Our Epic Alaskan Adventure - June 14-25, 2014 (Southbound on the NCL Sun)

As I mentioned on another post, I learned so much on this forum, so i thought i would pass along some hopefully helpful information in the form of a trip review. I'll try to be detailed and include some pictures (one of my favorite parts of the trip was the photography opportunities), but it may take me some time to finish. i've never done one of these before, so feel free to pass along tips! I hope this is helpful. :)

My traveling crew consisted of myself, husband, our sons (8 and 5), my mom, my dad, my 32 year old single brother, my aunt and uncle, and a family friend. The ages of our group spanned from 5 to 70. The whole crew put the trip in my hands to plan and told me to do whatever i wanted. i did a lot of research on here and trip advisor, and i think it all turned out well.

on saturday morning, we left charlotte, nc around 10:30 am on american airlines to dallas-fort worth. we had a 2-3 hour layover in dallas, and then boarded another american plane for the long almost 7 hour journey to anchorage. we left DFW around 3:30 pm, and were scheduled to land at ANC at 7:20 pm. i got a great deal on our flights - about $550 each (CLT to ANC, and then Vancouver back to Charlotte). A lot of searching on Kayak paid off. Anyway, the flight to ANC was long but otherwise uneventful. the kids did fine as did all the grown ups.

We landed around 7:20, met up with our party who flew on united and headed to the Avis desk. I had rented 2 SUV's one way from ANC to Whittier, where the cruise left from 48 hours later. this was EXPENSIVE at almost $1100 for the 2 cars, but for 10 people, it wasn't a bad way to travel and $110 per person for transportation isn't all that bad (my rationale anyway). the avis lady tried to give us a rather small Kia SUV and after some pleading, i was able to talk her into 2 Ford Explorers (we had enough luggage to last a month, i'm pretty sure). **Remember airport and luggage because this is going to be important tomorrow.

We loaded up the SUVs and headed out of the airport and out of ANC. the plan was to find dinner and then head on down the Seward Highway for the night's accommodations. I have no idea where this is, but we found a great restaurant and brewery between the airport and the turnoff for the Seward Highway - we all enjoyed the meal.

It was about 8 pm Alaska time, and so our bodies thought it was about midnight EST. The kids fell asleep in the middle of the restaurant, and so we lugged them out to the cars and headed south.

as everyone promised, the drive out of Anchorage down Turnagain Arm is gorgeous. I took so many good photos from the passenger side of the Ford Explorer.

the accommodations for the night i was a bit worried about - we wanted to stay somewhere between ANC and Seward, because i was afraid we'd be too tired to drive all the way to Seward after a 14 hour travel time. So after looking at all the options - most B&Bs were full, and the Alyeska Resort was beautiful but $260 per night - we decided to take a chance and booked the Bird Ridge Motel. there wasn't a lot online about it, but i found a few reviews that stated exactly what i thought about it. it was by no means fancy, but it was clean, and at $89 per night, it was a downright steal. so we pull up here around 10:30 pm or so.

my mom and aunt catch a sight of this place and break out into a hysterical laughing fit. i think it was the fatigue. my brother posted a really funny Facebook status that said something to the effect of, "if we go missing in the night, here's where we are", with this pic:

all things considered, it was fine. the owners (whose names are slipping my mind right now) are super nice and the bathrooms looked to be newly remodeled. the wife packed us each a basket of coffee and pastries for breakfast and we headed back to our rooms. it was june 15, so still pretty bright around midnight, and i don't really think it ever got dark, just twilight. i'm pretty sure we all fell asleep immediately even with the light, and thus ended our first day of our alaskan adventure.

next up will be sunday, july 15, which brought 2 unexpected trips back to the airport and most importantly, a 6 hour wildlife cruise (so amazing).

Enjoyed your report and look forward to your report from July 15.

Keith

Thanks for the report!

Looking forward to reading your review. I was on the same cruise.

Sent from my GT-P5210 using Forums mobile app

I'm going to try to do this quickly, but i can't make any promises, as it took a while to get the pictures on photobucket.

