As you can see from the map, we are retracing some of the areas visited during the last several days at Homer. On the way up the coast from Homer, we encountered a Female Moose with two calves. These didn't seem to tolerate our presence as well as some earlier ones. They are walking away from us into the woods - albeit somewhat leisurely.

We drove on up the coastal highway and decided to stop at Ninilchik again, hoping to find the Eagles in the creek this morning as a few days ago. There was only one this morning and the light wasn't as good but I did get a few decent shots.

We decided to swing around through Kenai City again so we took take Kalifornski Beach Rd. (I love this name - especially when it crosses AK-1 and becomes Funny River Rd. - Grin)along the coast to Kenai. Along the way, we spotted another female Moose with a calf in the forest along the road.

We checked the Kenai flats again . . . and again found nothing of interest. So we took the Kenai Spur back to AK-1 and turned East toward Seward. Portions of this highway run through deep valleys with several lakes along the road. There is one of these at the point where AK-1 joins AK-9 running from Anchorage to Seward. I stopped to try to get some shots of the scenery at this point and the following photo is a result. The weather was becoming more overcast and rainy as can be seen in this photo.

We made the turn onto AK-9 heading for Seward. All along the route there were lakes with ducks and other water birds on them. Some that we saw fairly regularly were Trumpeter Swans.

We arrived in Seward mid-afternoon after driving through a lot of rain and overcast. We had reserved space on a full day cruise to Holgate Glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park with Major Marine Tours and were concerned that the bad weather might cause cancellation. We decided to check with their office to verify that we would sail. They assured us that the tour would go out but there was some doubt that the boat would be able to leave Resurrection Bay and go into the open ocean as required to access Aialik Bay where the Glaciers are. The problem was the heights of the waves. The predictions for the next day were for waves of 10-12 feet and the limit for completing the trip was 8-10 feet. The boat could handle the waves, problem was that the passengers couldn't! We had dinner at a local seafood restaurant, Ray's Waterfront, took a drive out a road that ran alongside Resurrection bay, went by the Kenai Fjords National Park Visitors' Center, dropped by the local hardware store for sea-sickness preventive as strongly recommended by the Major Marine staff, then turned in for the night.

May 13, Day 6. Up early, weather really miserable, heavy overcast and near constant rain. Went into town center to pick up some more items at the True Value Hardware Store. Except in the major cities and touristy areas, the local hardware store was the source of virtually all dry goods. Went by Major Marine to check in and verify that the seas weren't so big as to prohibit the full cruise. They were reported by other boats as 8-10 feet which was judged marginal. We were reassured that the boat would sail and would go into the ocean far enough to determine if the passengers could handle the waves before making a decision. So, we went for breakfast at a local restaurant. When we returned to the "Small Boat Dock" we found a Sea Lion feeding on some meat scraps from a restaurant built out over the water.

We finally boarded the Kenai Star about 10:00 after having the mandatory boarding photo made by a kid with a point & shoot digital camera.

We left the dock and headed out through Resurrection Bay. Within a half mile of the dock, we encountered a group of Sea Otters. I quickly learned that photography from the boat was going to be a challenge. With the terribly poor lighting and motion of the boat, I figured I'd be lucky to get anything worth while. Fortunately, it was relatively calm and this guy was close enough for a decent shot.

The cruise was great. We saw Mountain Goats, a Black Bear, Puffins (flying), Humpbacked and Killer Whales, loads of sea birds, a lot of Eagles and Sea Lions. After the Eagle experience at Deep Creek and Ninilchik a few days ago, these were uninteresting photographically - too far away. In one instance, we saw a group of Mountain Goats on a cliff face and above them, trying to climb down to where they were was a Black Bear (black object in second photo). I didn't get a shot of the group but I did get a shot of a single Goat (white object in center of first photo) that was just above them. Most of these were so far away that photography was useless but digital is cheap so I burned some electrons anyway. These two shots do give a sense of the animals' environment and of the sheer cliffs rising out of the bay.

We had lunch aboard the ship and it was really good. Prime rib and baked salmon with all the trimmings - buffet style. Apparently some of the 50-60 people on the cruise failed to heed the staff recommendations for seasickness medication because there were some really unhappy campers when we hit the rough seas on the ocean. No photographs of seasick passengers though (grin).

The ship did make it around the point and into Aialik Bay where we saw several glaciers - the most impressive being Holgate Glacier. We watched it "calve" and were amazed at the sound of the ice constantly cracking and groaning. The shot of the "icebergs" gives some indication of how bad the weather was. The shot of Dot is another good example of the nasty weather. The blur on her face is a drop of water on my lens and the streak down the right side of the photo was a steady stream of water that was blowing around and wetting me and the camera - and, yes I dried the lens but the rain and blowing water pouring off the roof re-spotted it immediately.

From Holgate Glacier, we turned around and started out of Aialik Bay. Along the way back, we saw Sea Lions basking on some rocks below the cliffs. We also saw masses of Gulls on the cliff faces and a flock of Cormorants atop another rock

We had a pretty exciting trip back to Resurrection Bay and the dock. The seas had increased while we were in Aialik Bay and the trip around the point on the open ocean was really rough - great fun! Again, there were some very ill and unhappy passengers. We saw a lot of the same wildlife we saw on the trip out but by now everyone was too tired to dash out into the rain to see what had become a common sight. We got back to the dock after some eight hours on the water, headed for the hotel and bed after downloading my images, checking e-mail and doing other, similar chores.

May 14, Day 7. Up early, had breakfast at a local bakery and coffee shop. Weather even nastier than yesterday - constant rain and heavy overcast. We had earlier planned to spend the day at Exit Glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park. Exit Glacier is so named because some early explorers hiked across the 700 square mile Harding Ice Field and exited the ice field near Seward via "Exit Glacier". You can drive into the park almost to the glacier but there is a modest hike required to actually get to it. We hiked up and marveled at the huge ice cube (grin). Again, the weather wasn't conductive to good - or even decent - photography but I tried to document the event.

First, we took a side trail onto the morrain formed by the glacier before it retreated. This shot shows the moraine with the glacier in the background.

Dot on a section of the trail on the way from the moraine up to the glacier.

And another further along the trail beside the the glacier.

Several shots of the Glacier and Dot close to it's leading edge.

These two photos illustrate how really bad the weather was on the left and on the right, manipulated to show the shot as we remembered it (grin).

We hiked back down to the parking lot and drove back to Seward. We had dinner at Ray's Waterfront again then went back to our hotel. After downloading images, checking e-mail and a few other chores of this nature, we closed the curtains and turned in. Heading out tomorrow for Talkeetna