Saturday..Aug 22, 2009

Happy Birthday Mama & Teresa Wright....

We are excited this morning about getting on the ferry for a trip to Kodiak Island.

We have been on several ferries over the years, but this was a first. We drove on in groups of 4 vehicles. The platform we parked on then went down like an elevator, turned sideways and we drove off the platform down in the belly of the ferry. Then the platform turned back, went up and collected 4 more vehicles etc until we were all on board. It took almost 2 hours to load all the cars. We were late leaving port, but the sun was high and so was I. The ferry is the MV Kennicott and is about 400ft long.

We can see a NOAA ship & a Western Cruise Ship just off our starboard side. We get a close up view of the glaciers that have been staring at us while on the Homer Spit. The seas are calm and the ride is long but memorable.

We first past through a group of islands called the Barren Islands. That's a good name, because there is nothing on them, just rocks in the middle of the ocean. There are some park rangers from the National Park Service on board explaining that these barren islands are a critical habitat for the sea birds to nest. Because they are barren there are no predators for the birds.

May favorite sea bird remains the Puffin. They are a funny looking bird, almost like a penguin; black & white with a fat belly. They have bright orange trim around their faces while in mating season. The reason they are my favorite is because they are so funny. They float around on the water eating so much that when they try to fly away they have to literally run across the water to get enough speed up to become airborne.
Puffin

We are visited by several orca whales. We see them so plainly in their black and white attire. We see them spraying water and diving all around us. However, our photos only show an occasional water spout.

We are also visited by hump back whales. They are right in front of the ship. We see the large mother whale repeatedly jump, roll & crash back into the sea. I am told this is called breaching.

(this photo,like the puffin is borrowed not mine)

We also see her extend her fin from the water and slap the water repeatedly. Then we see her baby repeat the slapping and then they do it in unison. Not sure if you can tell from these photos, but that's her fin and the baby's fin.

We finally arrive at Kodiak and another 1 1/2 to repeat the elevator loading/unloading procedure. It's dark when we leave the ferry terminal. Our GPS is TOTALLY lost. It doesn't recognize any of the roads. We have to find our way to the lodge the old fashion way; we stop, get a map and ask directions.

The lodge is located about 10miles south of town next to the Russian Creek. We meet our hosts Ron & Judy Eller of Beaver Creek Lodge and fall into a comfy bed.