Sunday, June 15

Sunday morning we woke up around 8 am and stepped out the door of the Bird Ridge into the great outdoors. I had instructed all my crew to pack a weekend bag so everyone didn't have to dig into their real luggage until we got on the Sun. My mom followed my advice very well, and that was the reason that she didn't notice that she was missing her suitcase until Sunday morning around 8:30. I still can't figure out how she missed it at the airport, but we chalked it up to fatigue and excitement. After a few unsuccessful phone calls to the ANC airport, my brother and i decided to drive back up there and check it out for ourselves. The Bird Ridge is in Indian, AK so only about 30-40 minutes from the airport. We got up there, and he dropped me off at baggage claim while he stayed in the car. Long story short, no one really works at the airport (especially at the American counter) until they have a flight come in. I found some really helpful Alaskan airlines ladies that clued me in as to where the bag probably was. I went to the US Airways office behind the baggage claim and lo and behold, i saw the bag. right behind a locked door that no one could open for me.

after begging and pleading we realized it was a lost cause. we committed to going on with our day in seward and coming back later to get the bag. so we went back to pick up the crew at the Bird, and then headed down Turnagain Arm to our wildlife cruise. we checked in for our 6 hour wildlife cruise in the Kenai Fjords National Park with Major Marine and got ready to board.

this cruise was AWESOME. we were hardly out of the dock before the whales starting appearing. we saw 3 types - humpbacks, orcas, and fin whales (i think?). we also saw puffins, eagles, seals, sea lions, porpoises, and all other types of things that i'm not remembering. we saw a calving glacier and other beautiful scenery - had an overall fantastic day. the park ranger was great. the major marine ship was comfortable and the bar was well-stocked. they make GREAT bloody mary's. everyone loved the salmon and prime rib. overall, would give this excursion 5 stars.

this huge bull orca swam right next to the boat. it was incredible.

sea lions have quite the life

i had no idea why they call it "ICE BLUE" until i saw glaciers. now i get it.

everywhere you look in alaska you see beauty

after we got off the wildlife cruise, we drove just down the street into downtown Seward where we had reservations at the Best Western. it was very reasonable, and really nice. our intention was to go to dinner and maybe see the Sea Life Center, but instead my parents and other family took my kids to dinner, while my husband and i made the long trek back up to ANC to retrieve the missing suitcase. we made it just over 2 hours, not too bad, and found someone to let us in. we retrieved the bag without much issue, and left quickly to go back down the scenic route to seward. we stopped again at the same Ale House as the night before - this time choosing to sit at the bar for a (delicious) pizza and beer. we made it back to the best western around midnight and crashed.

Next up - Monday takes us to Whittier and boarding the Sun

Monday June 16

We woke up early'ish as i remember it and packed up our things and loaded them back in the Ford Explorers. We had a very good and FREE hot breakfast at the Best Western, and then hit the road. Around 9:30 i think. the plan was to drive to Whittier to get on another Major Marine cruise out of Prince William Sound, this time highlighting all the area's glaciers. We were in line for the 11:30 tunnel opening with plenty of time. it started raining about this time, and it basically didn't stop for the whole day.

this is how i remember whittier

we boarded the major marine boat - this one was much smaller than the Kenai Fjords boat and off we went. it wasn't very full. seems like most people were on the Phillips 26 glacier cruise. in hindsight, i wish i would've tried that one instead. the major marine one was fine, and the meal was good again, but i wonder if we would've seen more had we tried the other company. anyway, once again, this boat had a great bar and a great meal (i started to think that my family was the only one that drank in alaska. the park ranger was again superb. unfortunately, he didn't have much subject matter with which to work on this day.

we went to a few glaciers, but none of them were calving. and we didn't see a single animal, save for some birds at a bird rookery. i really think the horrendous weather was at play here, so i know that we just had an off day. i would do this cruise again, so i don't want this to sound like a bad review. i think we had a bad mother nature day, and nothing more.

the highlights of the day for me were the meal (again, delicious salmon and good prime rib) and the glacier margaritas - probably a novelty, but who doesn't love margaritas?

the contrasting colors in alaska were beautiful

after getting off the glacier cruise, we unloaded our luggage in front of the port and my dad and i went to return the cars to the avis whittier office. it was a torrential downpour and all of us and our luggage got soaked. it was also cold and windy and just short of miserable. the avis whittier office is really like a tackle shop and there is one gas pump on the whittier side of the tunnel (in case anyone else needs to fill up before dropping off the cars). we returned the cars and trudged back to the ship in the rain. after going through the line, we boarded the Sun and went right to our room.

as we were boarding all of the crew that greets you were warning people about the expected rough seas and encouraging everyone to take medicine for seasickness. they were expecting 20-25 foot seas. we were in for a treat the first night aboard the Sun.

