Seward - whale watching and the Sealife Centre

We awoke on the morning of Friday 29th May to find the town of Seward awaiting us. After finally being allowed off the ship (it is all done in very strict priority order), we had a small navigational blip when we tried to get to the small boat harbour (as everyone drives in Alaska, they are not awfully good at giving estimated walking times / distances). But finally we arrived and found, joy of joys, free wifi! Oh, and coffee for Annie!

Me and the wifi!


It was then time to board the Kenai Star for a 7 hour cruise (we hadn't had enough cruising!) to see the wildlife and a glacier.

It was cold on deck!


The Holgate Glacier

The Holgate Glacier again

Me and the Holgate Glacier

The amazing mountain scenery

A "ghost forest" caused by sea-level changes resulting from the massive earthquake in the 1960's

More amazing mountain scenery

The Holgate Glacier calving

Now, be prepared for quite a few animal photos!

Steller Sea Lions, just chilling on the rocks

There were quite a few of them!

Puffins (they are very small in real life, and quite difficult to photograph!)

Common Murre diving sea birds

Sea otter, possibly the cutest animal ever!

Colonies of sea birds

Artistic rock and mountain shot

Whale tail!!

And another one...

More Humpback Whales

A humpback whale feeding on the surface, which we are told is a very rare thing, but to be fair, if we have heard that phrase once on this trip, we have heard it a million times!!

Yet more humpback whales

Orcas, with fabulous mountain scenery behind

We were surrounded by a pod of orcas, and this one came up to check us out a bit more closely!

Love the zoom lens...

Another humpback

Another orca

Iceberg, dead ahead!

A 300 year old margerita, made with that iceberg!

After the cruise we headed to the Alaska Sealife Centre, Alaska's only aquarium.

A King Eider

The Steller Sea Lion, doing laps of the pool... they are huge!!!

We had also been kayaking and seen quite a few sea lions, seals and otters, however it was raining so much that we didn't take any photos!!