After all my whining about the recent spate of wet weather I probably do not deserve this crisp, sunny day. Alaskans are supposed to suffer in silence. My only complaint on this walk through forest to the beach is that the fall color has peaked. The Douglas Maples show some color but only a few scarlet leaves still cling to beach side crab apple trees.

Aki is busy herding her charges—today another guy and me. We break through the woods and sit on a rocky shelf above Favorite Passage. Six harlequin ducks paddle their party-colored bodies along the shore until a sea lion cruises through. Out in the passage a humpback whale breaches and falls, breaches and falls, sending a gush of water upward each time he returns to the sea. He dances alone, without the presence of the tourist boats that had tracked him and his kind all summer. For this afternoon, it’s just Aki, our friend, a sea lion, colorful ducks, and a whale dancing in the sun.