Next day Tuesday will feature Dramamine, seasickness and the Hubbard Glacier (almost). And then after that, the trip will get really awesome, i promise.

Doing the roundtrip Vancouver to Whittier to Vancouver starting on Monday...can't wait to read more--though maybe not about being seasick :)

We leave and 31 days. Can't wait to hear more.

one addition to Monday. The downside to leaving out of Whittier southbound (for us anyway) was that there wasn't much of a send-off celebration. i don't really remember them even mentioning it.

we purchased the ultimate dining package on norwegian, and enjoyed visiting all the premium restaurants. after our muster drill (held inside because of the weather), we enjoyed a hibachi dinner at Teppanyaki. Highly recommended - it was great. after that, i think most of us just went to our rooms and crashed.

Tuesday, June 17

i woke up around 2 am with a start. after a moment i realized that the boat was doing some serious rocking. we had upgraded to lovely mini-suites (great price on the upgrade), and we were in the front of the boat, Deck 11. i'm fairly certain we took the brunt of the storm. this was my 5th cruise, and i've never experienced anything like this. it was stomach-dropping, drawer-slamming, wave sloshing kind of weather. i turned on the ncl channel on the tv certain that there was an emergency announcement. i watched the progress of the boat until 3:30, trying to decide if i should wake up my husband and get the kids dressed. in my sleepy fog, i was convinced we were going to have to abandon ship - where i thought we were going to go, i'm not sure... lifeboats would've never survived those seas. i saw on the ncl screen - seas: 25 feet, wind conditions: 75 mph, hurricane. around 4:30 i finally fell asleep again.

we all woke up the next morning. my kids weren't feeling well. my husband wanted to go get breakfast, and was trying to convince them that they were fine. 5 minutes later he was in the bathroom puking his guts up. after a bit, i gave the kids dramamine, sent my husband to breakfast with my parents, and the kids and i went back to sleep for a 2-3 hour nap. when we woke up, we were out of the storm, i think. it definitely got much better.

i don't remember much about this day. i remember that we were supposed to get to Hubbard around 1, but the captain said we were about 4 hours late because of the storm. we spent the day exploring the ship, checking out the all-important kids club, casino, and other areas. we apparently went towards hubbard, but the captain declared we couldn't get close to it because of all the ice. so we turned around and headed on.

that night we had dinner at moderno- the brazilian steakhouse. i thought it was good as well. not as good as teppanyaki, but nice.

Wednesday, June 18 - Icy Strait Point

We were supposed to be in port from 9 am - 5 pm, and this port is the only tender port we visited. we needed to get off the boat early for our bear watching cruise. getting tender tickets was easy and uneventful and the tender process was fine. as we were on the tender, this was our first view of icy strait:

after the bad weather luck we'd had so far, i was hoping this was an omen of better things to come. it was.

i thought icy strait point looked super cute from the boat.

we browsed in the cruise port store for a few minutes, and then walked outside the gate to meet our guides. Our guides from TECKK outfitters showed up right on time at 9:30 in the 10 passenger van, and we were ready to see some bears! this is a family owned company (as most of our guides were), and it was the owners' 17 year old son and 21 year old nephew that guided us that day.

we first drove through the downtown area of Hoonah (don't blink or you'll miss it). i was immediately impressed with our guide's knowledge of the area. his family clearly taught him well. he gave so many interesting facts and stories about the area. hearing about their way of life in Hoonah was actually my favorite part about this tour. it was super interesting, and i think they have a great family and a really awesome life (despite graduating high school with 5 kids next year).

we drove up into the country, down many miles of dirt logging trails on the hunt for bears. beautiful, serene road - like we were the only people for miles.

unfortunately, there wasn't much to see that day. we drove and saw a lot of beautiful scenery, but not a ton of bears. in hoonah, there's one of the largest per capita brown bear (grizzly) population. but they eluded us. we saw one almost at the end of the trip but i couldn't get a picture of it.

beautiful scenery, but no bears

our great guides

(they only brought out the guns when we were far away from the van, it was purely for our safety and i was super impressed by their care and responsibility with handling them. brown bears are not like black bears, they are grizzly bears. their company has never had to fire the gun, so it's merely a precaution)

on the way back to town, as i mentioned we did see one bear, but we also saw this doe. the deer around hoonah are much smaller than the deer i'm used to in the south. this one was feisty, snorting and stamping at us a bit before turning around and walking into the woods.

