Alaskan Dream Cruise: Two Orca Evenings

All was still...

…when we heard the distinctive pphoosh of a marine mammal blowing a misty spray as it broke the water's surface.

"Orcas," we whispered to each other, so as not the scare them with our loud voices.

(I say that calmly now, to convey the sense of peace and tranquility of the evening, 

but we could all barely contain our excitement.) 

In quiet appreciation we watched the pod of orcas cruise along in the isolated bay for about an hour. It looked like one adult male, two adult females and a "2013-14 model" (according to Rica, our onboard marine mammal enthusiast).  The yearling shadowed its mom closely.

Leonty Williams, one of our exhibition leaders who is a Native Alaskan, sang a Tlingit offering song to the orcas, thanking them for our safe passage through their home and honoring their presence. The song certainly spoke for the gratitude and awe we all felt.

As the late evening waned to a deep blue the orcas went their way and we quietly went ours.

Pphoosh…..into the night.

The next night, after a long day in Juneau, we had another kind of orca evening. The cruise company, Alaskan Dream, has a lodge on Colt Island called Orca Point.  We pulled into Colt Island at supper time, psyched about a big night of feasting and fun.

Above you can see the lodge and one of Allen Marine's smaller boats, and below you can see the Baranof Dream pulled up to the Orca Point dock at low tide.

A campfire was already set up in preparation for some very special some-mores for dessert.

King crab was at the top of the menu, along with prime rib, salmon and all the fixings.

After dinner the silliness began. There was going to be a demonstration by one of the chefs on how to filet a salmon. One of our hostesses carried the huge fish out and announced that it was a tradition of some sort to "kiss the fish." Yes, she got a couple of takers. (Was this part of the educational component of the cruise?)

Our youngest passenger, a real trooper and role model for us all 

was the only person who volunteered to hold the fish (not kiss it though). 

Then the chef, in all seriousness, demonstrated his salmon filet technique. 

(Let me just say here that ALL the crew, from captain, to stewards, to deckhands and even those in the kitchen and down below who we rarely saw, were topnotch at what they did. They were always sincere, courteous, helpful, competent, generous and always pleasant, but never obsequious. And they worked really hard. Real pros.)

In an open sided shed next to the lodge there was a touch tank filled with sea creatures from the surrounding tidal zones and maintained by one of the caretakers of the lodge. Any time any of us wanted to take a look at it, she was available to open it up and tell us all about it. Many folks watched her feed the critters after dinner, and before dessert. Lots of folks took the opportunity to explore the rocky beaches as well.

Finally we all gathered around the campfire for dessert: do-ti-yourself (of course) some-mores made with perfectly toasted marshmallows, melted candy bars of various sorts and graham crackers. 

Yum. A perfect ending to another perfect day.

Breakfast with the Birds on the Beach

Since arriving here in Port Aransas, Texas, on Mustang Island, we've been getting up before dawn and walking on the beach as the sun rises. Just us and the birds who are getting breakfast from the bounty of the Gulf waters.  Every day it's different.

Some mornings the great blue herons are out doing their lone fishing.

 Usually there are gulls and terns and a few other shore birds I can't identify for sure.

One morning we saw a crested caracara, which is a big deal for us, though they are relatively common down here, and are the national symbol of Mexico. They are very striking and I wish we'd been able to get a good shot of one. 

The sea life and debris that washes up is different every morning as well. The first morning there were lots of moon jellyfish and sea whip coral (which looks like heavy duty fishing line or some kind of seaweed, but isn't). 

The second morning there were starfish. 

The third morning there was nothing. All the jellies and stars were gone, like they'd never been there. The next day the pen shells started (foreground below). 

Now, see the little volcano-like bumps on the sand? Read on...

Every morning there are a handful of guys walking the beach with these yard-long plastic pipe hand pumps that they stick down into the little volcanoes and suck up a sloshy pump full of sand and water. They exhaust the slurry out onto the sand and quickly grab for something little that they see in the wash. We finally asked one guy what he was after and he told us ghost shrimp, and showed us his catch.  They were white and orangish soft shelled squirmy things that did look a little like shrimp. 

Here's a link to more than you'd ever want to know about ghost shrimp pumps. Seems that ghost shrimp are primo ocean fishing bait and fisherman come out early to get bait for their day of fishing.

We've taken to carrying garbage bags with us and picking up a bag or two each of man-made beach debris on our return walk. There isn't a lot of garbage on the beach - just the usual collection of water bottles, old gloves and flip flops, plastic bags and candy wrappers - but it feels good to be helping to keep the beach clean.

We're parked at Gulf Waters RV Resort for the month and are liking it very much. It's an ownership park with some rental sites. We were lucky to reserve one about four months ago as they are completely full. 

