A little trouble in Paradise

Well, it's not all roses! We were about ready to leave Palmer, which is right down the road from Wasilla, when Don mentioned to Jim that one of our tires looked like it was a little low. And that was because the inside tire on the rear had gone flat. One tire was doing all the work.

Once again our AAA type service for the RV came through, and within two hours a tire service had arrived, found a screw embedded in the tire, repaired it, filled it, determined that the tire was no longer reliable, put the spare on the rim and put the tire on the RV. Pretty good. So it was off to WalMart for some grocery shopping, and then on to Seward which is on the Kenai Peninsula.

Seward is also a harbor town where halibut fishing is really big and where cruise ships come in. While in Seward we saw three cruise ships and watched a couple of fishing boats unload there catch one evening. One boat brought in a 289 lb halibut, and several others over 100lbs. All the fishermen aboard were definitely ready for Miller time.

It is also the home of the Kenai Fjords National Park. We used our coupon book again, and booked a Wildlife Cruise that takes you to the National Park and to the tidewater glaciers. This was a bigger, faster ship, and held many more people which made it less personal than our other trip. However, each trip is taken with a National Park Ranger which provides a different slant to the commentary. More biology and ecology.

We saw similar animals on this trip, with the addition of a black bear on a hillside, a better view of harbor seals, and lots of puffins.

We did see eagles, and also saw them in town at the harbor when the boats come in. They fight with the seagulls for the fish carcasses.

These are the harbor seals. Learned alot about the differences between the seals and sea lions.

Although we did not see any Orcas, they think they have left the area and gone about 60 miles up the coast, we did see humpback whales. Here are mother and calf. They didn't appear to be feeding, more likely traveling because they didn't dive deeply.

We traveled to Holgate Glacier which comes from the Harding Ice Fields. Unlike the other trip, this glacier is not landlocked. It can calve. Which would have been really cool. Except that it didn't do it while we were there. There was some creaking, and some small pieces dropped off, but nothing too dramatic. It is still really awesome, and very, very big. It is also stable because it isn't retreating anymore than it is growing.

The blue colors in these glaciers is really beautiful.

You can also travel to Exit Glacier by land and take a walk up close to it. This one is in a mountain valley and is retreating. There are year markers where it used to reach to.

We happened to arrive when one of the Rangers was going to make an unscheduled walk up to the glacier and gathered a group to go along with him. He pointed out lots of things that we would have missed.

There was bear in the area the day before, but it wasn't evident while we were there. We did see many signs that moose had been there. There were stripped branches where they had been getting to the layers under the bark.

There were also moosy "nuggets" on the ground. Think of the deer signs, and think of how much bigger a moose is than a deer...... We find it interesting that you can buy them all painted up like Christmas ornaments. Every tree should have one!

As a result of the settlement from the Exxon Valdez, there is the Alaskan Sealife Center in Seward. We spent the morning there on Friday. There were tanks where you could touch underwater stuff, and big tanks where you could see Skittles the sea otter and some really big sea lions. There is also a diving bird section where you can watch the puffins and other diving birds underwater.

Puffins are funny because when they eat too much, they can't take off until they digest enough so they don't weigh as much. Sort of like Thanksgiving dinner! And even when they do take off, they aren't exactly graceful! But underwater they certainly are! They look like they are flying.

This handsome fellow was more than willing to show us his best side.





We will be leaving Seward tomorrow, heading over to the other side of the Kenai Peninsula for a few days. Maybe to do some halibut fishing?

Sue and Jim