Fox Creek and Point Adolphus
At his morning wakeup call, Art gently urged us to come up on deck to see gauzy, fog-laden Idaho Inlet and a group of six very relaxed sea otters. The furry creatures eyed us lazily as they carefully groomed their rich, thick coats to keep them clean and full of insulating air. One otter crunched on a succulent Dungeness crab, reminding some of us of our delicious crab dinner of a few nights ago.
After breakfast we anchored in a quiet cove for kayaking, beach walks and hikes into the forest. The kayak group followed the rocky coast to harbor porpoises and humpback whales in the mist. Forest hikers inhaled the sweet fragrance of wild orchids. Beach walkers touched the slick surface of the sea lettuce and the sticky tentacles of the anemones.
Tucker and Helen Quinlan hummed sweetly to a hermit crab to coax it into sticking its legs out of the shell for a walk about on Tucker’s hand. Later on the beach walk Tucker blasted out a tune on his bull kelp trumpet, calling for whales in the area to share our love of this watery paradise. The call from the intertidal zone must have worked its magic. A short time later, a young humpback whale danced in front of the Sea Lion for over an hour as we watched in awe and wonder. The young animal frolicked about, rolling over and over, leaping clear of the water in magnificent breaching displays, crashing back into the sea with tremendous splashes. Its exuberant and infectious play had us all pointing and shouting as we stood on the bow witnessing, and recording the event as best we could with our cameras. Fortunately, Kirk was on the bow with us to video the action for us.
Our humpback theater was accompanied by a background of harbor porpoises, who were quietly with us as the larger mammals took on the starring role. The Sitka spruce and hemlock along the nearby shore provided a dramatic and scenic backdrop. We breathe deeply of the soft Alaskan sea and forest. Let our eyes rest on the gentle green and gray of the land, sea and sky. And feel at ease.
