Juneau
After a late night at Maleficent, it was a chore to get the girls up at 6:30am to get up to breakfast. Today we had a 7am whale watching excursion at Harv and Marv. Beach Blanket Buffet (I always type Bingo there first!) for a quick bite, and then back to the room to get fully dressed to be out on the water.
Oddly enough, we met our whale watching companions, R&J at breakfast. They were sitting one table over, and R recognized the girls from pictures (twins tend to be memorable). I met R in our cruise FB group, and took me up my offer to share today's trip when I found out I could add too more. This very nice couple was celebrating their anniversary kid free (doesn't that sound nice?!?!?).
We got off the ship and met our H&M guide right outside the gate. We were apparently waiting for several groups and were all sharing one shuttle bus to the harbor. (there were 15 of us). It was a nice bus, and the driver did give us touristy information on the way, but it was very difficult to hear her.
A quick trip to the restroom, and we were shown to our boat, and met Captain Liz.
Our boat
I don't know the exact time frame, but I know we were moving on the water by 8am (after our safety lesson).
The boat was 'just big enough'. There was an area to sit out in front, but you could only be out there if were not traveling, and you had be seated (and no kids without parents). We could all sit inside, there was an extra seat next to the captain. There was space for several of us to stand outside in the back, and there was even a bathroom.
The children have been given a camera today..
The four of us had our own binoculars, but Liz gave the girls "self focusing" ones to use. They thought that was pretty cool.
First stop, harbor seals.... Apparently they are very skittish, so we couldn't get too close. We learned about them nursing for only 21 days. Of course, we'd seen a whole lot of seals two days ago in Tracey Arm.
Looking at seals...
I'm about 75% sure that this is Mendenhall glacier in the background.
Eagle's nest (you'll just have to trust me).
Eagle (Hint, he/she's toward the top of the trees)
Really, really, calm.
Showing the tide lines... These tides change from high to low in just a few hours.
Eagles - two are juveniles without the full white head.
Eagle in flight...
At this point we've been on the water for about 40 minutes and I'm getting frustrated as this isn't a seal/eagle cruise, but a whale watching cruise. (I'm spoiled, I can see eagles at my parent's place in the UP of Michigan).
8:55 - A WHALE!!!!
So this whale is named "AK". Apparently she has markings that look like an A and a K. They knew it was a she, so she must have had a calf with her at some point (that's the only way they know most of the time).
Whale watching is not for the easily bored. You hear them first (when they come up and clear the water from their blow hole. You'll see their back come up a few times, and then you'll see a much BIGGER arc of their back and the tail come up out of the water when they are making a deep dive. Then it'll be 6-10 minutes before they come up again. 6-10 minutes is an eternity to 11-year olds.
Spray as she comes up...
Back of the boat area...
We saw AK come up and go down a couple of times. There were five or six boats in the area. Alaska has very strict rules about how close the boats can get. The whales can come to you, but you can't go to close to them.
Co-captain...
Sea Lions...
This boat is roughly the same size/layout as the one we were on (since I never took a good picture of ours!)
After the sea lions, Liz was showing us more scenery, and a lighthouse (that's no longer manned). She was about to head toward an island where we should be able to see bears when she got a call about a pod of six whales. So we high-tailed it towards that sighting.
We saw at least two whales in the distance as we were still approaching. Of course they both headed down, so it was more waiting for them to appear again (hopefully).
We did see this whale, and possibly another one (no one was sure if it was the same whale, or two different ones). We weren't close enough to get good tail identification.
I also wasn't taking a lot of pictures, since my camera was not quite powerful, and J had an AWESOME lens on his. I'm hoping R&J will send me some of his shots.
So, my overall thoughts.... this wasn't as good as I was hoping. I don't know if my expectations were too high (I suspect they were), or it just wasn't a good trip. We heard lots of stories from others about how many whales they saw, and how close they came, and a calf (the first sighting of the year), etc. etc. The whale part was great, but it was so such a small part of the trip compared to the time spent on seals, sea lions, eagles, and potentially bears. My girls did get bored, but were not horrible about it.
