June 14, Seward, Alaska.

Every now and then chance rolls you a six. Today on our Kenai Fjord cruise, we had an experience shared by only a few people in the world (or so Capt. Dan told us.)

About an hour into our trip, under partly sunny skies, we came upon a half a dozen or so humpback whales engaged in a co-operative feeding manoeuvre known as combined bubble and lunge feeding. Whales surface, take in air, dive and blow out the air in a circle to 'net' a school of fish. Once the fish are encircled, the whales 'sing' a special call and they all lunge together up through the compacted school, breaking the surface with mouths open. The experience was further enhanced when the crew lowered their hydro-phone and relayed the calls over the ship's PA system. We had about a half an hour with the whales repeatedly circling, diving, calling and lungeing right beside the boat!

More was in store -otters, seals, porpoises and numerous birds. To top it all off were the glaciers. The last one we saw terminated in the sea. With the boat motor off, we floated in silence in a mass of float ice, as the groans and cracks of the enormous ice mass rolled over us.

Topped off with an Alaskan salmon, King crab and Prime beef dinner, I think we can call it a great day!

June 15, Soldotna, Alaska.

After all the excitement of yesterday's boat trip, it was nice to have bit of a quiet day today. The short drive from Seward to Soldotna on the other side of the Kenai Peninsula was through much the same landscape as the rest of Alaska. Just simply spectacular. However, it must be said that one can overdose on distant, snow-capped mountains, endless spruce forests and raging mountain streams. There was a bit more variety in the sorts of people out and about on this mild (10C) summer's day. It is the first day of the salmon fishing season and the trucks spiked with rods and nets were poked into every spare nook and cranny along the popular fishing spots on the Russian River. Huntin' and fishin' are, naturally enough, favourite summer past-times in this part of the world, and it's not just the Alaskans who partake. Many of our fellow travellers are up here for the summer salmon season.

Fishing is a serious business in these parts. First there is the license to be paid for. In some parts that can be a neat $40 a day. Then there's the special camouflage waders, shirts and vests. You know, the vests with the fly hooks sticking out of them. Top all that off with a floppy hat or jaunty cap with the brand of your favourite reel manufacturer prominently displayed and you are just about ready to go, well except for the rod, reel, tackle box, 'haul-out net' and, just to improve your chances, a pontoon boat to allow you to drift about.

In previous American blogs we have commented on the devastating impact of out of town shopping malls on small town America. In Alaska, the impact of this latter 20th century phenomenon is even more dramatic. Aside from the history of the original native peoples of Alaska, the state has little more than 100 years of history behind it. Up until 1867 when the USA purchased the, then, Territory from the cash-strapped Russians, there was little permanent settlement outside the native villages that dotted the rivers and suitable seaside locations. The Russians only established temporary fur trading settlements and a few church missions. There was little development from 1867 through until the gold rushes of the late 19^th century. The gold boom bought thousands to the north and mining settlements mushroomed all over the Territory, some becoming substantial cities, in numbers at least.

As the Gold Rush petered out, most of the 'sourdoughers' (miners, so called because they carried yeast cultures with them to make bread) returned home to the south, some thousands died in the brutal conditions and a few hardy souls stayed on, to call Alaska home.

As late as the early 1940s, there was no road access from the lower 48 states to the Alaskan Territories. The war changed all that and the American and Canadian governments pushed through the Alaskan highway in 1944. When statehood was granted in 1949, Alaska was still very much the wild frontier. Virtually all that one sees in Alaska today is post 1945, so with such a short history, the towns and cities have suffered severely from the 'Walmart blight'. What is left is generally not a pretty sight. A few struggling businesses hold on amongst the crumbling ruins of the buildings of their previous competitors. With the severe winter conditions, buildings that are not well maintained quickly deteriorate and are eventually knocked down, leaving unnatural, overgrown open spaces in the middle of towns and cities, as shoppers and businesses move out to the city fringes to 'mall world'.

Some towns make a valiant effort to hang on to their short but interesting history. The 'City' of Kenai at the mouth of the Kenai River on Cook Inlet, is a good example. This was the site of one of the first Russian fur trading settlements. There was a fort here, built by the Russians and later taken over by the Russian-American Trading Company. The Russian Orthodox Church was established here in 1889 and the original church still stands today, the sole reminder of the original town. Sadly, the remainder of the historical walking tour featured buildings that mostly dated from the inter-war period or later. Some were younger than us! Sad, but at least they are attempting to hold on to their history.