Seward July 25

So back to the trip.

The next day in Seward we decided to sleep in a little. We all got up and going at 9:00 and were checking out of the hotel by 10:00. One of the girl's small school backpacks had fallen apart. We made a quick stop at the hardware store to buy a replacement backpack. We were leaving town on the train for Anchorage at 6 pm, so luggage issues had to be resolve. We had two things to do with the time we had left in Seward. I have a distant cousin that I wanted to visit with and my daughters wanted to visit the Seward Aquatic Center. I called Carolyn and invited her to eat lunch with us. My daughters were burned out on fish so we decided to do Subway. Carolyn was a lot of fun to visit with. She had lived in Alaska since 1982. She told me she ran away from home at the age of 40. I laughed and she conveyed that after her first marriage she just needed a change of scenery. Alaska seemed like a great place, so she just headed up. Her new husband is Glenn. He is retired from the Air force. Carolyn showed us around the town and we visited about our families. She took us to a small stream near her home that had Salmon in it. The girls were excited to finally see Salmon that weren’t cooked. After a couple of hours of visiting we went our separate ways. She dropped us off at the Aquatic Center and we said our goodbyes.

The Sealife center was a nice small aquarium with jellyfish, sea lions, and puffins all exhibited. We were there about an hour when someone's kid pulled the fire alarm. I was slightly relieved for the opportunity to get out of the educational environment. They ran us all outside so the girls voted for ice cream. I am pretty sure you can buy cocaine cheaper than ice cream in Seward. (I assure you this is strictly speculation.)

We went back to the Sealife Center and finished up our tour. One of the cool things about Seward is that they offer a free school bus to get you around town. I know, fat lazy Americans, can’t you walk anywhere. No, Americans really can’t, it’s just not in their nature. The floating buffet that brought them to Alaska takes away that ability. So anyway it was nice to sit with the older well dress fat Americans on the yellow school bus as they talked about going back to the boat and watching a movie. Getting off the bus I made a note to seek out non-boat people.

While walking to the hotel to pick up my bags I spotted a group of people that appeared so road weary, they resembled extras from the movie “Clan of the Cave Bear”. As I stood there smiling I remembered an early trip to Mexico in my late twenties. My wife and I spent most of two weeks driving around and sleeping on the beach. During the flight back home a young boy sitting next to me on the plane was quietly warned not to get too close to my carry on luggage - due to the pungent nature of the odor coming from it. I was lying there half asleep listening to this concerned mothers warning and started laughing. It startled the lady and she got so embarrassed that she ended up going to a different seat. I was really happy about the way that turned out because the flight was packed and I really wanted to stretch out. Lessoned learned, being pungent and willing to laugh about it has it’s advantages. Ok enough of my stinky past. Back to the trip.

The train ride from Seward was smooth and easy. If you were interested in seeing Alaska at an easy pace I would strongly recommend the train. My daughters were able to get up and run around, much of the view from the train is totally unspoiled, and you can relax and enjoy it. Having a bathroom that you can use at any time is well worth extra the cost. The trains in Alaska have viewing decks that allow for passengers to look down on to the landscape from a second story of the train. My daughters really enjoyed the sights visible from this view. The conductor uses the P.A. system to point out interesting sites and convey this information along the trip. One of the announcements was that eagles when catching salmon can grab a one that is too big. The eagle’s craws can’t release once they are grasping the fish. Many salmon will actually dive down in the water and drown the eagle. This is the most common way that eagles are killed in Alaska. Imagine that, death by fishing.