After a late night at Maleficent, it was a chore to get the girls up at 6:30am to get up to breakfast. Today we had a 7am whale watching excursion at Harv and Marv. Beach Blanket Buffet (I always type Bingo there first!) for a quick bite, and then back to the room to get fully dressed to be out on the water.
Oddly enough, we met our whale watching companions, R&J at breakfast. They were sitting one table over, and R recognized the girls from pictures (twins tend to be memorable). I met R in our cruise FB group, and took me up my offer to share today's trip when I found out I could add too more. This very nice couple was celebrating their anniversary kid free (doesn't that sound nice?!?!?).
We got off the ship and met our H&M guide right outside the gate. We were apparently waiting for several groups and were all sharing one shuttle bus to the harbor. (there were 15 of us). It was a nice bus, and the driver did give us touristy information on the way, but it was very difficult to hear her.
A quick trip to the restroom, and we were shown to our boat, and met Captain Liz.
Our boat
I don't know the exact time frame, but I know we were moving on the water by 8am (after our safety lesson).
The boat was 'just big enough'. There was an area to sit out in front, but you could only be out there if were not traveling, and you had be seated (and no kids without parents). We could all sit inside, there was an extra seat next to the captain. There was space for several of us to stand outside in the back, and there was even a bathroom.
The children have been given a camera today..
The four of us had our own binoculars, but Liz gave the girls "self focusing" ones to use. They thought that was pretty cool.
First stop, harbor seals.... Apparently they are very skittish, so we couldn't get too close. We learned about them nursing for only 21 days. Of course, we'd seen a whole lot of seals two days ago in Tracey Arm.
Looking at seals...
I'm about 75% sure that this is Mendenhall glacier in the background.
Eagle's nest (you'll just have to trust me).
Eagle (Hint, he/she's toward the top of the trees)
Really, really, calm.
Showing the tide lines... These tides change from high to low in just a few hours.
Eagles - two are juveniles without the full white head.
Eagle in flight...
At this point we've been on the water for about 40 minutes and I'm getting frustrated as this isn't a seal/eagle cruise, but a whale watching cruise. (I'm spoiled, I can see eagles at my parent's place in the UP of Michigan).
8:55 - A WHALE!!!!
So this whale is named "AK". Apparently she has markings that look like an A and a K. They knew it was a she, so she must have had a calf with her at some point (that's the only way they know most of the time).
Whale watching is not for the easily bored. You hear them first (when they come up and clear the water from their blow hole. You'll see their back come up a few times, and then you'll see a much BIGGER arc of their back and the tail come up out of the water when they are making a deep dive. Then it'll be 6-10 minutes before they come up again. 6-10 minutes is an eternity to 11-year olds.
Spray as she comes up...
Back of the boat area...
We saw AK come up and go down a couple of times. There were five or six boats in the area. Alaska has very strict rules about how close the boats can get. The whales can come to you, but you can't go to close to them.
Co-captain...
Sea Lions...
This boat is roughly the same size/layout as the one we were on (since I never took a good picture of ours!)
After the sea lions, Liz was showing us more scenery, and a lighthouse (that's no longer manned). She was about to head toward an island where we should be able to see bears when she got a call about a pod of six whales. So we high-tailed it towards that sighting.
We saw at least two whales in the distance as we were still approaching. Of course they both headed down, so it was more waiting for them to appear again (hopefully).
We did see this whale, and possibly another one (no one was sure if it was the same whale, or two different ones). We weren't close enough to get good tail identification.
I also wasn't taking a lot of pictures, since my camera was not quite powerful, and J had an AWESOME lens on his. I'm hoping R&J will send me some of his shots.
So, my overall thoughts.... this wasn't as good as I was hoping. I don't know if my expectations were too high (I suspect they were), or it just wasn't a good trip. We heard lots of stories from others about how many whales they saw, and how close they came, and a calf (the first sighting of the year), etc. etc. The whale part was great, but it was so such a small part of the trip compared to the time spent on seals, sea lions, eagles, and potentially bears. My girls did get bored, but were not horrible about it.
