Kenai Peninsula

It was a cloudy gray day in Anchorage, but that didn't stop us from jumping in the car and taking a drive down the Kenai Peninsula. Even the gray skies didn't stop the scenery from being absolutely beautiful.

While driving down Turnagain Arm, we stopped and saw a small pod of beluga whales chasing the spawning salmon. Do you see the beluga's white back in the middle of the water?

Andrew was very excited to see the whales, especially when we told him it was pretty special to see them.

We watched the whales for quite some time.

It didn't take us long before we saw our first glacier. It was high up on the mountain, but we could still see the blue ice.

There were running salmon everywhere!

We drove through the longest shared car/railroad tunnel to Whittier. We didn't stay in Whittier long. It was a very ho-hum town, and since we weren't catching a glacier cruise, we immediately turned around and headed back through the tunnel.

On the road again, we decided to drive down to Seward. After being in the car for so long, we decided to make a quick stop and let Andrew throw rock after rock into a roadside lake.

Once in Seward, we went to the Alaska SeaLife Center to learn about wildlife in and around Alaska. Andrew had just woken up from a nap, was a bit grouchy, and was not at all excited about the big crabs.

He did enjoy watching the crazy antics of the sea birds.

He especially liked the puffins that cruised through their pond.

He was also a bit apprehensive about touching the sea urchins and sea anemones.

We closed the SeaLife Center and went to a local restaurant for a delicious dinner. Just up the road from the restaurant was Exit Glacier and seeing that it stays light in Alaska until nearly 11 p.m., we thought it would be fun to hike up to the glacier.

Andrew thought it was great to go on a hike at his normal bedtime.

The glacier was so very blue, even in the gray weather.

Andrew kept saying he loved staying up late and he loved not having the sun set early.

Hopefully it won't be too much of a shock to his system when we get home and get back on a regular schedule!