Icy Strait Point is a small port... only one ship is scheduled on any given day due to the small size of the nearby town of Hoonah. Hoonah has Alaska's largest population of the Tlingit people.
On the way to our first adventure, we saw a black-tailed deer.
This... was our first adventure. All of us tried it - and all of us enjoyed it!
Icy Strait Point is home to the world's longest and highest zip line! Per the website embedded above, it is 5400 feet long, takes you for a 1300 foot drop at speeds up to 60mph over about 90 seconds: 20 seconds of pure terror, 10 seconds of holy wow, 50 seconds of exhilaration, and 10 seconds of aniticipating how you are going to stop!
Here's my uncle, getting ready to fly! You literally sit in this swing-harness, and you have to put your feet up on the door. Then it opens... and there's no stopping you!
Our second adventure was kayaking! This was fun... it wasn't as adventurous as expected, so Bec and I were a little disappointed, but we were glad that it wasn't any more strenuous than it was. We were kind of tired by the time we got back to the boat. We were in tandem kayaks, which was fun! We saw a bald eagle up close, but it was really difficult to get a decent picture with the crappy underwater camera I had, instead of a digital. Wow, the difference a good camera makes!
Our guide... I hate that I can't remember his name! He is a Tlingit and told us some of the history and traditions of his people.
Our big boat from a little boat! (and we were running late! we had to push it to get back before the last tender left! since we were so close, bec and i decided to try and be the LAST ones on the boat. i think we worried my mom... and we were close... we tried lingering behind to ensure being last, but they had two lines to get back through security and onto the boat. they rushed us to the back of the shortest line... even moving slowly here didn't make us last... but we were close! and the txts i got from my mom were hilarious! i guess it would have stunk to try and arrange travel from Icy Strait back to the ship. oh the fun... =)
I think this was actually taken on the way in... you can see the tender boat at the dock. But this is a view of the port taken from our balcony, and if you look closely (or double-click on the picture to enlarge it), you can see the zip line cables! It ended not far to the left of this picture.
More humpbacks demonstrating that thing they call bubble net feeding! This was taken on our way out of port.
For your enjoyment (I hope!), here is my ride on the zip line:
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