We see whales!

Wednesday - September 10, 2014

Today is our first port day!  Except we have to tender in (sob!).  Yes, first world problems.  We have a whale watching tour booked with Icy Strait Whale Adventures in Hoonah because they had great reviews on Tripadvisor.  And everyone trusts Tripadvisor.  I didn’t want to do a big boat tour because we’ve done that already (though that was in Newport Beach, not Alaska) and I didn’t want to squeeze onto a boat with 100 other people trying to squeeze my way to the front to be able to see and to be able to take photos without 80 other heads in the photos.  So I found an outfit that had great reviews and specialized in small boat tours.

Yay!  Best.  Decision.  Ever.  We had Captain Duane, who was super awesome.  He picked us up where their email said they’d be (super easy to find) and our boat (their brand new one that seats 20 - still had the new boat smell) only had 8 people on it - our group of 6 and a couple from the same cruise.  

They had hot water, instant coffee (Starbucks Via), tea bags, and hot cocoa packets (and uh, my genius dad dropped a cup of coffee within 15 minutes of getting on the boat. He said the cup was too hot. We felt really bad, and the captain's nephew cleaned it up - we tipped him $20 for that - and they were so nice about it, but still, we felt so bad that we (dad) spilled something in their new boat that's only 2 months old).  They also had little snack bags of chips we could eat.  I didn’t use it, but they had a bathroom and those who used it said it was very clean and well maintained.  The boat had a section out front (they opened it up when the boat wasn’t being driven at high speeds), huge window that could be rolled up like garage doors in the cabin area and an open area out back that was always open.  The boat was fantastic, Duane and his nephew were fantastic - everything about this was fantastic.  We saw the big boats with a hundred people squeezed onto them and felt sorry for them.  So we took photos of them.  Hehehe.

I couldn't find any photos of the windows rolled up - but they open up two at a time (4 windows on each side) - so when the windows are rolled up, it's two windows rolled up on a track that can be locked on top so you have an unobstructed view. You can stay seated on the bench and take some pretty kick ass photos or kneel on the bench and lean out. It's the lazy people's way of whale watching. We are lazy people.

do you see how empty this is?  In addition, there's my dad and his friend (see below) and my brother, who was taking the photo from the back (see his shadow?).  And those two on the left were from our cruise .  

back of the boat

another look at the windows

The exit that leads to the front "balcony" part of the boat.  The captain opened it up when we were idling or traveling at slower speeds

the only picture I had of the front of the boat.  I took lots of pictures from there, but not really of it.

Oh, and the boat carrying a gazillion other people.  I checked it - they paid $159 for a 2.5 hour tour.  We paid $165 for a 3 hour tour that ended up being a 4 hour tour because our captain was super awesome.  Here are all the sad people staring at our super empty super roomy boat that went way faster and farther than their boat:

They're so sad :(

Our boat was quite roomy, and because we only had eight people, it was very comfortable. The boat was built for 20, and honestly, I think it would still be very comfortable with 20 passengers. But as we were only 8, we all sprawled out with our stuff and we spread out around the boat.  Sometimes I was in the front, sometimes in the back, and when it got really cold and windy, I was in the cabin hanging out of the open windows.  It. was. awesome.  You could be inside the cabin where it’s a lot warmer but still take fantastic photos because they rolled the windows up.  Isn’t that the smartest thing?  

But we saw whales.  Lots and lots of whales.  And a whale got totally close to us!  It swam within 10 feet of our boat when we were stopped - it was so close my camera frame couldn’t capture all of it!  It was so cool.  We learned to look for the mist hanging around so we knew whales were present.  

this is the mist we're looking for

sea lions!  They were just chilling in the water. 

I don't know what it means when a whale is just waving his flippers around - he could have been waving hello at us...or just giving us the finger to tell us to leave him alone.

And then, are the gazillion photos of the whales.  This is like, 1% of the pictures we took.  We all took WAY.  TOO.  MANY.  PHOTOS.

You know how I said we had a whale come within 10 feet of us?  Captain Duane was really good at predicting where a whale was going to end up, so when he saw one headed our way, we began to idle and he came out front with us.  The whale was soooo close!  I couldn't even capture him in the frame!

We were fortunate enough to see 3 whales breach during our tour. Unfortunately, due to a lack of mad photo taking skills, I wasn't fast enough to capture any of those. sob! :(

After a few hours, when time was almost up, Captain Duane got a message that orcas were seen - and once he ascertained that none of us had anything planned after our excursion, he headed off to where the orcas had been spotted.  He spent an extra hour with us on the water!  And we saw orcas.  At least two of them - there may have been more, but the most we saw a at a time was two.  Before we left for our trip and talking about our itinerary, my mom expressed a wish to see orcas. I told her I didn't think we were going to see them, just humpbacks - clearly I was wrong and just talking out of my butt. But yay for orcas! This was a super extra awesome bonus.

look!  It's our ship behind the orca fin!

After the tour, we wandered around the shops at the dock, purchased some souvenirs made in China and went back onto our boat where we fell onto the food at the buffet like we crawled out of the desert after a long and arduous journey.  Which come on, when you’re on a cruise and you haven’t had food for more than an hour?  It is arduous and tortuous.  

Well...this night was the Norwegians Night Out.  So once again we got all dressed up.  Raymond and I heaed to Seven Seas, the “nicer” restaurant and waited.  And waited.  Finally I went in search of the rest of our people and found them seated in Four Seasons.  Apparently even though we’ve eaten at both restaurants, they didn’t realize they were two separate restaurants on the same floor.  Oy.  So we sat there all dolled up in the casual restaurant where the other cruisers were in their jeans and turtlenecks.  Oh well. Such is life.

I had the special, which was the flounder milanese.  It was okay - the fish was a bit dry though it was seasoned well.  The salmon tartare appetizer was okay as well. The rest of the party had the Louisiana blackened snapper and found it a little too salty.  I had the tiramisu for dessert - no complaints since it’s tiramisu.  How can you go wrong?

Here are the menus for dinner:

And here's what my brother had for dinner:

mushroom quesadilla

blackened snapper (they thought this was a bit too salty)

some super chocolately cake

After dinner we were slugs - we trudged back to our room, flopped onto our beds and watched Man of Steel while we ate the little snacks our butler left for us because we are gluttonous pigs.  :)

Oh! And we got a towel animal! (what's sad? our friends said they never got any towel animals :( doesn't that violate some kind of cruise law??)

There were a lot of activities going on - but I'm on the benevolent side of anti-social. Also, I just like laying around, something I don't get to do very much of when I'm not on vacation. So when I don't have to work, I fully take advantage of the laying around, vegging out on TV and catching up on books and movies. Even in a port intensive itinerary like Alaska. Perhaps especially in a port intensive itinerary because I gotta rest up when I can!