The park is just over the dunes from the beach in a relatively undeveloped part of Mustang Island, about 10 miles south of Port Aransas. The landscaping in the park is very pretty, there's a pool and a hot tub, a book exchange and a laundromat - all things we like to have. The area is interesting - lots of birding. In fact we are planning on going to see some whooping cranes in Rockport soon. Corpus Christi is about 15 miles away with everything you could ever need or want.  We'll probably check out the Texas State Aquarium there too.

As usual on our longer stays, we're catching up on maintenance. We've got a leaky window, some dry and cracking weather stripping around the slides, a funky hot water heater and the persistent issue with our hydraulic jacks drifting. We hope to get all that taken care of with the help of a mobile RV repair guy around here, or maybe in San Antonio. It'll keep us amused.

Our Last Day on Cape May and a Long Journey Through a Short State

We finished our stay on Cape May with a final tour around to places we hadn't seen yet. This included the beaches down the west side of the Cape, on the shores of Delaware Bay. Our first stop was Reeds Beach. 

Second stop was Norbury Landing, where the tide was way out, 

exposing lots of horseshoe crabs, tiny snails and acres of mud. Very sticky walking.

The fall wild flowers all around Cape May have been beautiful this week, even right on the beach. 

Lots of golden rod, sunflowers and asters.

Proceeding south along the shore we ended up at the Cape May-Lewes Ferry Terminal where we got an anticipatory look at the layout for our ferry ride with the RV tomorrow.  The ferry terminal is easy to get to, and there's plenty of space in the approach (unlike some ferry landing squeezes we had in the Pacific NW).

There is a big dredging project going on right at the mouth of the Cape May Canal. This little boat was doing something with that project, but the crew on board was doing something else entirely that looked like more fun than working.

We finished our drive back on the east shore with dinner at Fred's Tavern in Stone Harbor. To get home we took the series of causeway bridges over Nummy Island and the various bays and salt marshes. 

I think this fisherman was going for crabs. He wasn't having a lot of luck while I was there, so I couldn't say for sure what he was catching.

Just at sunset, from the top of the last and largest bridge we spotted a cluster of rickety little houses along the water and headed off through the salt marshes to find them. All the homes in the tiny community of Grassy Sound Boardwalk are built right on the salt marsh or over the water, and the only access to them is over the boardwalks, thus the name. 

Some of the houses look like they have had some beatings in recent storms, 

or are just wearing with time, but they all had a lot of personality.

The northern end of the boardwalk looks like a party place, but I didn't see a single soul while I explored around.  Just a couple of feral cats. 

So ended our visit to Cape May, except for our drive to the ferry the following morning. We thought we had plenty of time to get there, but ran into an incident of some sort on the Garden State Parkway and made some decisions to avoid the back up that didn't help our time either. But we made it to the ferry with literally about two minutes to spare. Lucky us. They put us right on with no wait. You can see the DRV tucked in (with just a few inches clearance overhead) near the middle and Ms. Subaru on the right.

It was a perfect day for a boat ride - clear and calm. The ferry takes about 1 1/2 hours, and runs from the southern tip of Cape May to the southern tip of Delaware, across the mouth of the Delaware River. 

Southern Delaware seems to be a lot of flat farm country.  Corn and soybeans, like Iowa. We drove north along the entire length of the state. Here we are on Route 1, crossing the Chesapeake-Delaware Canal on the new bridge. 

After skirting around Wilmington pretty painlessly, we arrived in Pennsylvania at the West Chester KOA on the banks of the Brandywine Creek, in the midst of the historic and scenic Brandywine Valley. 

Despite being pretty beat from a longer than usual travel day, 

 I couldn't turn in without walking down to the Brandywine. 

It's one of the prettiest settings for a campground that I've seen. It's on wooded rolling hills that lead down to the river.  The sun was just setting as I headed home for bed.

Tomorrow, we'll begin exploring the area with a visit to Longwood Gardens.

An Unexpected Detour to Cape May, NJ

We thought we were heading right for West Chester, PA after our time at the Delaware Water Gap, but we couldn't get a spot at the RV park we wanted until a little more than a week later, so we had some time to kill.  But we never kill time, we dance with it! So Rick suggested a visit to Cape May, and off we went. Just an example of the beauty of a life on the road.

I've always wanted to visit Cape May, because the birding is supposed to be so good, but I thought it would be too much to pack into this trip through the northeast. We were also feeling a little hesitant to drive through New Jersey, which we think of as too congested. But with the help of local friends George and Peggy, Rick found a great route from the Delaware Water Gap, around the worst of the traffic and down the Garden State Parkway. Easy peasy.

Our first evening in Cape May Court House, at the Big Timber Lake Family Camping Resort we thought we'd do a little local exploring and try to find the ocean. Heading due east, we found ourselves in Stone Harbor, just in time to see the beach...

a bit of the harbor...

and a sunset followed by dinner at Stone Harbor Pizza. Stone Harbor is a pretty impressive little community. Very high end homes and a beautiful, well cared for beach.  Since we are here after Labor Day, there are no beach parking passes required for any of the beaches. Nice.

