On and Off The Water Again

I did take my dramamine. We are going to spend twelve days on the island, exploring and practicing picture taking. Hopefully I will be able to take some on the ferry. I should have an opportunity to see more orcas, we will be traveling through the San Juan Islands where there are known pods.

I am also looking forward to camping across from my islands ‘Little D’arcy’ and ‘D’arcy’ although ‘D’arcy’ island was used as a leper colony. https://en.m.wikivoyage.org/wiki/D%27Arcy_Island .

We are now off the water, and good news no sea sickness. It was touch and go in the beginning as we headed backwards. Solved that by going to the other end of the boat. I saw no orcas but did see a ship full of crushed cars headed out to sea, and an Evergreen container ship.

We are now settled on the island for twelve days, today we are headed out to explore Victoria.

Cuteness Overload

Homer was filled with moms and babies causing cuteness overload. Here are the baby moose, twins I say. Mark this one off the bucket list.

Pulling out of the harbor I saw the ferry we took two years ago.

On the trip the gulls were getting their fill of tiny fish, I call this a fish ball.

Also in the mix was a Tufted Puffin.

I have never seen so many otters with pups.

Of course there always has to be one,

On the way home we stopped by the Russian Orthdox Church here’s a cemetary shot.

The cherry on top was two hours of an eagle baby being fed. AMAZING

Wet Pictures

We were not able to spend much photo time on day one due to weather. Here are 4 photos. A float plane from Lake Hood Float Plane Airbase. This is the largest base in the world. A loon lives here.

We stopped along the way to take pictures of water falls

We were able to photograph Sandhill Cranes with a baby and one moose. Both were from a distance.

Still Here

Roy hung out at Cliffside RV Park while I was in Alaska, he had great weather. I return we cook out one night because of the weather. I woke up today to nice weather, I’m hoping my weather magnet of attracting snow or rain has been broken. I say this because even though we mostly missed shooting in the rain it was cold. In my defense the day it rained the hardest I was playing hooky.

Last night we did try ‘The Shrimp Shack’, a very popular local seafood joint. Roy had an oyster burger and I still can’t get enough salmon. I had a salmon burger. We also did a test drive to the ferry to see how long it would take, looking at 45 minutes. The ferry leaves at 8:25am, we have to be in line and ticketed 60 minutes prior. If we build in extra time we should pull out no later then 6am. I know what I’m doing Monday night.

I think the stimulus of being around people plus getting my infusion has eased me back to reality. Yes, today is laundry and trailer cleaning because our journey continues on Tuesday. A ferry ride is in my future I have dramamine so I am good. We are headed to Vancouver Island BC for ten days. Looking forward to putting my camera skills to work.

I think I will make a post of pictures for each day of the trip.

There’s A Reason

for rainy days. It’s to get me off my butt to get pictures and blogs caught up. Since yesterday was my much needed infusion and I had a few hours to kill blogs were on the agenda. I got one done then promptly fell asleep.

On a side note I did fairly well on my photo trip, being on the tail end before my infusion. I begged off two times on the main trip and once on the extension. I was a bit shaky towards the end yet I made it.

I am still waiting for the banana on the back bumper of Lancelot. In waiting for it the other night someone had put a small rock painted like a minion. Still no BANANA and I’m glad.

Staying in one spot has also helped get me ready for our adventure on Vancouver Island. Seeing I saw my Orca there will be no boat in my future. We might do some snorkeling but that requires a boat to get out there. So, because of the rain I will post some pictures today.

Seward More Then ORCAS

The orcas were amazing from the boat, but there was so much more I saw. It started when we are pulling out of the harbor we are greeted by a bald eagle sitting on a sign (he was saying ENJOY). We passed by the aquarium, the waterfront campground, and the towns waterfall.

A bit of a back story to the campground, it’s combat camping at it’s finest. You camp òn the beach and it’s first come first serve it’s worth getting a spot. http://www.alaska.org/detail/seward-waterfront-park I had a whole differant perspective from the water it still looks like combat camping. We did stay here two years ago and were lucky to get near the water.

