Seward

So it's been awhile since I've updated this so let me start with my first adventure. I got to take a trip down to Seward Alaska. It's 3 hours south of Anchorage on the water, it's a place I've been wanting to visit long before the summer job idea came around. I went down with 3 other co-workers and spent a night in Anchorage at the Backpacker's Inn. We went out and hung out at a bar called Humpy's, in reference to the pink salmon that are called Humpy's. The next morning we caught out bus down to Seward. We slept most of the way but while I was awake the views of the Seward Highway were amazing. You travel next to waterways the entire time. The mountains shoot straight out of the water too which makes it all the more gorgeous.

Arrving in Seward we wandered around to find a campground. Admittedly I got us a bit turned around but we found a great spot and set up camp. We ate some lunch and discussed our plans. We had been told that the Kenia Fjords tour was a must so we arraged tickets for that then checked out the downtown. The crusie was amazing! It was a 6hr water tour through the fjords. Anyone finding themselves in Seward this is a MUST activity! We saw a lot of marine wildlife, several humpback whales, sea lions, seal, Puffins, lots of other diving birds, an otter with her pup and the most elusive of all we say Orcas!!!! Aka Killer Whales!  Please be sure to check my flickr account for the Seward set and see all the animals.

After the cruise we headed back to our campsite and enjoyed smores and the first gorgeous sunset all summer.  In Seward it actually got dark enough to use my headlamp for the first time this summer outside!  That was a little strange but made sleeping very easy.  We woke up the next morning and made our way to the Alaska Sealife Center which was established after the Exxon Valdez spill to research and rehabilitate marine wildlife.  We got to see a lot of really neat fish that inhabit the bering sea.  I never realized how colorful many of the creatures are!  We also got to touch sea anemies, sea cucumbers, starfish and eels in their tide-pool exhibit.  The water is pumped in directly from the bay and after touching about 2 things I had to give my hand a break! After that we walked into the marine bird area which includes a large tank of water that extends down at least 40 feet.  While you're standing just below the water level you can watch the birds fly off the rocks and dive down into the water.  Then you can see them swimming around under the water grabbing kelp and other items.  It was really neat because there were many nesting Puffins close to the edge that we could look at.  We then headed downstairs to see the sea lions and seals swimming around their tanks.  I got some great photos of them as well as an octopus that decided to climbing the glass.  

After the Sealife Center we got lunch and discovered that we had missed all the kayaking opportunities earlier that morning and made new plans as to how to spend our time before our bus at 6:30.  Friends had told us about Exit Glacier and how you could actually walk up and touch the glacier.  So we headed back and packed up camp then called for a taxi to take us the few miles to the glacier.  On the way to the glacier there are sign posts with years on them at different points along the road.  Each sign post delineates where the glacier was during that year.  It was really cool to see how far it had retreated during different periods.  The signs continue up the trail also.  It's a short hike the edge of the glacier but then a slightly more interesting hike to be able to touch the glacier.  We had to cross a braided river and one of our friends decided not to join us.  This glacier was very different than the one we saw on the cruise because it didn't say much and wasn't dropping ice like the other one.  It was still really neat to see it and see how compressed the ice was, it looks very different than the ice that comes out of your freezer. After touching and licking the glacier we headed back and caught our taxi.  Our taxi driver ignored our requests to go straight to the small boat harbor and catch our bus.  Instead she insisted on showing up spawning salmon which was interesting but we just barely caught our bus.  Oh well alls well that ends well especially since she made $60 off of us for a 20 minute round trip ride.  

In Anchorage we went to Wal-Mart and picked up supplies.  After being in Denali for 2 months being back in civilization was very overwhelming.  I'm not used to lots of cars or having whatever I need just an aisle away.  I defiantly wandered around Wal-Mart for at least 15 minutes trying to get my brain around it. We all slept most of the way back to Anchorage the next day and I had to head to work but the trip to Seward was worth every penny and all the time. I really needed that trip to remind me just why I'd come up here in the first place.  I came to see Alaska and do things I could only do here.  Seward renewed my excitement to be here and now I have even more fire to get out there and see Alaska!