Alaska: Day 7
Today was just great! Slept in a little, grabbed a totally decent falafel for lunch, then headed to Seward for a kayak outing, after making a quick stop at Walmart for some cold-weather gear (thus breaking my self-imposed Walmart ban).
We did a 6 to 10 p.m. guided outing on Resurrection Bay, with Kayak Adventures Worldwide. Given the extended daylight hours here, it was more like a daytime outing on a cloudy afternoon. Except cold!
The trip was great — we saw a couple sea otters (adorable!) and some sea lions (large and fascinating). The sea lions followed us for a good while, briefly getting right behind the two-seat kayak I was sharing with a new friend I met at the wedding the other day. Even our very excellent guide, Fran (whom I highly recommend!), seemed a little concerned about how close they were staying to us.
The water temperature was in the upper 30s, with the air temperature probably close to 50, but with a little wind and rain. I wore an undershirt, pullover, rain jacket, stocking cap and long pants. I rented rain pants from the guides, and wore a life jacket and skirt (to keep water out of the cockpit). I was toasty enough with all that that I was able to keep my hands glove-free, which I prefer.
The waves were fairly gentle, and the two-seat kayak was very stable, so no worries. It was awesome paddling around on a slightly foggy bay with ice-capped mountains in the background. Oh, and the cute otters! And, I saw a rainbow in the mountains for the second day in a row!
This was definitely my best kayak outing ever. I want to come back to Alaska for some longer kayak trips.
Got back to Anchorage a little after 1a.m. (hit some road construction), and posted pictures to my Flickr account. No photos in the water because of the rain, but some shots from a break we took halfway through the trip.



