Yes! We Saw Whales!

The next morning we cooked breakfast at our campsite, jumped in the rental car and delighted in the scenery as we drove south to Seward around Turn Again Arm.  Supposedly Captain Cook was looking for the Northwest Passage back in 1778 and spent two weeks exploring this arm looking for a way through to the Atlantic Ocean, which he never found.  (The Northwest Passage was not discovered until 1850, and is not useable because of pack ice, unless one goes under all the ice in a submarine.)  As he was exploring this arm he kept calling to the pilot, "Turn again!", thus the lovely name.  

We grabbed some coffee and boarded our ship for the shorter, less expensive whale-watching tour.  I told Joseph not to get his hopes up (nor was I), as we probably wouldn't see any whales.  Silly me, we saw seven.  Five were orcas (killer whales) and two were humpback whales.  One of the humpbacks even stuck his fluke up in the air.  Yay for whales.  

(I did not take this picture.  My camera is not that good.)  

Mr. Otter entertained us while we waited to board the ship.   

These loud sea lions were fun to watch as were the Dall's porpoises which swam along with us and leapt in front of the ship.  It was an amazing day enjoying God's wonderful creation.   I can't wait to tell my students about it.