Seward, Alaska: How NOT to haul a boat from the water...

Filleting a rockfish

On Thursday, July 19th, we drove south along the Seward Highway, after picking up our newly repaired computer, now without the malware that brought it to its knees. The Seward Highway is a scenic byway, and rightly so, with gorgeous views of the Turnagain Arm of the Cook Inlet after leaving the congestion and construction of Anchorage.

Halibut, rockfish and others
awaiting their turn on the table

We continued and spotted two bald eagles along the way, our first wildlife sightings since leaving Denali. We stopped for lunch at one of the many scenic overlooks along the muddy flats of the Turnagain Arm. A couple of hours later, we pulled into Stoney Creek RV Park, just north of Seward and quickly settled in for a nice evening.

With the evening sunshine and bright blue skies so rare for most of our stay in the Anchorage area, we didn't waste time before venturing into Seward to take in the sights. We made our way into town near the docks where the fishermen were busy filleting the day's catch under the watchful eyes of a throng of curious folks, us included. We were thoroughly entertained.

Sitting on a sea otter bench!

The boats tied to the docks bobbed in the light breeze and we could see yet more fishermen returning from a day at sea.

Oops

One poor group, as they tried to pull a boat from the harbor on their trailer, forgot to hook up the safety chain. When the winch strap broke as the truck moved up the boat launch, the sound of the hull crashing onto the pavement and then grinding backwards was cringe-inducing. The vessel, now caught a few feet short in each direction from both the water and the trailer, was quickly surrounded with embarrassed and unhappy crew members unsure what to do. Phone calls went out, concerned folks came running and still others took pictures. We fell into that last group.

Somebody's due for a beatin'

When a red-shirted man arrived, his loud cussing and yelling gave him away as the unlucky owner of the beached vessel. We thought it best at this point to continue our tour of the town elsewhere.

We headed farther into town and veered off on Ballaine Street along the water. We pulled over at the sign marking the original beginning of the Iditarod Trail, a path used traditionally by Native Alaskans as a trading route with each other and then the Russians and subsequently used by intrepid explorers for access to the interior of Alaska.

Resurrection Bay

The views across Resurrection Bay, on which Seward sits, are stunning. The mountains rise to meet the sky above the blue water that stretches out to the sea. We continued touring through town by driving up one street and down another until we found a small business district with several restaurants offering very similar fare for very similar prices. (We suspected either collusion or simply lack of creativity.)

In any case, we selected Alaska Nellie's Roadhouse, a charming restaurant decorated on the inside like the outside of a barn. Unfortunately, we were not as impressed with the food, but lately that has become expected.

We pressed on and found several streets with cute little houses and well-tended gardens, before ending our tour at the grocery store. And though we recognize this Safeway as the same company we find on the east coast, the prices and selection are decidedly Alaskan.

We headed back to the RV for dessert and cards before turning into pumpkins. For the first time in quite a few weeks, it was actually pretty dark as we hopped into bed at 11:30pm.

Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords NP

On Friday, the sunny skies we were promised in the weather forecast did not materialize. We spent much of the day waiting for the drizzle to clear and the sun to appear. Neither occurred. Nonetheless, we ventured out in the late afternoon to Exit Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park, the largest road accessible glacier in Alaska.

Notice the tiny people on the trail

On the approach to the visitor center, little signs indicate where the toe of the glacier reached at different years past. In just short of 200 years, the glacier has retreated well over a mile and a half. By the time we arrived to see it, the pictures of the glacier on the plaques describing it were sorely out of date, showing it much farther down than it currently is.

Plaque showing the extent
of Exit Glacier's retreat

We hiked from the visitor center to the glacier, about a 1 mile walk over much of the rock and gravel the retreating glacier has exposed in the last 10 years. The glacier itself is one of 40 fed from the Harding Icefield, a 300 square mile field of ice over 4000 feet thick. We took in the view of the blue ice from the observation area, then hiked up a short trail a bit closer to the ice. We could feel the cool breeze coming off the ice towards us, but the steep drop down to the edge of the glacier kept us from touching it. Apparently the edge of the glacier is a mix of ice and gravel and can collapse, easily trapping an animal (or human) underneath the glacier itself. Yikes.

Resurrection River

We wandered around the mosquito-heavy grounds swatting madly, but still enjoying the view. Heading back toward town, we stopped at an old bridge over Resurrection River where we noticed the wind was stronger and the water much faster and angrier than what we had seen trickling out of the bottom of the glacier. We returned to the RV for dinner and movies until bedtime.

Saturday was a day we had planned to take a long hike, hopefully all the way up to the Harding Icefield. Our promised 'partly cloudy with a 20% chance of rain' looked a whole lot more like '100% cloudy with 100% chance of rain' all day. We huddled in the RV laughing about how our 'beautiful day' had the mountains choked with fog, steady rain coming down and the sun hiding completely behind the thick clouds. We watched movies all day and stayed dry inside. We still managed to enjoy our day together, but what lousy weather!