Mr. Shelly's class at Johnson Elementary remember? Well, Chandler's class went on a Kenai Fjords cruise. It was great. We left about 6am, got to Seward at around 9:30, and took off. The kids were all handed booklets, and the first half of the trip was in a classroom type setting.
The views were absolutely breathtaking.
Classroom #1, was on top deck, they learned about plankton. (don't you love their 'classroom'?)
Then they learned how they would collect the different types of plankton.
Dragging the net at Thumb's Cove
Check out the cup of plankton we collected! (nasty hu?)
Chandler looking through the microscope at his zoo plankton
One of many wild life sightings. Steller Sea Lions basking in the sunshine and conserving energy. 
We ran out to the front deck in time to catch shots of a pod of Killer Whales.
If you look closely, you can see the whale on the far left spouting. There were a couple calves in this group, at least one big bull, and of course the wise grandmother of the group. (she's the brains behind the group)
We tried getting some shots of the spots and dorsal fin which identify each animal.
What could be better then seeing a pod of Orca's on an Alaskan Cruise? Well, Humpback Whales are very shy and elusive this time of year, so how lucky were we to get these shots?
He just kind of kept rolling through the water, and floating quite close to the surface.
We watched him for about 5 minutes, then we rolled through one more time, and slowly dove down to the depths, and we said good bye.
