Today we took a Sam Stephens wildlife and glacier cruise out of Port Valdez. In fact, Mr. Stephens was there the evening before when we purchased our tickets, and we were able to visit with him. When we returned from our cruise, both he and his wife were there. They seem to be a very down-to-earth couple. On the cruise we were served a delicious minestrone soup, and I asked her the name of soup company. Found out they are also vegetarians. Our favorite sea animal is the sea otter. When they are not feeding on clams, they lay on their backs soaking up the sunshine. Sometimes there will be two or three and sometimes there will be a large number. They appear to like to watch the tourists go by. The buoy had two sea lions on it when we came up. One got off but then wanted to get back on. It was fun to watch while it made several attempts before being successful. This is the try that was successful. The one already on the buoy was making quite a ruckus. Maybe some of you have seen the noisy sea lions on the wharf in San Francisco. The real highlight of the trip was to see the glacier calve. This is our third trip to Alaska and the first time to see a glacier calve. Two years ago we went on two glacier tours, and when we did the Princess cruise we stopped at several glaciers. None of them calved except some small chunks of ice falling off. Click on the glacier to see the calving. By the way, in blogspot you can double click on any picture to see it in a larger format.