The next day I got up early to find some sunrise birding action recommended by Paul Kerlinger on one of the many wonderful websites about Cape May. He outlines in great detail where and when to go birding if you have only one day on Cape May. Luckily we have more than a day, but his article was a great way to get started. Unluckily, the weather was not conducive to birding. It had been very hot, heavy, muggy and windless here all week (you can even see it in the sunset above), and everyone was waiting for a cold front to blow in from the northwest to bring some migrating birds with it.  

Later that day Rick and I explored more of Cape May and ended up at one of the town beaches. It was a pretty good beach day, but the warm humid wind was kicking up a lot of sticky sand. We stayed a couple of hours anyway and worked on our tans.  Afterwards we drove around the town of Cape May to get ourselves oriented. 

We saw some of the colorful Victorian painted ladies that Cape May is famous for, and these large Victorian guest houses overlooking the ocean.  We also found one of the marinas so Rick could look at some boats.

We worked our way to the Cape May Point State Park, with its eerie WWII bunker on the beach...

and the Cape May Lighthouse. I ended up seeing a lot more of Cape May Point State Park and the lighthouse.

We spent most of the next day at the Stone Harbor town beach. The weather was starting to shift - it was a perfect beach day - warm, sunny and breezy. Very relaxing.  

That evening I drove down to Sunset Beach to see a couple of things it's well known for besides its sunsets. Cape May diamonds are ocean rounded quartz crystals that can be found among the polished pebbles on this particular beach.  There's at least one in the picture below. See if you can find it.

The second cool thing about Sunset Beach is the WWI concrete shipwreck of the SS Atlantus, just off shore. Who even knew there were such things as concrete ships? Evidently they were built at a time when steel was in short supply. They were not a success.

The third unique phenomenon at Sunset Beach is the nightly flag lowering ceremony hosted by Marvin Hume, owner of the local beach concessions. He engages the local children in the ceremony that honors fallen US war veterans, as Kate Smith sings the National Anthem. Sweet. 

I took the long way home via the Cape May Point State Park (again) to see the lighthouse at night. Worth it, don't you think?

And I couldn't resist another detour through the Washington Street Mall, the Cape May main street, to take more night light photos. It was a perfect, warm night to be out. All the shops are the original Victorian buildings. It's kind of a cross between Disneyland and Provincetown. 

Now, this may seem like a very full visit to Cape May already, but it had just begun. On our first day in town, while perusing the local websites about birding, I found a class being offered the upcoming weekend, on birding photography. Perfect, right? So I had to do it. Rick would have loved it to, but... it's football season.  

So, come Saturday morning, I buckled on my birding equipment and hit the refuge. Below are my fellow birders. There were just seven of us in the class, with Scott Whittle (tall guy in the center) as our teacher and guide.

Speaking of equipment. Every birder needs binoculars, and I was using my new Bushnell's. They worked great, but what I wanted to share is this thing that makes using binoculars so much easier. Rick and I both now use Rick Young Outdoors Ultralight Binocular Harness, a simple, lightweight little gizmo that takes the weight of the binoculars off your neck, stabilizes them against your body, and puts their weight onto your back. Now our binoculars are not very heavy, but after hours of birding, the strap can really do a number on your neck. And, if you are managing a camera or two and binoculars, there can be a lot of dangerous (to the equipment) swinging around of stuff. So this little harness keeps the binoculars tucked tight to your belly until you need them. You could completely forget your binoculars are even there, and it's simple and inexpensive. Get one.

So, the purpose of this class was to get better at seeing and photographing birds, and it was excellent. Out of about a zillion pictures I took, a few were pretty good. The first is not a great shot, but the silhouettes of these glossy ibises were cool. The amazing thing is that I got them as they flew by. This is one of the things we were working on in the class.

Another thing we worked on was placing ourselves in the right location in relation to the bird. This is not so easy in many circumstances, but we practiced on the beach in relation to some gulls that stand around a lot.  By placing myself below the dune from this guy, and in line with the lighthouse, I got this shot.

I have to confess that I did poorly on the little birds in the bushes. Scott Whittle is an expert on warblers and is a genius at this kind of photography. Check out the website about his book on warblers.  I did a bit better with the big birds. Below are a couple of shots of swans coming in for a landing. You just have to be ready with your camera on, with the right settings, aim at their heads and take a heck of a lot of pictures.

I like this guy water skiing.

During the two days we spent a lot of time in the State Park, because it has quite a few different  birding environments: seashore, ponds, marshes, and scrub forests.  The wind had turned on Friday, so there were more birds than earlier in the week. Still, all the local birders agreed it was not yet peaking. But that was fine, as there was still plenty to look at. The weather, wildflowers and insects were all beautiful.

This was a long post! If you've gotten this far, thanks for hanging in there.

I'll finish with one of my favorite shots from the weekend.

Next, we ride the ferry to Delaware.  Bon voyage!