Alaska Part 1 Marine Highway.

As some of you probably already know We are moving to AK for the Summer to work for Alaska's #1 Wildlife & Glacier Cruise Company. (Kenai Fjord Tours) Gordon will be working as a Deckhand and Jen as a Customer Service Representative. So with that being said, We packed up our stuff and drove it to Jen's parents house and left most of it there. We visited with some of Jen's family and started Our Journey north.. Below you can see our planed route to Seward, AK.

We drove to Anacortes, Wa and hopped on the WA state ferry to Sidney, BC, Canada. We then drove up Vancouver Island, Kayaking at Telegraph Cove. Telegraph Cove is the closest put in to paddle to Robson Bight, It is the place where Orca's go to rub there bellies on the rocks.. It was starting to rain and the wind was picking up so we didn't paddle the whole way there. We then drove to Port Hardy to ride the BC Ferry to Prince Rupert, BC. The ferry we took was still new. I guess the last one was ran into some rocks and sunk in 2006.. Luckily ours made it safely to port. No Lifeboats needed this time..

Prince Rupert is a small fishing port and the Bald Eagles definitly know where to get a free meal. Just wait for a fishing boat to return and scoop up all the leftovers. We saw about 100 Eagles in one spot, next to the Fishing Pier. Below is one of the Eagles.

We then rode the AK Marine Highway to Sitka, AK. We saw lots of Birds, Harbour Porpoise, and Dall Porpoise's while on the ferry. Along the way we were able to disembark while at port in Ketchikan, and Wrangell for a few hours. We stopped in Petersburg briefly before arriving in Sitka. We spent a couple of days in Sitka. Below are a few pictures of the area from when we went kaying.

We then hopped back on the ferry. This time it was a high speed ferry so we were cruising at about 38 Knots about 45 MPH or 70 KM/H. We made it to Juneau very quickly in comparison to our previous ferry going around 17 Knots. But with the extra speed when we saw the Humback whales, It was brief to say the least. We saw about 1o Humbacks from the ferry. Mostly around Juneau... One even breached. We spent our first day In Juneau, downtown exploring the Capital we even found a place to ride a Grizzly Bear.

The next day we went kayaking at Echo Cove the water was glassy but there were no whales. Only Sea lions. One jumped out of the water right next to Jen she almost flipped because she was startled all she saw was the splash.

We spent one night camping at Echo Cove and the next night At South Bridget Cove. This was the View from our campsite.

The Final day in Juneau we spent, Kayaking at Mendenhall Glacier. I Don't think water can get any colder then here. We actually were paddling thru Ice Cubes at one point. The Ice Cubes were at one point Icebergs like the ones in the picture below that had calved from the glacier. The blue ice is only visible for a short time after the glacier calves or after an iceberg rolls. The warm sun and air breaks down the crystal structuring allowing the full color spectrum to be reflected instead of just blue.


We then jumped back on the ferry for our final ride to Haines, AK. We saw some more whales but again it was brief due to our speed...38 Knots...