USA – Day 18 – Whale soup

Hope I didn’t scare you too much with my last post. That wasn’t really my internet bill. I have no idea what was going on but thought it was so funny when that flashed up at the end of my 15min internet sessions :-).

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Another early morning for us. After breakfast at Windjammers we went ashore in the tender boat to meet our whale watching guide Flyod from F.I.S.H.E.S. A short drive later and we arrived at the lovely harbour. Unfortunately my memory card mucked up so I have no photos to share from this morning – only what Kevin took – but we’re hoping to get the photos off the card when we get home. So you’ll just have to believe me when I tell you it was very beautiful. The whole area was stunning (as most of Alaska has been) but we also had sunshine :-).

Almost as soon as left the harbour we started seeing humpback whales. Flyod only stops in there is more than one!!! We stopped by a 3 youngen’s who were playing in the kelp for a while. And then headed out to where there were whales wherever you looked. It was AMAZING!!!! The soundsof the blows is so loud plus Floyd has a microphone in drops in the water so we could listen to them talking to each other. I will definitely have share some video later on.

Love that you can see all the barnacles on the tail

There were actually 3 tail flukes but Kevin only caught two on camera.

They are SOOO huge. At one point we had about 6 of them come right towards us…..and dive under the boat. A moment we’ll never forget.

In addition to the whales there were lots of sea lions playing around and checking us out.

So cute.

This was one fantastic tour. Absolutely unbelievable. I’d heard it was good but did not expect it to be this amazing. So glad we were on the small boat. Oh,if you’re wondering about the whale soup title – that’s what it’s called when the ocean is full of whales :-). And that’s definitely what it was today.

By 11am we were back on board and I sat out on the deck to work on blog posts (and discover that my memory card had died 🙁 ). Luckily I had all Kevin’s wonderful photos (and hopefully we recover the ones I took).

It was such a beautiful day that when we got lunch from the Solarium (originally went to Windjammers but there wasn’t anything exciting vegetarian & the place was packed) we took it back to our balcony to enjoy. I had another of the delicious vegetarian quesidillas and bowl of salad.

I spent much of the afternoon lying out on the deck and reading – until, you won’t believe it, I actually got much to hot and had to move back inside. Later it cooled off and I went back out as we left Icy Strait Point.

At 5pm we headed down to the Centrum to meet up with Brenda (my online/facebook friend) and her husband Cary. We had a lovely time chatting over drinks. Until a band started up and it got too loud.

So we headed up to the Colony Club where we chatted until tonights special event – a Mystery Murder Dinner Theatre. We were having such a fun time chatting that we managed to change our dinner table numbers so we could sit together.

Our night started with champagne (we gave ours to Brenda & Cary) and an appetizer.

The characters were introduced and the storyline established.

It was very funny and well done – with most (if not all) of the actors coming from the dancers/singers onboard. We recognised quite a few from the show the other night. After the murder we were taken next door to Giovanni’s. Such a gorgeous restaurant – loved the full height windows and ambience.

We were seated opposite Brenda & Cory so got to enjoy the lovely view outside while dined.

But it did make it a little bit awkward to see the actors, and what was going on, behind us. After they took our orders the body was wheeled out. Poor man was shot in the groin.

Dinner was 4 courses – antipasta (which I don’t really care for), cesear salad and then a vegetarian main – which was delicious.

In between each course a bit more of the storyline was played out and we had the opportunity to question each suspect.

In the end we submitted our murderer guess and enjoyed the best Tiramisu I’ve ever had.

And it was presented so beautifully it deserves two photos. The chocolate was particularly divine.

Then the murderer was announced. I didn’t guess it right. I don’t think too many people did. But it sure was a fun night. Made even better because we got to spend it with Brenda & Cary. Such a fun and interesting couple. I hope we get to see them again before with disembark – in just 2 days :-(.

They invited us to join them to watch their favourite entertainer but it was past 10am and we getting rather tired after our early start so we said goodnight, had a quick look through the shops and headed back to our room for a bit of reading before lights out. We have no actual plans for tomorrow in Ketchican so we’re just going to go at our own pace in the morning.