Links to Seward photos and videos from the cruise

6-4-08

And so arrives our last morning on the ship. I woke up early and was able to watch our approach in to Seward from the balcony. It was a foggy morning, so I was only able to get a glimpse of the snow capped peaks that surrounded us on all sides. Later, when the fog lifted some, we were able to see that Seward is in a gorgeous physical location. The town is very pleasant, too – we both liked Seward very much, and decided to try to have our next Alaska cruise be a Southbound, so we can start in Seward and maybe spend a couple days beforehand.

As we were coming in to Seward, I noticed a log floating by, which appeared to have a bird on each end. Then I noticed that one of the birds was moving about, but in a way I’d never seen a bird move before. Upon closer inspection, I realized that it was a sea otter floating on her back, and the moving bird was her feet. There she was in the middle of the shipping lane, with a cruise ship going by on one side and a bunch of fishing boats going by on the other, just idly floating, completely unconcerned. I didn’t have time to run in the cabin to get binocs or camera, so just watched her go by.

After we docked, I continued to sit on the balcony, as it was too early yet to go to breakfast. Lis was in bed reading. After several minutes, I noticed a log floating in my direction, but this time it only took me a moment to realize that this log was my otter pal again. I called for Lis, and because we weren’t moving, and the otter was moving very slowly, I was able to get camera and binocs this time. She floated right under us. I wasn’t able to get too close with the camera, as we don’t have that much of a zoom, but with the binoculars we were able to see her very close, and watch her fluff her fur, look around at the ship, and then settle in to what looked like a nap. We watched her for a long time, but eventually she roused herself and swam away, plus it was time for breakfast.

We had laid out our stuff the night before, so got dressed, packed our carry on bags with the last of our stuff (we packed our big bags last night and set them outside our door) and departed our lovely cabin for the last time. We had a lovely breakfast, as always, in La Veranda (we decided that our favorite meal was breakfast in La Veranda) and then waited in the Library for our group to be called for debarkation. Our group was the last group, and we used the restroom one last time after our group was called – and so ended up being the very last passengers off the ship. Lisa, from the social staff, said “We were wondering where the girls were, and thought maybe we should just keep you.” It was very cute.

In Seward we took the trolley shuttle to the Train Wreck, a little mall comprised of three old train cars. There we were able to store our bags with the Exit Glacier Guides folks for ten bucks. Thus unencumbered, we walked to the Alaska SeaLife Center to pass the time until lunch. It was very nice. For lunch we found an excellent restaurant called Yoly’s Bistro – I had a very good hamburger, and Lis had an excellent chicken curry with peanut sauce. Highly recommend this restaurant to anyone spending any time in Seward.

My brother and his wife, who live in Anchorage, had very kindly offered to come pick us up in Seward and take us to the B&B we were staying at in Anchorage. They picked us up after lunch, and we headed north. Along the way we stopped at Exit Glacier, and hiked up to it. It was very cool – apparently one of the few hike-up-to-it glaciers around. The scenery was spectacular, and the glacier impressive – we could hear it making little sounds, and hear the melt water that was running underneath it.

We continued the drive to Anchorage, which has some of the most amazing scenery. We were hoping to see some moose along the way, as they are apparently often spotted at various points, but were out of luck (though we did see tons of moose droppings at the glacier). We stopped for dinner at the Double Musky, a restaurant located near the Alyeska Resort. When you walk in, it just looks like any other rural tavern you’ve ever been in, but it’s actually a 5 star restaurant, and the food was excellent and the portions huge. I just had an appetizer, and it was more than enough food. Then we drove through the resort, then went to my brother’s house for a bit and met their dog, and then it was time to head to the B&B.

We were staying at the Big Bear Bed & Breakfast in Anchorage. My brother was worried about its location (apparently not in the best part of town), but we decided to risk it (both of us having lived in dicey parts of towns before), and it wasn’t bad – though as my brother drove away there were about a million police car sirens going off somewhere near by. I asked him the next day if he had found that comforting – his wife said they had considered calling us to make sure we were ok. But no other incidents and we had a pretty good night’s sleep.

The B&B was a true B&B – a regular home, not an inn or hotel. It was full to overflowing with all sorts of Alaska bric-a-brac – bear skins and ivories and native art and pelts and figurines and antlers and such. At first I almost recoiled, I found it so over-stimulating. But once I adjusted it was really quite fascinating, like being in a museum. Every item had some sort of story, most close to the family – the two bear skins had been shot by the innkeeper’s father and grandfather, the oil paintings of natives and locals had been done by her mother, etc. And the breakfast was amazingly excellent. But I’m not sure it was the best choice at the end of a vacation, when you’re tired and want to get home, and socializing with even more people you don’t know starts to feel like a real chore indeed.

The next day my brother and his wife picked us up to take us to lunch and then the airport for our 2pm flight. We ate at the Sourdough Mining Company, and had another very good meal – we ate as well or better off the boat in Seward and Anchorage as we did on the boat, thanks in part of course to our excellent local tour guides. My brother and his wife were wonderful hosts, showing us the sights and taking us to great dining establishments, plus buying us a National Geographic Book about Alaska and a book of the Double Musky recipes – they were really great, and it was great seeing them. And then it was time to board our flight and come home.

(Note to future Alaska travelers: don’t try to load stuff up in a cooler with ice, tape it up, and check it as baggage – they will make you dump the ice out. Can’t tell you how many people we saw dumping ice out of coolers at the curb, and then sending their salmon steaks or reindeer sausage through sans cooling.)