The boat tour of Kenai Fjords was awesome, even if the weather was cloudy. Friday would have been the best day weather wise but at least it was not raining during our trip. The low light conditions made it difficult to take photos with my telephoto lens and many of them were grainy due to the motion of the boat and the F-stop required due to the low light. Some did turn out good and we will attempt to post them with the slow internet connection we have here in Seward. We were lucky on our tour and a large humpback whale decided to give us quite a show. I did manage to get a few photos of that spectacular event.

Breach

Fluke

Two whales - one doing a blow

The hump of the Humpback

We also saw sea otters, harbor seals, sea lions, cormorants, horned puffins, and common murre.

Sea Otter

Sea Lion

Harbor Seals

Common Murre

Cormorant

Horned Puffin

The turn around point of the tour was a up close look at the Holgate Glacier. Distances can be very deceiving when you are out on the water. The captain said we were two miles from the glacier but it looked to me like a few hundred yards. We stayed at the glacier for about a half hour and experienced claving where large chunks of ice break off of the glacier. When the glacier claves it sounds like thunder. When one views a glacier you have the impression it has the consistency of snow but one of the crew fished a large chunk from the water and it was solid ice.

Holgate Glacier

Since I am usually the one taking photos you don't often see me in photographs. I had been riding on the bow for most of the voyage to take pictures. It was quite wind and cold so Pam stayed inside the boat. One of the crew offered to take my photo with the glacier in the background and I agreed.

After our time at the glacier the crew served us a lunch topped off with a delicious chocolate chip cookie that was still warm. There weren't many new site seeing opportunities on the way back to Seward so yours truly indulged in a little nap. Now its hard to beat a nap after consuming a warm chocolate chip cookie.