Wild Smacks

SMACK of JELLIES.

Where Holgate Glacier meets the sea

Our Kenai Fjords Tour captain had been wooing us with comments like, "Wowser! A breaching whale! I can count on one hand the number of breaches I've seen this summer; you all are super lucky," and "we usually only stay at the glacier for 1/2 an hour, but it's being so active today, we stayed for 45 minutes; what a day!" Having been a naturalist, a teacher and a parent, I know verbal magic when I hear it. Little comments that boost the audience, make them feel special, like the goddess of serendipity smiled down from her perch among the clouds on this one day. 

Now don't get me wrong. It was super cool to see a whale breach next to our boat... and it was absolutely mesmerizing to patiently wait and ultimately watch bus-sized chunks of ice cascade down the face of the tidewater glacier and make an enormous splash, followed seconds later by the sound wave "boom." But I was dubious of our Captain's claims regarding the rarity of it all - guide hocus-pocus at its finest. Until...

Okay folks. We've seen some incredible thing today, but this is likely the best. Very unusual. Let's see if we can get closer.

I spy a pale green patch...

Ahead of us was a pale green patch in the otherwise dark blue ocean. A "smack" of jellyfish, he said. tens of thousands of jellies, all congregated in this one spot. We craned out necks over the rails, trying to make sense of the green, hoping to see a round bell or a long tentacle or something. And then another boat came along and stirred up the water. Suddenly the ocean was like a boiling sea jelly soup. It was the kind of sight that makes you smile and even chuckle out loud, it's so odd and beautiful at the same time.

Smack!

I considered myself officially wooed.

SMACK DOWN. 

I'm sleeping.

Sleeping cozy and warm.

Sleeping cozy and warm in a puffy down sleeping bag.

Sleeping cozy and warm in a puffy down sleeping bag nestled nose to nose with my little one.

SMACK-CLANG-TWANG-Riiiiiiip

"Mama? What was that?"

"I don't know."

"Are we safe?"

"I think so..."

"What was that noise??"

"I'm not sure... it sounded like something striking metal..." 

"Mama look! There's a rip in our tent!"  

Looking out from inside the tent

Where's the bear spray? Fuck. Left it on the bike. Holy shit. That was less than a foot from my head. Why? Is it still there? What is it after? Doesn't matter. What should we do? Need to get out of the tent.

"Mama? Are we going to die?

"No."

"I want to go home. I want to go home now."

"Come with me..." 

View from outside

We slip on our boots and slowly unzip the rain fly of our tent. No bear in sight. We hustle over to our friend's tent where he is asleep with his kids. 

"Steve? STEVE. Please wake up and come out."

We explain what we heard and show him the slashed tent. He and I both un-attach our bear spray cans from the water bottle holders of our bikes.

"Mama? I want to sleep in the van."

"Smart one."

We wake again a few hours later and stiffly emerge from the van. Steve hands me a coffee and apologizes that he accidentally bought half and half that is fat-free. My first smile. I take it and start sipping. He makes all the kids pancakes with fresh strawberries. The sun comes out. It's an absolutely gorgeous day.

I'm standing.
Standing in the glorious sun.
Standing in the glorious sun by a glacial stream.
Standing in the glorious sun by a glacial stream hand in hand with my little one.

True appreciation

Mysteries from the Sea

"Octo Bebe" (Image from the Alaska SeaLife Center)

OCTOPUSES. Yes, just looked it up. The whole "I'm being grammatically savvy and know to put an 'i' at the end of 'octopus' to make it plural" thing is not a thing. Bye bye, octopi! And hello sweet baby octopuses newly hatched down the street from us at the Alaska SeaLife Center! Who knew they could be so cute looking, right? Mama Giant Pacific octopus, Gilligan, mated with Leo back in 2016, she laid her eggs back in 2017, and now, after a year of tending to them, she's watching as they jet propel themselves into the world!

