Alaska: Day 6

On this day, we got up early to head down the Kenai Peninsula to Whittier, where we were to board a boat for a glacier sightseeing cruise. It was an extraordinarily scenic drive - as is everything in Alaska, I suppose - and we even had time to shop at the Prince William Sound Salt Company!

Burt and Linda had taken pity on us to bring some extra raincoats, and although it was chilly, it wasn't rainy (phew). The cruise company was the Phillips 26 Glacier Cruise, which I highly recommend. They fed us (salmon chowder and warm cookies!), we got margaritas with glacier ice, and in addition to the promised glaciers, we saw surprise sea otters!

A float of otters in Prince William Sound

They were super playful and mostly stayed away from the boat, but a few of them were curious enough to come over and say hi. We also saw seals, kittiwakes, and a bald eagle (which unfortunately had eaten one of the kittiwakes, haha).

Group photo!!

We visited College Fjord, which had a lot of glaciers named after colleges with which I'm now familiar (as well as some Ivies). The glaciers were interesting; many were receding, and we learned about ice fields and more.

We headed out of Whittier, "catching the tunnel," as they say - it opens every half hour, I think. It's a one-way tunnel built by the Army when Whittier was a base. More beauty on the drive, then arrived in Seward in time for dinner at our hotel, the aptly named Hotel Seward. We walked on the seashore a bit, saving the rest for the next day.