Day 9- Sealions and Eagles and Whales, Oh my.

Eight am was our wake up time this morning, which came way too early. I was glad I felt a lot less sea sick when I woke up, because last night was really bad. When we got up we headed up to the Windjammer buffet for breakfast. It was so crowded, we ended up having to eat way in the back of the ship, where it's pretty much open air. It was really cold, but it paid off when we got to see a couple of bald eagles flying around by the ship. Apparently, this isn't that uncommon. We later heard an Alaskan refer to bald eagles as their 'pigeons'. Somehow I doubt people are kicking them when they're sitting on park benches, though. Plus, I mean, just because something is pretty common around here doesn't mean I'll get to see (ahem, Moose).

Today was also our only excursion we have planned for the whole trip. We took a bus ride through Juneau, with a pretty informative guide. She told us random things like how the school is built on a fault line, and when anyone needs pretty much anything major at a hospital (including having babies) they take them by helicopter to Seattle. She also told us about how people in Juneau don't like Sarah Palin, but everyone else in Alaska does. Apparently, even though it's the capitol, she hardly ever spent any time there. She would fly in for the day (there's no roads going into Juneau), but never stay very long. Her family was only ever seen there once, her husband twice. She's apparently pushed really hard to move the capitol to somewhere else, but the people from Juneau always vote it down. Despite this, I did see a Sarah Palin cut out that people were taking pictures with (although, I'm sure they were tourists), Clint and Jess said they noticed a lot of Obama paraphernalia around. She also told us about when McDonald's first opened and people flew in their float planes to get hamburgers for their whole little town. They sold out by noon, and couldn't reopen for two weeks until they had their food flown back in.

Our whale watching boat was nice. They had free hot chocolate, and donuts. Later in the evening Holly was talking about how Gwen had two hot chocolates, but apparently she had more, because Asa and I also got her some. She's really learning how to work this a lot of adults around system. Anyway, we saw one whale out about 200 yards, but he didn't come back up. They were pretty easy to spot, once you saw the water spouting from their blow hole. We also came up on a buoy, that had about 5 sealions on it, and a bald eagle sitting on the top for good measure. Today I learned that the difference between sealions and seals has something to do with the way their flippers rotate. Because of this, seals don't have the ability to climb up to places like the buoy the sealions were on today. Seeing wild animals is so much cooler than seeing them in the zoo. (I say this now because I've seen cool animals from a safe distance, not like I've run into a grizzly in the forest or something- that would be terrifying).
We kept going and found 6 whales, which is really unusual. They are usually isolated animals. The six of them were bubble net feeding, which the lady tour director said was the rarest behavior to catch a humpback doing. They would jump out of the water, with their mouths open 90 degrees, it was really cool to see. Everyone on board would gasp and hurriedly grab their cameras everytime they came up. They can stay underwater for 10 to 15 minutes of a time, so you'd just sit there with your camera all ready, and then try your best to get it before they went back under. Apparently, theres a wildlife protection act that you can only stay with a whale or a group of whales for 30 minutes, then you have to move on. We stayed the full 30 minutes, and had to leave. Then we came upon a mom and a calf. It was a larger calf though, she said about 3. Which in humpback whale world, is kind of like a 35 year old living at home. The same act says that you can't approach a whale any closer than 100 yards, but if they approach you it's ok. Nice loophole there, the mom and baby were very close to the boat compared to the other whales. I haven't looked at my pictures on the computer yet, on my camera screen it all just looked like black dots and lines, so hopefully when I check them out on here I can see a bit more.After the cruise they took us back to downtown. We decided we should stop by this crab shack everyone had been raving about, even though it seems crazy to buy food when you can have so much for free. But, it's crab.. and Asa. Those two go together like Hayden and toy story, Justin and Showgun Total War. So, we had to stop. We got the crab bisque and some crab cakes. Asa considered the crab legs, but it was $25 a leg. Asa made the comment that everytime they catch a crab, it's $150 in their pocket. But, I mean these crabs were massive. They had some pictures hanging up, and Hayden commented that the crabs were even bigger than him. And then he said he hopes he doesn't have nightmares about them, so I'm not sure what that fear is all about. The food was delicious, but it was just a little building outside so you had to eat outisde as well. Ok, I'm going to say it. I am FREEZING here. It's cold, it's windy, it's rainy. Did I mention it's cold? Because it is. A LOT.Because we were all freezing, we decided to keep on the move and walk around town. I found it really interesting the the side streets all consisted of staircases going way up the side of the mountains. That was it, just a staircase and a green street sign. Wonder how you mapquest to those houses. We went in some shops, for the boys to spend some of their money. Hayden got a moose puppet and some little toy whales, Peyton got a stuffed penguin, and Calib got a dream catcher. Then we decided to head back and get onto the boat.

Dinner was delicious in the dinning room. It was the first night all of us were there together. It's nice because our table seats 12, so we don't have to sit with anyone else. Not that anyone else would want to sit with us, and our loud (sometimes whiny) children. Apparently, Garrett is one of four kids under 3 on the ship. I think we all often get looks like, why would you take that many kids on an Alaskan vacation. It's a bit of an older crowd here. Translation- the old folks don't like the youngin's messing with their vacation time. (Evident by how many times we've been told to quite down). Asa and Cort both ordered two deserts, because, really, why not? (I'll tell you why not, because Cort had pistachio ice cream, and that's just disgusting). Plus the waiters sang, and everyone got to swing their napkins in the air, which Gwen in particular enjoyed.
We took the kids back to the club after dinner. Gwen and Hayden got their face painted and made super hero capes. Hayden was very upset when he had to shower and wash it off. He said 'I'm not super Hayden anymore, now, I'm just Hayden with a cape.' The important thing is he's enjoying his babysitters.. er, I mean, club. Tomorrow they can be there from 9 to 5- score! Now lets just hope I don't feel so sea sick. I keep thinking 'maybe tomorrow will be better', and then it isn't really. Asa however loves cruising, and has plans to only vacation this way forever. I suspect this has something to do with the massive amount of food at his disposal-- he ordered room service TWICE tonight after dinner. I told him if his 34 pants don't fit him when we get home, I'm not buying new ones. Asacation project number one: make sure he fits into his work pants.
It's actually kind of dark outside tonight, as we head south the days get shorter. So much for taking my day light picture at 2:30. Cort has one from Denali, maybe I'll snag that one.
One more 'today I learned' useless tidbit of information for you all.. Juneau's capitol building was voted the second ugliest capitol in the country.. Number 1? Florida.
Speaking of Florida, guys down there, send me some warm air and sunshine, I'm freezing to death up here.

Next Stop: Skagway, Alaska.