Tuesday, June 28 Seward, Sealife Center, Exit Glacier

We had breakfast at Alaska Nellie’s Roadhouse and were served huge portions of food.  In spite of Ardith ordering a half serving of biscuits and sausage gravy, it was far more than she could eat.  Jim had the Captain’s S.O.S. consisting of a half biscuit with gravy, a big chunk of ham, 2 scrambled eggs and a generous portion of fries.  He managed to put it all away somehow.

The Alaska Sealife Center was our stop for the morning.  The Center is filled with examples of aquatic life that is native to Alaska.  The Center also does research and works with injured sea life creatures.  We had the opportunity to touch many kinds of creatures (mostly invertebrates) and to walk very close to a number of Alaskan birds.  

Common Murre

Eider

Red Legged Kittiwake

Stellar Sea Lion

Touch Tank

Tufted Puffin

It helped us to remember some of which animals were which from our previous day’s boat trip.  There were excellent viewing tanks for fish, sea lions, seals and otters.

We went to hear a talk by one of the rangers.  Jim slept through much of the archaeology talk, but it was not the presenter’s fault.  We learned that the Sea otter has the finest fur of all the animals pelts collected by trappers.  It was the prime money earner in Russian Alaska.  When the otter population declined the Russians didn’t want the territory any more, which effectively led to the sale of Alaska by Russia in 1867 for $7.5 million.

This is the starting point for the Alaska Railroad, which extends to Fairbanks.  It has a lot of passenger business, mostly from tourists that are doing combination package tours among cruise ship, train, bus and plane.  

Former Railroad Station

The start of the railroad is now 2 miles further inland than before the 1964 earthquake.  The station was damaged and the track bed badly weakened. The railroad also carries coal from Alaskan mines for export to other countries.  As we were leaving Seward, a huge coal train pulled into town, but Jim’s camera was buried. There is a coal loading rig in the harbor and one boat of coal a week is shipped out of Seward.

 

What remains of the former roadbed of the railroad and some nearby industrial areas that were also destroyed is now devoted to a huge amount of RV parking space and some recreational fields.  There were more than 200 RVs when we walked by.  They were marking lines in a baseball field for more RVs. 

Those spaces will be needed for the upcoming 4^th of July weekend.  The big deal in town is a foot race up and down Mt. Marathon, which overshadows the city.  The race was started as a bet between 2 miners and has grown to the biggest thing the town sees.  Several hundred people ran last year.

The city of Seward provides a map that leads a walking tour through various sections of the city including the first part of the original Iditarod Trail. The dog sled race starts in Anchorage, because snow is undependable in Seward.

While walking the trail, we passed 2 baby bunnies just next to the trail in a small park area.  They were quite camera shy, so Jim was only able to get a picture of one.   Several blocks away we saw 2 full grown rabbits.  

We also passed extremes of houses, some very expensive, one toward the top of our list of junky yards.

There was a hotel that has been in business since 1913.  It looked like an attractive place to stay.

We ate lunch at the bakery and had homemade chicken noodle soup and sandwiches, capped by a raspberry bear claw dessert.

Throughout Seward there are numerous murals painted on sides of buildings, but not nearly as dense as in Chenaimus, BC.

Seward has a lot of things to make you smile.

In the afternoon we drove to Exit Glacier and joined a ranger who led a tour. One of the first things she did was to tell us the difference between black bears and brown bears and the strategies for encountering either.   Brown bears had been sighted this morning about a mile beyond where we would be going on this walk.

She also told us more about the strange plant we saw in Anchorage.  She said is is called pushky or devil's club.  It has an oil that makes your skin super-sensitive to sunlight.  Jim had touched one along the path, but only touched the leaves.  Supposedly only the stem has the oils.

Like other glaciers we have experience, this was quite magnificent.

The glacier has been receding regularly ever since 1815.  There were signs pointing out where the glacier extended at various key years from then on. 

The ranger noted that the glacier receded 177 ft. this year, far surpassing any previous year.

We stopped at the Safeway and took out salad bar for dinner. Jim’s salad bar had lots on it, mostly fruits and veggies.  Ardith’s was entirely veggies, but she added a small pineapple upside down cake.