I asked a SeaLife Center volunteer what the plan was for the brood of several thousand blown-glass-bobble-esque babes and got the craziest answer. Before I share, ask yourself: How long have you known about octopuses being an animal on the planet? If you're like me, probably a wicked long time. Like since you yourself were a wee one and looked at colorful books of cool animals: lions, tigers, bears, whales, turtles, and octopuses! We all know they have eight legs and suction-y parts and yeah... octopuses. Got it. So it turns out that scientists don't know what baby octopuses eat. ?!?!?! Incredible, right? We can send people to the moon and maybe Mars, but no one is sure what to feed a baby octopus. Apparently no one has ever thoroughly observed how these pea-sized babies grow up in the wilds of the sea. So although the SeaLife Center is hopeful they can figure it out, it's a guessing game at this point with a constant smorgasbord of zooplankton being offered. Cross your tentacles for them! 

And if you want to check out for 30 seconds of mellow and mesmerizing footage of the baby octopuses, enjoy:

MARITIME ARCHAEOLOGY. A little farther out Resurrection Bay from the SeaLife Center lies one of our favorite quick hike-to spots, Tonsina Point. With a particularly erosive series of storms over the winter, the beach there has shifted a fair bit and now a new treasure has literally been uncovered: part of what appears to be a very old boat. So old that upon close inspection, you can see that all the wood planks and metal and wood fastenings appear to be hand wrought. Team Leslie explored the hunk of boat at low tide and brainstormed its origins; although pirate ship was a favorite, a fishing vessel was much more likely. But whose? Could it be old enough to be Russian?

Tonsina Point's Mystery Boat

I stayed up one night and decided to see if my picture of the boat, coupled with the power of Google, might be enough to make me an instant maritime archaeologist. It did not. Although I did learn fancy words like "fastenings," I ended up lost in pages of spikes and bolts of varied lengths and widths and heads and... oh my. Luckily, one such page was authored by a true doctor of marine archaeology, Dr. McCarthy or Mack from Australia. So I fired off a message and the picture to Mack, asking for some insight, and low and behold, he emailed me back! Love love love this day and age of epic communication possibilities between the Great and the Googlers. I will include a snippet of Mack's analysis here:

Great image………. of a section of what appears at first glance to be  the  floor of an iron fastened  vessel.  While the fastenings, especially the mushroom-headed round section bolts and  the single square-section spike ( square sectioned head) driven at an angle to the others  and the inner planking (ceiling)   are quite large   (thereby  indicating a large vessel), a  keelson is not evident, tending to suggest  the vessel itself may not have been that large, or that it  is not built to  traditional western European or north American continental large shipbuilding method.    To be hand wrought  is common right into the  early 20^th century and not necessarily indicative of age  and  the spike is of a  common form. the mushroom headed bolts are  not a common form however.  These  could join  timber analyses  in  indicating a vessel    built outside the  common north American  tradition.

Admittedly, I did not follow all of this completely, but the last line might toss an extra vote into the Russian boat hypothesis at the very least!

STAYING POWER. Finally, going even farther out along Resurrection Bay... Earlier this Spring, some family friends invited us to accompany them on their boat and stop on Fox Island for a picnic and bonfire.

Park and Ride.

Right away, the kiddos and grown ups started beach combing as item after item caught our eye; three different species of sea star, the wing bones of an eagle with some feathers still attached, natural sponges, unnatural sponges, buoys, and countless other treasures were added to a pile near our landing.

Eventually, someone suggested that the girls create eco sculptures and have a friendly competition.

A serious contender. 

Then someone suggested that the grown ups create eco sculptures and have a friendly competition.

The Mama Mandala

While the moms went with an all natural mandala theme, the dads decided to do a combination beach clean-up and manly sculpture... complete with "Staying Power."

The Dirty Dude

Powerful Parts.

As someone who just took my pledge to reduce my plastic consumption as part of National Geographic's #PlanetOrPlastic campaign, I have to applaud the boys and their vision. Saving the ocean from plastic, fiberglass and overly horny fish, one art project at a time.

If you haven't already, take your pledge! And help ensure that there will be marvelous and mysterious marine biodiversity far into the future...