Monday, August 30, 2010

Alaskan Cruise (Tuesday)

Tuesday morning we woke up in Juneau and headed off the ship for a day of whale watching. Along the way, we saw a ton of bald eagles.



Our whale watching trip was the first of the day, so the guides didn't exactly know where the whales were hiding, so we ended up just boating around a bit looking at the scenery and other wildlife for a while.





We found harbor seals sunning themselves on an island.







We also saw sea lions warming themselves on a buoy. The one in the water kept trying to jump up on the buoy with the others and failed for about 15 minutes straight.





Finally we found a group of humpback wales.



They never fully came out of the water, but we did get some good shots of their "blow."



And some awesome pictures of their flukes.



Best of all, one came within about 50 yards of our boat. It was crazy to see that huge animal so close.



All in all, we saw six or seven different humpbacks in the couple of hours we were whale watching.I've always thought that only weird people went whale watching. It was never anything that appealed to me, but after seeing them in the ocean, I fell in love with it and would absolutely go again.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Thanks for posting about your vacation. The pictures are great, and I love hearing about it!!! Can't wait to see you this weekend