Zodiac Wildlife Ride

I was expecting "giggles" and I got "WOW!!!".

No, I am not disappointed, simply surprised.

My Lovely and I took a speedboat ride in the largest and deepest fjord in North America. This is a zodiac with 3 250hp motors. It is a thrill ride for wildlife viewing.

The pilot, Alyssa, guns the boat and does donuts and figure 8s on the way to view wildlife, waterfalls and mountainscapes. Several times, the pilot has us pointed directly at the face of a giant rock at full speed, only to do a J-turn to pull us away.

The boat stops from time-to-time and our guide extraordinaire, Nicolette, points out things like eagles, harbor seals and the Alaskan Scoter Ducks (that run across the water - 100s in a group). Oh, and lots and lots of amazing waterfalls! Nicolette was great fun and had plenty of interesting tidbits to share.

We are astride our seats like sitting on a saddle. It is 40° and raining (we are geared up properly in "survival suits") as we blast across the water. Again, I am expecting giggles because this type of stuff does that to My Lovely. But I suppose I'll have to live with WOW!! 2 hours of Wow! ain't bad.

This was a nice primer for our planned jetboat ride in New Zealand (instead of donuts, the jetboat spins 360s).Read more