Hoonah continued (Wednesday, June:

as i mentioned, i loved hearing about their way of life - they really respect the land, eat what's in season, and share the bounty with friends and neighbors. we talked a lot about the way they hunt and catch their food, do everything for themselves, and even how great of a cook their mom is. to be teenagers, they were super respectful, educated and impressive.

the island has one "grocery store" and it's smaller than a gas station. we went in there and things were quite expensive.

our day in icy strait, we had booked 2 excursions - the bear watch from 9:30 - 12:30 and a whale watch from 1-4. we booked the whale watch thru a different vendor because the 10 of us wanted to go together and most of the smaller vendors could only hold 6 on their boats.

anyway, i asked a local lady who booked the whale watch what we should do for lunch, and she suggested that we call in a pick-up order from "the restaurant" in town - Chipper Fish. their menu on their Facebook page was great and the reviews on trip advisor were stellar, so we agreed to do that. funny story: i asked the teckk guides about the restaurant and he confirmed that his cousin owned it, so i said, "is it good?" his response: "i don't know, i've never been there. we don't ever eat out." so different from the culture of the lower 49. the food at the chipper fish was quite good. expensive (as everything in alaska is) but good. most of the party got $15 burgers (which were HUGE), i got a chipotle chicken wrap, and my husband got salmon tacos. all were pleased. if you go there and get the burger, split it with a friend. the portions were huge, even for the guys.

after we picked up our lunches, the teckk guys drove the big white van down the city dock ( a definite first for me) and right up to our boat for our next tour. we ended up meeting their parents Keith and Edna who were just as friendly as the kids. we said goodbye, and waited on our whale boat. my teckk review: experience - super, even without a lot of bears. value: good. in hindsight, it was a bit expensive, but i think that hoonah is just an expensive place in general.

as we waited on captain paul to pick us up, we watched a crab boat come back in. these two had been out for 2-3 days and had thousands of crabs. they were pretty excited about their haul.

Hoonah continued -

Before we move on to whales, the other thing we saw in abundance in Hoonah was eagles. I enjoyed trying out my rental lens to capture them (i think i got better as the week went on)

this one had his feathers ruffled about something:

now, on to the whale watch:

Hoonah Continued:

Captain Paul with Hoonah Travel Adventures picked us up on the dock right at 1 pm. He had his assistant (Zack, i think?) and his 12 year old daughter on board. His boat was great, comfortable and roomy.

he found whales within a 5 minute period.mostly humpbacks in this area, and we saw LOTS of them. we also saw sea otters, sea lions, dall's porpoise and other wildlife.

here are some of my favorite shots from the day:

mommy and sea otter baby when our boat got too close, she grabbed the baby around the neck and dove for safety:

after a successful 3 hour whale watching excursion, we headed back to the dock, took their shuttle back to the port, tendered back to the boat, and boarded the Sun.

the nights on the ship are starting to run together, but i think we ate at the French restaurant that night. many people love it, but it was a bit too quiet and fancy for my family's taste. the food was good, but not superior to the other restaurants. by this point, my kids decided most nights to skip the LONG dinners and go to the kids club instead. this was a win, win because we enjoyed leisurely dinners and they had a blast in the kids club.

and before we move on to Juneau, a few more Hoonah eagles:

All in all, i found Icy Strait Point and really, Hoonah to be the most authentic of all the Alaskan ports. we did our own thing, booking our own excursions and i think this was a good idea. the only thing i wish we could've done was the zipline. my 8 year old cried when he saw it (he was sad we didn't book time to go on it). next time, i assured him. it is HUGE and fast and steep, and i would've been WAY more scared than him. (that's the start of it way at the top of that cliff in the pic below)

bye bye ISP and Hoonah - we had a great time visiting!

Thursday, June 19 - Juneau

We left ISP around 5 pm. Considering that Juneau is about a 30 minute boat ride away, you could say that we sailed slowly through the night to arrive in Juneau the next morning by 7 am. Juneau was our shortest day in port from 7 am - 1:15 pm. Not knowing much when we planned this trip, i didn't know any better. in hindsight, i would've liked more time in Juneau.

