Typical Alaskan atmospherics...

were in play on the first day of overland travel from Anchorage to Seward. This concrete Beluga whale was spotted surfacing from the pavement at a viewpoint along Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet, but I suspect I'll see a lot more of the real deal in the days ahead (click to enlarge):

We later visited the toe of the Exit Glacier (an arm of the Harding Icefield) in Kenai Fjords National Park for a short walkabout, and striations etched into the recently exposed slate bedrock can be seen in the foreground:

The highlight of the day for most of the staff and passengers was the visit to the Alaska Sea Life Center in Seward, and I was captivated by this enormous live male sea lion, with a couple of staff members along side for scale:

Along the way I spoke briefly about the Good Friday earthquake that struck the region in 1964, killing 131 people, and there are constant reminders that coastal Alaska lays in a tsunami hazard zone: