Whales

We saw whales.

Well, we think we did. You know those whales we'd heard about, from the last blog post? Well, we were looking out into the bay this evening and saw some weird movement in the water.

Samara took pictures, but it's hard to actually see anything.

This is the water off the beach just down from our apartment. As we looked out there, we could see movement in the water that wasn't just wind on the waves or ice in the water.

You could tell it wasn't wind or ice by the way it moved around and whatnot. Unfortunately, none of the ones closest to the shore showed in any spectacular way. But there were a few way out into the bay that would come far enough out of the water to see the entire body at the surface. It just looked like a white streak in the distance, but it moved against the current, unlike an ice floe. So it had to be whales.

Of course, by whales, I guess I actually mean dolphins. Or whatever belugas are. They're called beluga whales, but I think they're more like dolphins. Our apartment complex's fancy name is Beluga Bluffs, which also lends credence to the idea that what we're seeing is belugas.

So far, our Alaska animal-watching hasn't been exactly fruitful. We both saw a small snow weasel ("ermine"), I saw a moose at a very great distance, we've seen some snow hares (they're turning brown for summer) and now a glimpse of whales. It sure would be nice to see a moose or something large up close.

But until then, enjoy our almost pictures of whales.