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| From Valdez Trip |
Dr. LK and Justin know everyone. We travel 7 hours from their home, and when the hotel screwed up and our room didn't have a pull out couch they simply made a call and within 10 minutes their friend shows up with a futon mattress. Then we have a cookout at the house of the boat captain of the ship we are going to be on the next day.
Having an 11 month old and thinking about a 9 hour boat ride where you can't turn back was a bit intimidating, but Coop is generally super happy so we signed up. Of course, we got the "friends" discount so the cruise was uber cheap which was an added bonus.
The cruise was billed as a glacier and wildlife cruise, and it lived up to that and then some. First up was the gorgeous cruise out of the harbor in the mountain circled Valdez.
One of many waterfalls we got to see
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| From Valdez Cruise |
Coop was a champ, and hung out in the backpack most of the day
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| From Valdez Cruise |
Its all fine as long as he has his blanky
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| From Valdez Cruise |
Nearing our first glacier, huge chunks of glacial ice started showing up
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| From Valdez Cruise |
Up near the first glacier
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Sea otters abound
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Jill and Dr. LK enjoying the day
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Approaching the second glacier of the day, notice how far it goes up on the right and left.
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Somewhere around a mile away, look for the tiny boat in the middle of the pic
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The family
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On the way back we chased several humpback whales
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Saw tons of stellar sea lions.
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And then the Orcas came out
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We saw 5 or 6 Orcas, and followed them around for quite some time. One even came within 5 feet of the boat (See Linda & Justin's blog for some sweet video). I've got quite a bit of video from the boat trip to process and post up soon too.
Sadly as we closed the book on Valdez, my part of the Alaska adventure ended too. We drove back to Fairbanks and then I climbed on a plane to head to Seattle and then on to Calgary. Jill and Cooper stayed in Alaska and will finally come home on Thursday night. I'll fly to Oklahoma to pick up the other two kids who have been playing farm at the grandparents and then we'll reunite the whole family in CO on Saturday. That will be a very good day.
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