We ordered room service for breakfast and then walked off the ship for our 8:15 am meeting time. This was the only excursion that a) my mom insisted we do based on friends' recommendations, and b) we booked through the cruise line. We did the Taku Lodge float plane and salmon bake. We met the Taku Lodge bus right by the ship, and they shuttled us just down the street to the "airport". the planes take off right next to the cruise ships. the day we were in port, i think there were 3 or 4 ships in port. we got broken up into groups of 10, perfect for our group, and waited on our rides.

we boarded the float plane, me a little apprehensively. my 8 year old was thrilled that he got to be co-pilot.

once we were in the air, i wasn't really nervous much - it was a smooth ride and the pilot seemed very capable. the views from above were incredible. it really is the best way to see the vastness of the glaciers of the juneau ice field.

once again the blue was startling

we arrived at the taku lodge and it was SUNNY. beautiful, sunny, 70 degrees. perfection. we heard that the day before was a total washout and we were glad to finally miss a day of bad weather. from the get-go, i loved the lodge. it was beautiful and peaceful, with a great view.

our pilot dropped us off, then up and over the glacier he went to pick up the next group:

next post will focus on the SALMON and BEARS at the taku lodge

Juneau continued:

as we walk up the hill at the lodge, i first notice two things:

1) delicious salmon being cooked on an open grill

2) a big bear up in the tree right behind the salmon and 2 guys with big sticks standing between the salmon and the tree

the cynic in me thinks that it's a trained, pet bear but they assured me it wasn't. i think if nothing else, the bears are acclimated to the crowds and know that the leftover salmon in the grill will be there for them when all the people go inside.

we enjoyed the outside for a long time until the dinner bell was rung. not long after we were all inside and this happened:

the food was awesome. grilled salmon, reindeer sausage, baked beans, apples, and probably other things i can't remember.

we were all smiles at the taku

we left juneau at 1:15 and headed for tracy arm and the sawyer glacier. we enjoyed sailing out juneau and watching the locals on the opposite shore enjoy the beautiful day, and seeing the scenery.

the plan was to cruise tracy arm, and get as close to the sawyer glacier as possible. it wasn't long before the scenery changed as we entered the fjord. the scenery was beautiful in tracy arm.

unfortunately, there was so much ice in the water we couldn't get too close.

we could see the glacier in the distance but that was about it. the captain did a 360 turn at our stopping point and then we headed back out the way we came. onward to skagway.

Friday, June 20 - Skagway

we were planned to be in skagway from 7:30 to 5. i booked a rail/bus combo with chilkoot charters, which included a husky dog cart ride in Carcross. we met our guide right by the ship, and he took us by bus (small bus) to the train. our group of 10, plus about 6 others had the whole railcar to ourselves. we were in the last car, which ended up being great for photography. after a few minutes in the little shops by the train station we boarded the train for departure.

off we went in to the mountains. there is beautiful scenery all around, the whole way up to fraser. we were lucky to have mild weather during the train portion of our trip. i spent the whole ride out on the outside area snapping pictures of the views. it's a beautiful old train and definitely an experience to do at least once.

Thank you for the review! Do you have any pics of your cabin? How did your kids do on the pull out sofas? Great photos!

Skagway continued.

the only wildlife we saw on the train was a lone grazing caribou, which was pretty cool.

as we entered into fraser, british columbia, the canadian customs agent came on board, checked everyone's passports and we were allowed to deboard. our trusty tour guide from chilkoot was waiting on us, and warned us to go the bathroom (not another one for a long way), and self stamp our passports (kids thought that was super cool). by this point it had started raining.

we continued in the small van/bus with our guide, and continued northward toward the yukon. he made several stops - at the "welcome to the yukon sign", the "carcross desert sign" and several others. he would've stopped anywhere we asked him to. this is a benefit of booking with chilkoot. the weather was getting nastier by the minute, and at most stops, we hopped off for a quick shot and then hopped back on.

he took us to car cross, which is basically like a little tourist trap area. it has an area for lunch (very good bbq chicken and all the fixings), gold panning (looked pretty shabby to me), lots of petting zoo animals, and the dog cart huskies. the weather was pouring at this point, but the dogs were still going nuts. i felt a bit sorry for them tied up most of the day, but i think they really like their "jobs".

