The above collage are some of the pictures that I took on the
Major Marine wildlife cruise through Kenai Fjords National park this past Monday near Seward, Alaska. You can see more pictures in the
Drive to Alaska photo album included in our Photo Collection.
It was a full day (6 hour) cruise with a Prime Rib and Salmon lunch included, but unfortunately, not many of us wanted to eat that day. We were warned that the seas would be especially rough, and were even asked if we wanted to reschedule for the next day, but time didn't allow, so we took our chances.
I had gotten sea sick off of the coast of Puerto Rico while visiting my older brother when I was sixteen years old, so I was prepared to deal with it this time (ride the waves, deep breathe, focus your eyes on one thing, get fresh air, etc.); I ended the day without getting sick, Thank Goodness. But my poor mother-in-law and Sarah were both starting to feel it in the first hour...
To make a long story short, I counted at least six people losing their breakfast at one time. I do have to give lots of credit to the Captain and Crew; the Crew was right at your side to help, and the Captain even cut the engine a few times to try to cushion the blow on huge waves.
All in all, it was an incredible experience. To see wildlife (and hear it) as it is, in it's pure form, was simply amazing. The pictures don't do the trip justice. I don't think it's necessary to book a luxury, week-long cruise anymore to get to see what I did that day.
I think we can go on ahead and spend the money and miles on another trip instead (because we'd entertained the thought of taking an Alaskan cruise); most probably our traditional we-survived-another-deployment-Disney-celebration trip to the new
Disney Aulani resort in Hawaii. (ask someone who lives here in Alaska about the AK/Hawaii connection...maybe one day, I'll blog about it.)
But, then again...Phillip and Gabe didn't see what I saw that day, though it was similar, so....hmmmphhh...What to do? What to do?
There were many times that day when I cursed myself for telling my husband to hold off on buying a new SLR camera for Mother's Day. I had to deal with digital delay. As I've said before, I'm not a photographer; I just love taking pictures.
On a side note, I don't have pictures of the guys fishing trip (I wish I did). From what I understand, the sickness was much worse for them because they were on a smaller boat. Gabe managed to catch three sharks, but was sick for pretty much the whole day. Phillip got sick at the end of the day; my father-in-law came out without a scratch. As for the fish that was caught, there was lots of it (halibut, rock fish, etc.), and a bit of it was sacrificed to the grill last night.
Yum!
J~
