On Friday morning our first stop was the aquarium. Their touch tank was pretty impressive, but in general, it was hard for this one to compete with the likes of the ones in Camden, Baltimore, Atlanta, and Chicago. Our second stop was the free parking lot for the Kenai Fjords cruise. We had a very short ride on the shuttle to the harbor. Before boarding, we got a backpack from the NPS so the kids could earn another patch at Kenai Fjords. They each ended up earning three of the four possible patches/badges. In the gift shop Oliver bought two sticks of jerky - one from salmon and the other from elk. Nadia purchased a bracelet at the same time. The previous night she had purchased an Alaska hoodie. A relative had given each of them $40 spending money for the trip. Nadia's purchases exceeded that total, so she was also using some of the money she made at Camp Susque. We boarded around 11:15 am and returned a little after 5:00 pm. The weather was gorgeous! It was sunny with calm waters and very clear visibility. The captain, who has been doing this for six years, said this was extremely rare.
During our 5.5-hour trip we saw one humpback whale, sea lions, harbor seals, puffins, sea otters, two coastal mountain goats, two eaglets, common murres, sea gulls, glaciers, and cormorants. We made a stop at Fox Island for lunch, and we saw many jellyfish near the shore. Lunch was delicious! They served an amazing salad bar, rolls, a hot chocolate bar, and three different kinds of soup. Oliver had salmon chowder. The rest of us had the best tomato soup I've ever tasted. Paul doesn't even usually eat tomato soup, and he liked it! He tried the Peruvian chicken soup first but wasn't a fan of that one. The only animal we hoped to see but didn't was an orca. Our chances of seeing one would have been much better if we had come in June, but it's possible to see them until September. On our way back to Seward, the crew gave us freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. After we docked, we bought two footlong subs at Subway for four of us to share. Oliver finished his chowder from the previous night. The cash register wasn't working properly so we couldn't use the gift card I planned to use, but they finally were at least able to accept a credit card. We returned the backpack to the National Park visitor center, took the shuttle back to our van, and returned to our suite for the night.
Aside from the day we left when we had to get up REALLY early, we've typically been leaving our accommodation around 8:30 or 9:00 each morning. I planned it this way knowing that kids ages 12-16 sometimes like to sleep in. An exception to this schedule was on Saturday morning. We had to be out the door by 7:30 to drive to where we were white water rafting on Six Mile Creek, which is located in between Seward and Anchorage. We arrived at 8:40 and began the process of getting our shoes, helmets, life vests, and dry suits. The suits were far more comfortable than the ones we wore in Ecuador, and they truly kept us dry - even our socks stayed dry! I wore three layers of clothes that day to try to stay warm! We had a short drive to the site where we would begin rafting, and then we had a safety lesson that was rather frightening. Thankfully none of us ever fell out of the raft so we never needed to use the instructions we were given. However, they did make us swim to the raft to prove we could swim with all that gear on in the frigid water. That was definitely my least favorite part of the trip. Nadia and I also really struggled to pull Paul into the raft. Our raft guide's name was Elliot. Oliver picked that raft because Elliot is Oliver's middle name. There were thirteen customers rafting on that particular trip. The other two rafts each contained four adults plus a guide. The water level was lower than normal, which meant the rapids we went through were almost all class 3, and only one was class 4. Had the water levels been higher, they all would have been a class 5. We only rafted the first two canyons, because the third canyon is always class 5, and they have a minimum age of 16 for that canyon. It also costs more to do the third canyon. Thankfully we only had to step out of the rafts at the end. We took off our helmets and life vests and partially got out of our dry suits before boarding the heated bus. We were COLD! The four miles we rafted in between the two canyons was calm, but the rapids at the canyons were exciting! While we were rafting, we spotted a bald eagle in a tree. After we returned, we finished getting out of the dry suit and put our own shoes on. Most of us enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate. I purchased pictures they had taken of us on the trip.
It started raining just as we were walking to our vehicle. We were grateful it hadn't been raining during our trip. Our next stop was the Alaska Native Heritage Center. We went on a quick self-guided tour of the six life-sized Native dwellings outdoors, and then we watched two thirty-minute programs indoors. The first was a Native Games demonstration. Those young men were quite talented with their jumping and kicking skills! Then we watched a dancing program. Paul spent some time in their museum. We ended up skipping the hike to Thunderbird Falls because it was raining and also because we were running behind schedule. We had dinner at Red Robin in Wasilla, and we also went to a Walmart there to get a little more food. The boys and I are low maintenance when it comes to lunch as we bought bread, peanut butter, and jelly at a grocery store in Seward on Wednesday. Paul and Nadia don't eat PBJ so we have to stop and buy them sandwiches far more frequently.
The first night in Alaska we were in an Airbnb that was on the top floor of our host's home. The next three nights we stayed at a family-owned Inn in Seward. The fifth night we stayed at a bed and breakfast. There were no other guests staying on the top floor that night, so we didn't need to share the bathroom with anyone outside our family. The home was gorgeous! Our room had four bunk beds and one queen size bed. The first five nights Nadia had her own bed. On nights six through eight she had to sleep on a couch. The night we spent at the bed and breakfast was the only one that included breakfast. I brought packets of oatmeal from home, so we haven't had to spend any money on breakfast for me here in Alaska thus far. In Girdwood they each ate one Danish or one donut for breakfast. In Seward they ate breakfast sandwiches that we purchased at the grocery store. The hot breakfast our host cooked was delicious - a yogurt parfait with fresh fruit and granola, French toast, bacon, and scrambled eggs. Unfortunately, Ian threw up because a blueberry went down the wrong pipe. I gave him a Benadryl because at first, I thought it was a reaction to a nut, but there weren't any nuts in the granola. I had to do a bit of a Heimlich maneuver on him for the first time ever to help him. The host family are Christians. We had a lovely chat with her at breakfast. We could have had dinner with them the night before, but the price was a bit too steep. It was actually a better price than what most restaurants charge, but we've been avoiding paying the usual prices by eating pizza or using a gift card. Oliver enjoys trying new foods, and he's had both clam chowder and salmon chowder for the first time on this trip. He had trout chowder in January in Harrisburg. I've begun planning our trip to Louisianna in May 2025, and on that trip, I've decided to include fewer chain restaurants so that we can try more local food. Alaska is a very beautiful state, but it's definitely not a cheap place to visit. I'm thankful we have the resources to come!
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