The waterfall is actually a flood prevention channel, because Seward would flood. They blasted the rock through a mountain and redirected the flow of water. It was a good thing because the amount of water and trees that came through in the last few days had the water brown. The Corp of Engineers have heavy equipment to dredge the bottom of the channel due to debris that come down. I have pictures.

Out on the open water we saw Steller Sea Lions and Seals, I had my bubble burst when I found out that Sea Lions are the performing Seals in the circus. I will leave you with that disappointment.

ORCA ORCA ORCA

It was neat to be able to check this one off the bucket list, both photo and personal. We were on the boat ride out of Seward, Alaska on the Steller Explorer and had seen a few puffins, gulls, sea lions, and lunge feeding humpback whales. (I will cover the other sealife in another post).

Over the radio we hear that some orcas were sighted at no name rock, off we speed. I am sitting on the back of the boat enjoying the scenery and taking a few pictures. The boat slows down and I have camera in hand I see a fin then the top of the back of a good size orca, no pictures. My breath was taken away and happy tears welled up in my eyes. I have seen some breath taking sites, I also have seen them on TV, I wasn’t prepared for this. The cool thing is they were hunting and on a mission but stayed long enough for me to see and take pictures.

I think the mother was trying to teach the baby how to dive and hunt. I can see how the fin could be mistaken for a shark from a distance. I was able to stop crying and take some pictures of fins and the baby. Sitting on the bow of the boat the orcas were getting close, so close, Chris from our group was getting up to get his shorter lens when the baby broke water right next to the boat. He did not get the photo but the look on his face was PRICELESS.

The boat was bobbing up and down in some swells and I was taking pictures when all of a sudden my stomach started to do some bobbing of its own. I had such a concerned group of friends around me trying to push me to the rail so I could feel better. The truth is they were more concerned with protecting the cameras. I am sure there was concern for both.

The boat and the crew were very helpful and informative about the area history and showing us the local sea life. Well worth a trip on the water when in Seward Alaska. http://www.alaskasaltwaterlodge.com/boat_photos.htm the smaller boat means less struggle to see and better photo positions.

Having enjoyed this trìp and crossing the orcas off the bucket list boats and me are parting ways.

Back to Civilization

I am sitting in the Anchorage airport waiting to check in for my flight. It sucked that I haven’t been able to post any pictures due to a problem with my wifi hotspot. I tried to keep up with blogging and going through photos I took each day did not work. I might have to do an Alaska slide show each night of the rally.

I will post a day to day blog about the past ten days by Thursday at the latest. Pictures might be a little longer (4000) pictures to go through. I am caught up to the day we took the boat out of Seward AK.

A quick over view from the trip includes lots of moms and babes. Chris from our group hit the nail on the head when he said this trip is all about motherhood and being protectors of the babies. I was amazed at how close we were able to get to the wildlife. Adventures and comedy that I seemed to be in the middle of, (I might have started some.) Learning new skills and being able to put the practices to use. Yes, even some close a little to close bear encounters. This is what’s coming in my blogs.

Photo bucket list is down to photographing a lynx, and the northern lights. As a side note being well removed from lots of people and chatter for ten days sitting in this airport is a little over stimulating.

I can’t wait to share my adventures with all

Up The Creek …….

with a motor, it was also a wide river. On Tuesday we took a ride up the Kenai and Moose rivers, you get a whole differant perspective from water, then on the shore. The river is quite high due to a late spring thaw and the recent amount of rain made it easy to motor up it, the last group had to use a push boat.

We divided into two groups, I took the early morning wanted to get it out of the way not a friend of boats. It was cloudy when we left and sprinkling on our return. I have yet to see a loon on this trip, and I still didn’t see it. What I did see was 2 Trumpeter Swans super long neck I love how they curl their necks down to get a drink. I might have a picture of it.

The water rose so fast that a pair of grebes lost their nest we were lucky to watch them rebuild a small portion of it. It also reinforced what I learned about bald eagles not only do they chase gulls, they also chase ducks. For being beautiful birds they are bullies.

I will catch up on blogging soon tomorrow we go on our bear trip to Lake Clark. I willtake lots of pictures to add to the amazing ones from this week.