myumyumyu

In addition to learning about bears at the REI class that we went to, I finally saw my first real life, wild moose! Charlie and I were driving back home along Seward Highway last week, and we saw this guy on the side of the road:

Moose!

We were super touristy and made three U-turns so that we could keep driving by it. He looked up occasionally but otherwise just kept eating the grass on the edge of the highway. Awesome experience.

This past weekend, Oisin, Charlie, Stella, and I went down to Seward for a Kenai Fjords cruise tour, where we caught glimpses of wildlife (whales, porpoises, puffins, and sea lions):

We're on a boat.

Something that I've been meaning to write about is these dead trees that I've seen all over the area. They're a result of a massive 9.2 earthquake that happened almost 60 years ago. The 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake caused the ground along Turnagain Arm to sink 10 feet. The trees all along Seward Highway, which follows Turnagain Arm, died from the seawater. As a result, this is a common sight throughout southeastern Alaska:

Dead tree, a result of the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake

I've reached the halfway point of my visit to Alaska. It seems like the time has passed both very quickly and very slowly. I've gotten to the point of being able to just look at and appreciate mountains, rather than take 200 pictures of them every time I see them. :)

July 4th is this week, and we're really curious to see how fireworks in broad daylight will appear.