Last year Brad and I went with my mom and dad on an Alaskan cruise. People who know me - know that I Loooooooooooove to cruise. Alaska was awesome...although I still love Hawaii best.
I've decided that even though it is a year late, I'll post about the Alaskan cruise. I'll definitely post about Hawaii later, too. Here are some videos from Alaska. Sorry for the jumpiness (ok, so it is severe at times and may make you sick), but it was a new camera and my arm was getting tired and I was excited at the sites and ok...so I'm bad at it.
There are some videos of the whales that we saw and the glacier. The whale watching experience was one that I'll never forget. It was a serene and humbling experience. I absolutely LOVE the whales. I wish I could have captured them coming up out of the water, but I couldn't. We got a rare experience with them.
At breakfast, my mom was telling us about how the other day she saw this thing on discovery channel about how these whales do this thing called bubble net feeding (at this point I'm not real interested because it is early in the morning and I'm thinking "ok, mom. we're not going to see that). She continues to explain all about it and I only half listened. Well...later that day we go on our excursion and they tell us what to watch for, so we can help them find the whales. As I am heading back up to go outside, I think I see a spray (which means there is a whale), but I'm afraid to say anything because I don't really want to be embarrassed if it's not. But wait -- I thought saw another and another. Well now I wasn't going to say anything because I'm sure they'll see it and I needed to get up on deck to get a good spot.
Sure enough they announce on the boat that there seems to be a large group of about 4 whales. Wait scratch that -- there were actually 8 of them. WOW!!! They were so shocked (because that rarely happens) that they shut the galley down on the boat and even the people who worked on the boat came to watch too. They said they only see that about once a year and never that early.
Come to find out -- they were bubble net feeding. Grreeeaaaaattttt. Who wasn't listening at breakfast? That would be me! Don't worry - the nice man on the boat explained it all to us.
This is when they feed in large groups. One whale is in charge and talks to the other whales. They go under water and circle around the fish blowing bubbles. The fish (bless their hearts) thinks that the bubbles are a net and think they can't get out, so they stay there. At once, the whales go under them and jump up out of the water with their mouths open catching the fish. It is AMAZING and so powerful to watch them. Imagine 8 whales (the size of a school bus) jumping out of the water at once with their mouths open. Oh - My - Gosh!!!!!!! And you can see the fish going in their mouth. It is incredible. So, why did I not get it on video? Because you never know where they are going to pop out of the water. Once they go under, they can travel different distances in different directions and you can't see them until they jump. But here's a picture of it for you...
This picture shows a few of their heads. This is just after they have come up. Imagine them coming half way out of the water. They are incredibly huge, so it is just amazing.
This picture shows more of how it looks. However, this is still more of what they look like once they have come up out of the water and are on their way back down. I so wish I could have captured them right as they came out of the water.
What I do have in video is them talking to each other. I was literally "ooing" and "aaaing" over this. It was incredible to listen to. I think I actually had tears in my eyes at one point. Sappy - I know.
Couple of things that I learned that I thought I was pass along:
1. When you see the whales tails come all the way out of the water, that means they are going on a deep dive. You won't see them for a while.
2. Their tails are what they are identified by. There is a registry that you can go to and add pictures of different whale tails and that is how they track them. Haven't checked into this but should.
3. Their talking and communicating sounds like a cross between a horn and a cow mooing. It is incredible.
Enjoy the videos.
Later, I'll post about the Glaciers & other beautiful things in Alaska!
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