Roth Invasion: Part II

In a continuation of our adventure with the Roth's, I'm here to tell you about the cruise we embarked on that Saturday.  While everyone was up here, we wanted to do something that was truly Alaskan.  At first we had decided to drive up to Talkeetna which is a small town at the base of McKinley and has a good view of the Alaskan Range.  Fun fact: it was featured in Man vs Food and was thought to be the town in the show Northern Exposure [thanks Wikipedia!]  Well we decided not to go up there since the weather is hit or miss.  If it was cloudy or rainy there really wouldn't be anything to see or do.  So we canceled those plans and based off different recommendations booked a day cruise through the Kenai Fjords out of Seward.  This was a better plan because the drive down to Seward is extremely scenic and even if it was cloudy on the cruise there is still plenty of wildlife to see.

We headed out early Saturday morning.  It was PERFECT weather the entire way down there with no clouds in sight.  That is until we were about 10 miles from Seward and then the fog settled in...  Even though it was cloudy most of the time down there we didn't let it put a damper on our day.  We saw a ton of wildlife: numerous Orcas (killer whales,) humpback whales, an abundance of sea lions, different birds, and even mountain goats.  I have so much more respect now for photographers that are able to capture a whale breaching!  It is im.pos.si.ble.  Just as you snap the picture because you see them coming out of the water they are already back under by the time the camera takes the picture!! Somehow you're supposed to anticipate when and where they will come up...  So we have a lot of pics of the fin, tale or just a splash :) They also take the boat by Holgate Glacier which is part of the Harding Icefield.  It was pretty spectacular just floating up to it through ice chunks but it was also calving - when ice breaks away from the glacier.  When that occurs, it makes a huge noise and you can see it just crumbling off the glacier and eventually dropping into the water.  Overall, the trip was a great success and Alex & I will probably do it again while we're up here.

Orca

Mountain Goats - Nanny & Kid

Sea Lions

Holgate Glacier

The whole clan!

Coming back into Seward

While the fam was still in town, the touring Broadway production of Mary Poppins was in Anchorage so Gary treated us to the show!  I was thoroughly entertained with Step in Time as my favorite scene.

Overall, we had a great time and it was so good to see them all again [we hadn't seen each other since driving through Iowa last August!]  We are now anticipating our next guests [can't wait to see you Mark & Ellen!!] next week - although they will just be stopping in Anchorage when they get into town and on their way out since they're doing a big trip for their anniversary.

As always, the remaining pictures can be found at http://therothsalexamy.shutterfly.com/