Occasionally, our best sightings of unusual ocean creatures are from land. Among the rarest in Alaska - even in summer - is this mimic sea otter. As we returned from our leg-stretching hikes and shoulder-flexing kayak outings, we were thrilled to watch this lone female as she lay on the surface thermoregulating, with head, forepaws and hind flippers elevated. She was gleaning every calorie possible from the warm sun. Like the true sea otter, she wore a smile that all the world could love. Clams, crabs and sea urchins were offered, but she rolled over once or twice, hustled ashore and opted for a warm towel, hot shower and buffet lunch of marinated salmon. She was the third female of our group to test Alaska's aquatic wonders in the past two days, although the first two were somewhat reluctant participants.

A full week has gone by and we have hardly tasted Southeast's other sunshine, the liquid kind. The weather has been beyond our expectations. We have marveled at this temperate wilderness and all of its forests, glaciers and fascinating creatures. This final full day had us looking into a deep pool of cool, clear water that had recently melted from the snowcaps of Baranof Island. In that pool were hundreds of pink salmon, now back home after 2 years in the vast dining room of the north Pacific. Their cycle will end within weeks as they spawn and die. Casually interspersed among them, and facing the same fate, were a few sockeye salmon, already turning a bright red as they, too, seek the clean gravel beds of this wilderness river to renew their species. Evidence of brown (grizzly) bears was everywhere. Like us, they were seeking these leaping salmon, but for a very different reason. We were there to watch; they were there to eat.