we did the dog cart ride before lunch.

aside from the fact that we were soaked by the end of it, it was fun. the dogs were really excited to run.

after lunch we headed still northward toward emerald lake. the weather was pretty bad, so i was disappointed not to get a great picture of it. i could tell it would've been beautiful on a sunny day. still pretty though.

after emerald lake, we turned around and headed back south, through the town of car cross and back down the mountain. we stopped at the canadian border (easy enough) and headed back into skagway. our driver dropped us off in town for us to do a bit of shopping before we boarded the Sun. afterwards, we walked back to the ship and boarded for departure.

Next post: Lovely Ketchikan (and i'llf find the pictures from our stateroom)

I am enjoying your review so far. We are doing a northbound cruise next summer on the Sun so I would love to hear what you thought of the Sun in general.

June 21 - Ketchikan

we were scheduled to be in port from 1 pm - 8 pm. we were glad for the later port time as we had 3 days prior of early times and we were a bit exhausted by this point. as i remember it we had a leisurely breakfast and lunch. i can't remember what everyone else was doing, but i took the kids up to the outdoor buffet for a quick bite before we got off the boat. standing there on the back deck, just looking at the first view of ketchikan, i saw eagles flying and i was glad to have my camera and really long lens because i got a few of my favorite eagle shots:

getting off in ketchikan was super easy. we were docked in berth 2, right in the middle of town, so that was nice. this was the first day our party of 10 was planning to split up: my husband, brother and 8 year old son were planning to go king salmon fishing while the other 7 of us had booked Dave and Kat from Ketchkikan Taxi Tours to show us the town.

Salmon fishing: It was my husband's birthday and i had called Ken at Northern Lights for the fishing trip. He was unfortunately booked, but recommended another company: Ketchikan Fishing Charters (I think that was is). they very much liked their captain. unfortunately none of the fishing charters that day had very much luck. the king salmon just weren't biting. they went out at 1 pm and were supposed to be back at 5 pm. because there wasn't much biting, he was nice enough to keep them out until 7 pm or so. my 8 year old was pretty sad about the whole thing, but apparently the homemade smoked salmon the captain served onboard, along with a couple of close encounters with eagles, was enough to make him happy.

Taxi tours - we got off the boat at 1 pm, and were supposed to meet Dave and Kat at 2:30 pm. So we had 90 minutes to explore on our own. we decided to walk towards Creek St. It wasn't crowded at all. I know you're sensing a trend here, but it was raining pretty hard, so maybe that kept the people away. We were pretty much waterproof at this point, and it didn't matter to us.

i had to take the obligatory photo in ketchikan:

since i've already used up my 6 photo allotment, my next post will focus on creek street and the cape fox lodge funicular.

Enjoying your review!

Ketchikan continued

we walked over to creek street to check it out. it was very pretty, but not much going on. we were too early for the salmon in the creek, but it was still a nice stroll.

we decided to ride the funicular to the top just to see what was up there. there was no attendant, so we just rode to the top. it was working on the honor system, i guess. we paid the lady at the front desk of the hotel. we walked around the lodge a little bit. looked like a nice play to come back to stay sometime, as i already really liked ketchikan.

we rode back down, and stopped in a few shops, then headed back towards the shop to meet our taxis.

we walked back to the ship and waited on our rides. David and Kat from Ketchikan Taxi Tours showed up at 2:30, right on time. they headed right (lol, i have no idea as to what direction that was) - we were headed up the coast towards Herring Cove, where we spent a lot of our time during the tour.

my uncle had wanted to see bears all week, and they had managed to elude us mostly. we saw the one grizzly in hoonah (but far away) and then the black bear at the taku lodge, but it didn't seem quite "wild enough". so david and kat wanted to help us find bears. we drove over to herring cove and didn't see any bears. we drove across the street for a while and watched some salmon fisherman. all of the tourists out on the boats caught pretty much nothing that day, but the locals can fish on the shore at low tide and they can use treble hooks to snag the salmon. that seemed to be the way to go, as we watched them haul in the king salmon out of the water.

just standing by the shore, saw a beautiful starfish and a cool red jellyfish as well.

there are beautiful things to see every where you look in alaska:

also saw a seal playing close to shore: