few hundred pounds! They look so small and cuddly from the boat!
Then we headed out in search of more wildlife and on our way to see some glaciers. We were less than an hour into the trip when things went downhill quickly for me and so began the thankfulness for our own booth, sea sickness bags and an amazing husband. Well, always thankful for the husband, but certain days provide an extra reminder. I was not the only victim to the extreme waves per LJ.
So after that LJ did the bulk of the wildlife viewing between checking on me and providing me comfort and offering assistance. Next we saw some sea lions (I did catch a quick glimpse through the window) and then made our way to Holgate Glacier and then on to the main attraction, Aialik Glacier.
Aialik Glacier is a tidewater glacier that flows directly into Aialik Bay from the Harding Icefield. The face is roughly 0.4 to 1.5 miles wide and towers up to 200–300 feet above the waterline. Going to a glacier is always awe inspiring, I especially love being able to witness (in this case just overhear) people that have never seen one before and also when they get to see the glacier calve.
As we were departing from the glacier, we got an extra special appearance from a black bear! This was quite a treat!
A quick view of the waves as LJ was on the front of the boat, I’m going to cover my eyes as I scroll down.
We did also get to see Puffins during the trip (pics from the trip will show this better, it’s a pretty small video).
We also saw two different jellyfish “smacks”, with one being very close to the glacier, which they said was more unusual. They brought one onboard for guests to see.
A few additional notes – they did serve lunch on the trip, as well as made chocolate chip cookies, the crew works hard and does a good job for sure. I loved our first trip and would definitely recommend it as an excursion, maybe just check the winds before heading out if you have any limitations like I seem to have now.
We put our feet on the dock, I declared that I love land (yes, aware I was not yet on land) and then added “sure wish an otter would come welcome us back and tell me they were sorry I had a tough day”. We got to the T of the dock and I looked down the way… and there it was, a river otter that was actually up on the dock! I literally was ready to cry.
As it went back into the water, we realized there were two… three… four… five otters! Five otters! They made their way through the water, a couple of them got a small fish and then they went up the river bank and came back a few minutes later. A local came by a few minutes later and said Mom had pups earlier this year and they hung around there often. I still claim it as a special visit for me.
We headed out of Seward and on to Soldotna, where we’ll be staying for the next eight nights. It was about 7:40 when we arrived so we decided we better try to figure out something for dinner as most places would probably close at 9:00 so we opted to try out a place that we had seen from one of the couples that we follow. It is called “Addie Camp” which is a vintage rail car with great history. I still wasn’t sure how I felt but definitely needed to try to eat something.
We were seated in the rail car which was beautiful and we inquired about a few menu items and found out they had run out for the evening. L.J. decided on a steak and they created an item for me as the Scallop Risotto was no longer available.
As we left, we saw a cute bunny (all our bunnies are named Pickle) so we took a moment to enjoy it and headed to the VRBO. It had been a long day and we were very thankful we had made the trip to Seward last night. We got unloaded and were very pleased with the house. It has great space, more than we need, but will work out great for us and “all the things” that we have in tow.
Tomorrow we’ll have a “reset” day as we get ready for this next portion of the trip.
