Alaska- Day 6

Our last port of call was Icy Strait in the town of Hoonah. Dale, Jim, Chuck, Kristi and I all went whale watching about a half hour boat ride off the main port and we saw bunches of whales. Apparently whales are normally solitary creatures but these 50 ft. mammals were in schools of up to 6! While they were really cool to see I’ll admit, the “Ohhhh”’s when the whale breached the water and “Here it comes” when the whales dove and the ever present “Magnificent!” from the guy to my left was over the top. The boat sounded like they put that When Harry Met Sally scene on replay for an hour and a half. Really people…

After we got back to the dock Jim had had enough of being out and went back to the ship. The rest of us checked out the local shops (1 strip mall’s worth) and took a nature hike. Chuck was a brave man and checked out a suspicious hole for us, even using the proper bear precautions by announcing he was human. Very cool hike, neat trees, and a “waterfall” (at least by namesake) that got Kristi excited. We had lunch mid-afternoon and headed back. Not the most exciting port of call, but not too bad since we were tired anyway.

That evening had some fun activities though. As Greg recapped in his blog, the Quest scavenger hunt was that night. I was on a team with Sturgis’s, Sacks’s and Dale and we kicked butt! At various points in the game Dale and Dave dirty danced, Chuck strutted, Kristi acted like a dead fly, and I stripped Dale so he could change shirts with Rachel. Too funny! For more on this read Greg’s Blog.

The night ended on an (off-key) high note when Greg, Bryan, Dad and Dale got up to sing karaoke with a live band. Dale's going to help me post a video so you can enjoy for yourself!

Last night: On-board all day!