Overnight we went through Icy Strait, waking up anchored near George Island.  After taking the zodiacs to shore I went on a kayaking adventure, followed by tidal pool exploring, in and around George Island's Granite Cove.  The rocks ashore here were incredibly smooth.  Granite Cove had kelp, jellyfish, starfish (one of which somehow made its way into Rebecca's boat from a wave), and tidal pools full of fascinating little sea creatures.  One of my fellow travelers pointed out the sea anemones; if you touch them they will try to grab onto you.  She also pointed out a moon jellyfish, which really just looked like a clear jelly-ish blob but was definitely fascinating.  We previously had a talk on the ship about the habitats of tide pools, and I was glad to get the time to explore these areas at Granite Cove.  Next was a hike through George Island; there are old WWII remnants on George Island, as well as more very green temperate rain forest trails.  We boarded the zodiac to head back to the ship, with more updates coming later today.  I thoroughly enjoy these hikes each and every time!  

In the afternoon we went back onto the zodiacs for a trip through the Inian Islands by water; from the zodiacs we saw many sea otters playing in the water.  The sea otters would just pop their heads up out of the water and look at you; it was adorable.  Although, our guide said not to get too close, as the males can get up to 5 feet long and 100 pounds in weight; they are not as small as they look from the zodiacs.  We previously learned that sea otters keep a "favorite rock" and use it to break open their food from inside shells.  There is so much kelp everywhere, and mother sea otters with their babies were swimming around in a big area of kelp.  Our guide said the mothers wrap their babies in the kelp, and we saw a mother sea otters doing flips with her baby on her belly; what fascinating animals.  We went by rocks that were covered in stellar sea lions.  It was interesting to just watch the huge stellar sea lions climb and lay around on the rocks.  A humpback whale was spotted; you just have to look for the spout of spray shooting up from the water.  We followed the humpback whale (at a safe distance) and while it did not come out of the water much, it did dive down and show us its fluke (its tail) several times.  I learned that every single whale's fluke is different (just like our fingerprints), and you can identify a whale by its fluke.  Researchers in Alaska and other parts of the world take pictures of whale flukes and use those to study whale migration.  While we have seen bald eagles here, the afternoon trip on the zodiac took us by a piece of land that was FILLED with bald eagles and their young; the young bald eagles are brown in color and do not yet have the distinctive white head.  All the animals seemed to have their favorite spots in the Inian Islands.  This afternoon was our rainiest and coldest experience, but thankfully I listened to all the advice and brought lots of layers.  If you are going to Alaska, especially the Inside Passage area, you can expect it to rain; but, that frequent rain also keeps the area beautifully green and full of wildlife.  After our zodiac trips we watched a video about Petersburg, Alaska, in anticipation of our upcoming visit to the town.  It has a strong Norwegian heritage and heavily relies on the fishing industry; in fact, it is called "The town that fish built".  We also had a presentation about kelp, and they passed around kelp for us to eat!  I tried it . . . and did not like it.  Justin (with Lindblad) went diving this morning near our ship and brought back photographs of the creatures below the waves; after dinner he gave us a presentation about whale migration.  Justin worked on a National Geographic show about whales, which is now on Disney Plus, and the night ended with us learning more about all things whale-related.