Seward

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Seward

June 24, 2002 5:02 PM

I'm in Seward right now. Went on a 6 hour cruise of the Kenai Fjords this morning. The weather was bad at the beginning, and they were afraid we might have to turn back, but fortunately the weather got a little better. The water was pretty rough, and I nearly got sick. Here are the highlights:

1. Several glaciers. One of them was gigantic, and it was calving a lot. Calving is what happens when the ice falls off the glacier. Huge chunks of ice would collapse into the icy sea making a huge roar that sounded like thunder. Amazing.

2. A humpback whale. This was one of the things I really wanted to see in Alaska, so I was very excited! He was fairly small, but put on a nice show for us.

3. Sea lions & otters. There were many sea lions lounging around on the rocks. Got some great pictures.

Yesterday we went to Exit Glacier, which is also near Seward. We were allowed to walk right up to the glacier. Then a couple of us hiked up the mountain a little ways near the Harding ice fields and found a spectacular view of the glacier, waterfalls and mountains in the area. Supposedly the view at the top was even more spectacular, but I was proud enough of myself to have made it as far as I did. It was raining, and pretty treacherous, but I only fell once.

Last night I pitched my own tent for the first time and even listened to Jimmy Buffett! Cheeeeeseburger in PARAAADISE! The guide asked me what my friends in LA would think of my camping adventure, and I told her the most shocking thing would be my listening to Jimmy Buffett!

There are 6 people on the trip including the guide. 4 women, 2 men. There's one couple, the rest are single. I'm easily the youngest of the bunch. One person is from Switzerland, two more from Buffalo NY, and another from Georgia. It's a pretty good bunch of people.

I'm having a great time, although I'm already exhausted. Tomorrow I'll be visiting the Portage & Columbia glaciers and taking a six hour ferry cruise to Valdez. I'll be sea kayaking in Valdez on Wednesday. Yeah!