Today was our first day during our trip where we woke up and the sun was not shining. That is ok since we knew we were not going to have perfect weather the entire trip. Steve and Linda booked a whale watching trip while Dave, Cathy, Liam, Michael, Karen and I booked at sea kayaking trip for this morning. We choose Kayak Adventures Worldwide since they offer a custom family trip if you have children age 6 and up. Basically you get the same trip except for you have your own private guide. We choose to do the Half-day Resurrection Bay Trip ($75 USD / person) at 8:00am since the waters are much calmer then. But that meant getting to their office by 7:45am which was about a half an hour walk.
Once we got to their office, we finished up some final paperwork before we met our guide Allison. I knew right from the start, that she was going to make this a fun trip. On the drive over to the launch site, Allison asked us what we wanted out of this tour. We left it up to the boys and they said that they wanted to see animals. Allison asked if they wanted to land on a beach and explore tidepools, they said yes. After arriving at Lowell Point, Allison told us we could explore the beach there while she got everything ready for us.
She called us over to the three kayaks and gave us a short lesson on how to paddle properly .. low (keep your paddle low to the water), loose (your hands should not be gripping the paddle tightly) and long (how the strokes should be). She also gave us a safety briefing on things you should not do in a kayak. We got our life jackets on, got into the kayaks and then Allison pulled each of our kayaks to the water line and launched us. We paddled out and in a matter of moments, we were kayaking in Resurrection Bay. I kept just looking around admiring the mountains. We did see seals and everyone but Karen and I saw a whale. How cool is that. Yes it was raining but that did not matter. We must have kayaked for a good one and a half hours before we landed on a beach.
The next half hour was spent exploring the area where we landed. Because it was low tide, the beach is actually the ocean floor. Allison pointed out many things like blue mussels which the sea otters like to eat. She explained how barnacles attach themselves to rocks using their foreheads. She also got us to try some vegetation that grows in the ocean. She said when the tide goes out, the table is set. At one point, she flipped over a rock and there was a small crab and a baby eel. Allison was so good with the boys answering all of their questions and finding different things to point out to them. If that was not enough, she even brought snacks and hot beverages for us.
Soon it was time for us get head back so we got in the kayaks and started paddling for home. The trip back went much faster because we were going with the wind. After we landed, we all helped Allison pack up all of the gear. On the ride back, we learned that Kayak Adventures Worldwide is a member of 1% For The Planet. They commit one percent of their annual sales to non profit organizations working to address pressing environmental issues related to Alaska. When we got back to their office, each person was given a token and you could choose which company you wanted your donation to go to. Their motto is Explore. Inspire. Protect. Words to live by.
We walked back in the pouring rain to the RVs to have lunch. Some of us spent the afternoon relaxing in the RVs, Linda and I went to the Seward Community Library and Museum to get work done. I had a couple of days of blog entries to get posted, while Linda was buying car parts on PayPal. As I was just finishing, I got a text from Karen saying that they were heading over to the Alaska Sealife Center.
The boys had been looking forward to visiting the center for the entire trip and it did not disappoint. Alaska Sealife Center is Alaska’s only public aquarium and marine wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center. You can have close encounters many marine life like puffins, sea lions and otters. Besides seeing all of the cool animals, you can also learn alot about sea life. We spent about two hours there and I know that for the boys, this was a highlight. We walked up to downtown to check out the various shops before stopping in at Seward Brewing Company to enjoy some fabulous pizza for dinner.
Linda and Steve told us that it was a nice walk to the Seward Boat Harbor so we swung by the RVs and picked up the fishing poles. Cathy, Karen, Liam and I walked the harbor trying to find sea otters and harbor seals with no luck. Dave and Michael tried their hand at fishing. Not sure how they did since we left them in the pouring rain while we went back and called it a night.
Today’s miles = 0
Total miles = 445.9
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