Return To Alaska

 I have returned to Alaska, and it was a triumphant return!  Looking back at this past week makes me remember how nice my life is.  It wasn't sunny the whole week, but there were spots of sunlight, and we went to a few new places.  We kayaked in Red Bluff Bay, the first time I had done that.  It was a night kayak and off we went into the sunset.  There is a giant waterfall we paddled up to, seen in this picture of my fellow guide, Mike.

There were breaching humpbacks, flipping and trying to fly...

 We came in really close to the wall of the fjord near Margerie Glacier and I got a view of some nesting Kittiwakes...

 There was a really special Brown Bear that we followed along the shore for a little while.  he didn't seem to care too much for our presence, just ambling along.

 And mountain goats..

 It was sunny for our Glacier Bay Day and I took a small nap on the deck...

 There were puffins at South Marble island...

 Then we started to see Orca.  We saw Orcas in Glacier Bay, then another group in Idaho inlet (see below) and then again that night the same group just outside Idaho inet.  Three times for Orcas is amazing.  They were playing around skiffs and kayaks, very cool.

 We went to Port Althorp, which is near a place I had been before (George island) but still new.  It is on the coast, or just next to the coast, and full of whales, cool waters and as I turned around the bend and went out into the open waters....

 Puffins awaited me at a small rock out at sea.  Not just Tufted Puffins, but the elusive Horned Puffins.  I think they are cuter.  There were many of these kind and we got a nice long look at them.

 Also some sea otters in the kelp.

 Mama with baby...

 And a sea otter was eating a kind of Sea Cucumber.  This kind (the Orange Sea Cucumber) lives underground but sends up the fronds to collect things to eat.  The otter managed to get ahold of it and pulled it up and started munching.  We watched him eat for a while but he didn't mind the company.

 I like the eggs spilling all over the otters face as he closes his eyes with glee munching on the weird things!