Today was quite the adventurous day!! We boarded the Alaska Railway at 5:30 this morning and took the train going to Seward. I slept most of the train ride, but the last 45 minutes of the 4 hour ride were beautiful! The railroad follows the coastline, and occasionally goes inland to wind between mountains. It was a rainy day, so the views were not quire clear, but it was still amazing! Everyone was off of the train by 10:15, and we took a bus to the harbor.
My mom scheduled a boat tour of Resurrection Bay, which is part of the Kenai Fjords National Park. A Fjord, which I believe is a Norwegian term, is a deep valley between mountains that is filled with water. Resurrection Bay, named after a fisherman seeking shelter during a storm found refuge in the bay, woke up the next morning and realizing how rich the waters were with fish, named the Bay.
Unfortunately, it was pouring the rain, but that didn’t stop us for having fun on our adventure. Our seats were on the upper level of the boat, so we had a great view of the water. When the sun is out, the water has a gorgeous blue tint due to the glacier run-off of the surrounding mountains, but we were still able to see a little bit of the blue color. Within five minutes of our departure, we came across a couple of sea otters floating in the middle of the bay. Luckily, the boat trip was a wildlife tour, so the captain of the ship didn’t mind slowing down to let everyone get pictures of the otters.
We followed along the east bank of the bay, and eventually came across a big group of sea lions laying out on some rocks near the edge of the water. There were also some puffins in the mix!
The marine tour was around Resurrection Bay, so we eventually had to cross into the Alaskan Gulf to come back on the West side of the bay. Let’s just say the water was quite rough and there were many people aboard the ship that didn’t handle the high seas very well. Because of the rain, the water was even more choppy than usual, so the level of seasick people was also higher than usual. The ship crew were walking around handing out anti-nausea medication all over the boat, and there were a lot of people laying on the ground.
As we were crossing the bay, a pod of Dall’s porpoise were enjoying playing in the wake of the boat, and playing near the front. They followed us for awhile, but they moved on when we got to the other side of the bay.
We enjoyed the last bit of the boat tour, and then boarded the train back to Anchorage! The crazy thing is that we left when it was daylight at 5:15, and we back home at 10:30 when it was still daylight! It was an awesome day, and I have to say: train travel is the way to go. There were very few people on the train back, so everyone was able to spread out and everyone got a window seat! The scenery in Alaska is just incredible and even in the pouring rain, the fog around the mountains is just breathtaking. It was a great day!