8/31/2007 (journaled 7/31/2013)

Alaska. Such an amazing place. We woke up early and crawled out of our seaside campsite to find a beautiful sunrise.

We then made our way into town to take a look around, and found ourselves at the Alaska SeaLife Center and checked out the animals on exhibit. I tend not to like animal jails but it wasn’t so bad.

The only bummer of the day, and perhaps the trip, was watching locals snag salmon. That may not be the word for it, but essentially as the salmon were moving into whatever creek is in town, people would be at the mouth with stick and fishing rods with big hooks, throwing the hooks into the water and yanking hard so that the hooks would snag the fish, ripping into them and making for a gross site. It did not seem they were fishing, just killing for fun.

It was then off to our big adventure for the day: a tour of Resurrection Bay and Kenai Fjords National Park by boat. We saw many beautiful sites, continued our streak of seeing lots of animals, whales, bears, puffins, bald eagles, etc. Very cool!!! There was also a National Park Ranger on board and Hayden earned his Junior Ranger Badge for Kenai Fjords. When we got back, we wondered around some more and checked out the fishing boats bringing in and cleaning their catch. An awesome, fun day!