SEWARD

We had some good times in Anchorage but as always, we were ready to leave the big city behind. As we headed in the general direction of Seward, our first destination was the Portage Glacier Visitors Center, but on the way we took this picture. We liked the unusual level of the cloud but have seen similar clouds many times since then. At the Visitors Center we got our first up close look at an iceberg. It really seemed strange to see them floating around this lake. We had parked a couple of miles down the road where it said there was a fish viewing area. The trail followed the creeks about half way. The trail was really a nice one and we needed some exercise but there were no fish. After we left the creek bank the trail became a bicycle/hiking trail and was blacktop from there on. A glacier was visible from the VC but it is not Portage Glacier. At one time you could see Portage Glacier from the visitors center but it has receded around the side of the mountain. The only way to see it now is on a cruise. Since we were planning to take a cruise from Seward we opted not to do this one. It was a big decision, whether or not to go through the tunnel (the longest tunnel in North America) and on to Whittier but after talking with several people, including a park ranger, we decided we really didn’t need to make that trip. From the information we got it sounded like a tourist trap. The tunnel didn’t excite us, we had traveled by auto-train through a much longer one in Italy. Now...Gary is saying maybe we'll do it on our way back to Anchorage!

We spent the night in the Chugach National Forest and you can see our location in the next picture. We tried several side roads until we found this spot. We don’t suffer from a lack of picturesque sites. We definitely did not need Air Conditioning. It sounds like some of you in the lower regions might like having that snow bank outside your window about now. Actually it didn’t get as cold over night as we expected, but the furnace in the morning felt pretty good.

Our next stop was Seward. We went for walks in the forest and along the water, watching the sea otters. They would go down, get a fish, then come back up and lay on their backs until they finished their dinner, then down they would go. We timed them and they were down anywhere from one minute to about 2 ½. We have always enjoyed the ocean but this was the first time we had seen the sea otters in the wild. This beautiful 2-mast sloop went out while we were prowling the beach. This evening we spent parked with this view out the front window(note the big white cruise ship in the distance) and during the evening we looked up and the cruise ship was headed out. It was pretty impressive, all lit up.

The Sea Life Center in Seward was one of our stops. At first we thought we wouldn’t go but when we checked our 2 for 1 Tour Saver book we found a coupon for it and changed our minds. It costs $20 pp. (At our cost of $10 pp it was worth it, but not so sure it is worth twice that.) Anyway, we had a good time. A lot of what we saw wouldn’t be very visible any other way. The Center does a lot of rehabilitation and also research. The sea lion, as you can see, is in for rehab. The girl was feeding him in order to check the spots on his back.

In the upper left corner of the picture with the puffins you can see an egg. In the other picture I waited quite a while so you could see the color inside its mouth. His feet were bright colored also but he was just too fast for me, I never did get one that showed that. On the puffin topic, notice the sign that was posted in places around town. I’m afraid my memory is much lacking so you will just have to enjoy some of the pictures we took with no facts. The big strange looking fish is a Yellow Irish Lord. He wasn’t yellow so I don’t know how it got that name.

We went for a hike this morning but except for a couple of waterfalls it was a little less than memorable! We did find this old car along the route. Gary said that it looked like something he drove in high school. A chick magnet? Poor boy. This afternoon we made a stop at the bakery, Yumm! Then we picked up our tickets for the 6 hour cruise of the Fjords for tomorrow noon. It includes a meal of smoked salmon. We’re looking forward to it! We should see some animal life and some calving glaciers. The ticket clerk said that humpback whales were seen yesterday.

We checked into a military campground for tonight. There's a USAF and an Army recreation area right here in town each with RV sites. We much prefer finding our own free overnight places, but Eloise wanted to do some laundry, and we can now update the blog. Military laundries charge $1 for washer or dryer, about half what it is in commercial places.