May 25th, a few notable things happened on this date in history. Let’s walk down memory lane.
In the year 1787, the Constitutional Convention formally convened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Even though years prior we thought we had worked out the mechanisms of this fledgling country, there were some issues. The States were still united but the road was bumpy. Without a stable government commerce was suffering. Taxes (revenue) weren’t being levied and uprisings were common.
This new convention would hem and haw until Sept 14, 1787 when they would sign their newly created Constitution and submit it for ratification. It only took about 4 months to lay the foundation for our two house system. Wow, that’s pretty fast considering how long it takes our modern politicians to act.
Also of note was Ford’s announcement in 1927, that it would not longer manufacture the Model T. A staple to early 20th century Americans for transportation.
The Model T was desirable for a number of reasons: low cost, durability, versatility, and ease of maintenance. Anyone with a few tools and thinking skills could alter or repair these mass produced marvels. Unlike modern mechanics which need a IT specialist to program the time and FM channels.
Fast forward to the last quarter of the 20th century and an event far more personal to myself occured. A joyful birth of a baby girl named Elizabeth! Happy birthday to a wonderful lady who’s gift of encouraging reading in children has touched countless young ones and continues to do so.
Yesterday was our “end of year” field trip. We’ve still got a few weeks left but a little early celebration never hurt anyone.
Before we boarded we spent some time exploring around the docks.
The Sovereign, a City of Seward tender. Lil Mister observing the suspension and breaking system of these old railway cars.Giant puffin mural.Carved sea otter benches.A cool old padlock, somewhere there’s a key to this heart…Spray foam fixes everything!The three munchkins with Dean & I reflecting.He’s so adorable.
Major Marine Tours out of Seward took us out for a 4 hour tour. (Glad it wasn’t three and the weather wasn’t rough.)
Captain Marcelle navigated the “Kenai Fjords 360” throughout Resurrection Bay like a boss.
First thing we see after leaving port are Dall’s Porpoises swimming with our boat. They look like little baby Orcas. They were quite amusing swimming and jumping out of the water, crisscrossing in front of the bow.
Once we were underway the Capt put this nav map up for us to reference. It helped keep our bearings for sure.
Then we saw a bald eagle perched on an enormous rock. We spotted a sea otter in Thumb Cove.
After traveling past Fox Island we saw some Stellar Sea Lions sunning themselves on Mary’s Rock. Captain Marcelle was terrific for getting us excellent views of the wildlife. We had a beautiful day, sunshine, 41-45° air temp and no sea swell! Simply gorgeous spring day!
We cruised past Barwell Island on the east side of Resurrection Bay, which has some WW II era bunkers. Then the best thing happened, another vessel alerted us to a pod of three Orcas just two hours into our tour! What an awesome inspiring moment!
We also experienced a mirage, called fata morgana, of Montague Island. It made the island look like a plateau instead of the peaked mountain tops it has. Once we changed position and could look back at the Island you could once again see it’s peaks and valleys. So weird!
Besides the abundance of wildlife that we saw and learned a few facts about (did you know there were 10 types of Orcas worldwide and three types that frequent our Alaskan waters?) we also learned about history (WW II, Russian exploration, President Harding and the Good Friday Quake) and geology when we passed some unusual rock formations of pillow basalt. It was quite the learning experience!
Our route was the red one. It would be nice to take the blue one some day!
We peeked into Carol’s Cove to observe 6 Harbour Seals on our way back towards the west side of Resurrection Bay where we had a great view of Bear Glacier. Lil Bit was excited for this one, she really wanted to see the seals. It’s nice to see them elsewhere, than in our nets stealing our fish! Then we spotted two coastal mountain goats on the sheer face of the mountain side! And another Harbor Seal in the water along the Callisto Cliffs.
Lil Bit observing the Harbour Seals with binoculars.There were 6 seals sunning themselves.
Nearly 4 pm and our tour is about over, what a wonderful experience! I love seeing the rugged beauty and bounty of Alaska. And seeing landmarks like Cain’s Head which we’ve explored a couple of times on foot. I think Lil Bit counted 8 species in total that we spotted today. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves! Little Mister was most comfortable on the bow feeling the wind rush through his hair. Thing 2 wasn’t in too many pics as he enjoyed the freedom of roaming about the boat at will.
I’m very grateful for the homeschooling resources we have with IDEA and the rich experiences we get to have thanks to their efforts. Trips like these would be out of reach for us without them.
We did the real Alaskan experience last night, pulled an all-nighter in -13° temps quartering a salvage moose. (I posted pics previously.)
Alaska is serious about not wasting game meat. Even salvage moose still has useful meat left after an impact, these animals are just so big. But this poor girls torso was too far gone.
The truck that hit her did not fare well. I hope the occupants are okay.
The best we can do for these animals is make sure they don’t go to waste. The ultimate environmentally friendly action
Alaska on my mind... 