Seward, Alaska

Sunday, July 25

We wake up to...Rain!!! It'll be cold cereal this morning as we resume our drive to Seward along the gravel Skilak Lake Road. We hadn't gone that far when we saw a bear crossing the road in front of us!!! Our first bear!!! And we are in the car. Yes!! I open the window and try to get some pictures. He goes down where I can't see him so Don drives up slowly. I am in luck. Someone has thrown away a bunch is fish parts and Mr. Bear is chowing down. He could care less about us which is nice as I hang out of the window getting pictures. He has a collar on which means he has been a bad bear. Right now he is being a very good bear!! He likes those fish!!! Thank you for letting me get some photos of you!

We arrive in Seward and it is raining harder. There is incredible beauty all around us, but the clouds are so low we can't see anything...this is getting real old. We find the Iditerod "campground" where we park the Casita. This is a lot owned by the city. No hookups, not even bathrooms. Great. Oh well, it is cheap. This is just one of several of these along the bay run by the city of Seward. We are right on the Resurrection Bay which we really can't see but we know it is there. By later this afternoon, there will be 2 other Casitas parked here with us!

It's raining, so off we go to find the coffee place. The place we go to has ok capps but no wi-fi. We find out that the place across the street has wi-fi...we will go there later. As it turned out, Seward doesn't have very good wi-fi reception anywhere.

We spent this afternoon at the Alaska Sea Life Center. The center integrates museum exhibits, aquarium displays, and hands-on experiences to provide an educational introduction to the maritime world of Alaska's southern coasts. It is one of Alaska's best loved attractions. They have done a great job with their underwater viewing tanks. You can watch seals and otters, and in their big tank they have a very big Steller seal swimming around. Of course, they have wonderful touch tanks with all kinds of sea creatures to touch. My favorite was the seabird habitat. This is a large aviary on the second floor enclosing cliffs housing a selection of the bird species that inhabit the islets in the gulf of Alaska. My favorite were the puffins! Not only are they so cute, but they are a lot of fun to watch. They would dive under the water and then start bugging the ducks and chasing them. The ducks did not appreciate this at all. At first we didn't know what was going on...the ducks would start flapping their wings and racing around the water.Then we realized that a puffin had gone under the water and was harassing the duck from underneath.You could go down to the first floor and watch the antics from under the water. It was so fun! I am in love with puffins!!

This is primarily a marine research and rehabilitation facility. They give presentations throughout the day talking about the different things that go on there and introduce you to the animals that they have helped. It was all very interesting.

The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around town. It started raining pretty good so we hopped on the free shuttle and went back to the Casita. Later that evening we went to the Sea Bean for coffee and wi-fi. The place is packed out with everyone working on their computers.

Seward, day 2.

Wake up to rain again, so this calls for a big breakfast! Blueberry pancakes and eggs...we bought fresh blueberries and boy, are they good!!

On this morning's agenda is the Seward Museum. This offers a glimpse of the town's history, from the first Russian entrepreneurs to its reconstruction after the 1964 devastating earthquake. They have a clock displayed that stopped working the moment the earthquake struck, and has read 5:36 ever since. This was a very small museum, but it was loaded with a lot of information. Don tried to start up a dialogue with the elderly man running the place, but the guy was not interested in the least with talking to Don. Maybe it was Don's long hair? This guy was definitely not a "Billy" (See the entry on Hope). By the time we were ready to leave, the old man was replaced with a young intern working there. We struck up a conversation with her. She is from Florida and could commiserate with us on the weather. She wants to work at museums when she is done with school. We had a very nice conversation with her. We are getting quite well versed in Alaskan history with all these museums we are visiting. A lot of what is presented overlaps, yet each museum emphasizes different things.

After having lunch back at the Casita, we went to do the trail up to the Exit Glacier which is 8 miles west of Seward. This glacier is the only part of the Kenai Fjords Nat'l Park that is accessible by road. It pours down from the Harding Icefield and is the most readily accessible walk-up glacier in Alaska. It got it's name because it was determined that this glacier was the best way to exit the Harding Icefield. It has a very small visitor center which has a large relief map showing the Harding Icefield and all the glaciers coming off of it which we found to be interesting. There is a short nature trail that leads up to the glacier. Went up, had a look see, wondered around to see if we could get in a better position to take a picture...they have the place all corded off to keep visitors on the correct path, so we stayed within their boundaries. There were too many people milling around to get away with anything.

Back into town, did a little grocery shopping, drove around a bit more in the rain, went into a few more stores. Ended the day at the Sea Bean so I could sync my

Leaving Seward, Tuesday, July 27

All was quiet when we woke up this morning...it was not raining!!! The clouds had lifted a little and you could see some of the mountains around us. I jumped out of bed, quickly got dressed, grabbed the camera and went outside to get some pictures. Boy, this place would be awesome on a clear day!! We wanted to go to the Sea Bean early so we could get some wi-fi time in before leaving Seward. We got there at 7, but the owner had not opened yet because his dog was sick and he had been dealing with that. We didn't have to wait long though. So, here we are enjoying our caps and small breakfast (Don tried a waffle and I got oatmeal), and this guy is describing to his friend about his dog's projectile diarrhea. Small town. I do hope,though, that his dog got better. Hung out there for a little while. Then back to the Casita to get it ready to move on.

We were in the middle of getting ready when Don starts talking to Carolyn who is in the Casita next to us. We had not crossed paths yet, so we ended up yacking for almost an hour. She is quite the talker, and her husband, Jim, is reserved (You know, opposites do attract!). Don is always interested in modifications people have done on their Casitas, so Carolyn was showing us different things they had done, and Jim would pipe in every so often with his tid-bit. They are from Houston, Texas. They have camped all over the US in their Casita. We enjoyed the visit even though we wanted to get going. After pulling out of the "campground" we stopped to take pictures around Seward that we couldn't take before because of rain. We took a drive out on the other side of the bay which was nice. Once that was done we were off for Whittier which wouldn't take long to get to.

Along the way we stopped in Moose Pass village. In 1912 it was a construction camp on the Alaska Railroad. The area was named in 1903, after, it is said, a moose blocked the passage of a mail-carting dog team. Hmm. One has to stop to see the landmark waterwheel that was built in 1976 by the Estes Brothers who still run a grocery located in the building next door. The wheel once carried the sign "Moose Pass is a peaceful little town. If you have an axe to grind, do it here." And there is an axe grinder right next to the waterwheel! We were disappointed though because the waterwheel was not working. We spent time wondering around a little sporting goods store. Don actually bought himself a sweatshirt they carried that has a picture of an Alaskan surfer on it!! And I didn't have to talk him into it! They had a nice lodge and float planes out on the lake. Would be a nice place to hang out if you were a fisherman.

I am starting a new "Trip" which will be the rest of our journeys. Thank you for coming this far with us, we hope you continue to follow along on "Our Adventure, part 2"!!