Alaska!

I'm in the picture-perfect town of Seward, Alaska, about two hours south of Anchorage, having arrived here late last night. Today was spent exploring the local area, and many interesting things were seen. Seward sits in a bowl surrounded by snow-capped mountains, on the shore of an arm of the Gulf of Alaska. Tomorrow we'll be out in it, on a boat, and will see all manner of interesting beasts.

It's about 11 pm as I post this, and it's still plenty light enough outside to go photograph wildflowers if that's what I wanted to do. It really only gets dim from for four hours or so in the middle of the night. I will be thoroughly worn out after this trip!

Chocolate Lily, Fritillaria biflora. A real treat, finding a meadow full of these oddities. We're seeing lots of really cool flora, and I'll certainly report back with some more botanical wonders.

The bay is full of great birds, not the least of which are Harlequin Ducks. We've seen at least 100 of them in the immediate vicinity this afternoon.

An impossibly charismatic sea-going mammal, the Sea Otter. They're all over the place. A road parallels the bay, and otters wil swim and forage almost under your nose, allowing for great studies.

Just like in all of the pictures, Sea Otters float on their back, holding and cracking open mussels that they've lifted off the sea bed. This old chap has a pretty hefty clam, and leisurely floats about on his back, snacking and watching us paparazzi.

More soon!