Seward

We visited Seward from Monday 7/7 to Thursday 7/10. Seward is on the opposite side of the Kenai Peninsula from Homer.

Monday 7/7. Homer to Seward

We headed out of Homer in the morning and dropped the camper off at Joe’s RV Mobile Repair to fix the canopy. Mike and I headed to Birch Ridge Golf Course in Soldotna. This was the first course we played that had actual greens and our scores showed it! We had a great time though. We did some errands and picked up lunch at the Kenai River Brewing Company (yummy). We checked into our campground at Seward. There is no sewer hook ups, but it is right on the water and owned by the city.

Tuesday 7/8 - Glaciers, Puffins, Sea Otters, Sea Lions, Porposies, Hump Back Whales and Orca’s - OH MY!

We started our day by boarding the Major Marine ship. On the ship we had lunch and a snack and headed to the glaciers. If you are ever in Seward I would highly recommend them.

These are some pics of our boat and the glacier.

We went to a huge glacier that is calving into the Fjord. Individual glaciers come together and form an ice field. The ice field that this glacier came from is the Harding Ice Field - the largest one in North America. This glacier and the ones around it are so beautiful. The waterfalls are from receding glaciers farther up the mountain. All the glaciers are receding due to climate change.

On our way back we came across a Bahl Porpoise. These things are massive. The bottom left picture is of a puffin trying to take off.

We were greeted by several sea otters. Sea Otters are the largest of the weasel family. They look cute and cuddly but are actually like a Wolverine who lives in the ocean. We also saw this group of sea lions. Notice the baby in the lower right is nursing. They nurse for up to three years. We got some great looks at the puffins - they are my favorite. The Athabaskan word for them means swimming parrot. The bottom left picture is of a group of Harbo Seals. Make sure to zoom in and see that one that is looking right at us.

This was the most interesting thing we saw. We came across a pod of Hump Back Whales that were bubble netting. The basically work as a team and confuse the fish so they can eat them. I explained it in the next two pictures.

The interesting thing is that the Hump Back Whale is the largest mammal in the world. Mammals can;t drink salt water so when they open their mouths - they get a bunch of fish and water. Then they use their tongue to spit out the salt water and eat the fish. The crew had an underwater microphone and it was amazing to hear them talk.

More whale pics!

On our way back we came across a pod of Orca’s. Each tail of the Orca is different and this pod was called AJ7. This is a pod that makes it home in Alaska. They are so beautiful.

Wednesday, July 9th - Alaska Sea Life Center (Sea Life Refuge), Salmon, and Waterfalls

We started our morning off by visiting the Alaska Sea Life Center. It houses rescued animals that are not able to go back into the wild. They have a huge rehab facility for animals that are able to head back out to the wild.

We then headed up Bear Creek to hike up to Grayling Lake and Meridian Lake. We were good to go - bear spray, bug spray, bear bell and whistle, poles and rubber boots, but it was not meant to be. We were shut down by the Alaska Fish and Game (AFG). They were busy hauling up material to build a Public Cabin. Alaska has hundreds of public cabins that you can rent for up to a week for Alaska residents in their State Parks and Public Lands. They were carrying up the material right over the trail :(

After that we headed on a little journey to check out the area. We stopped at Bear Creek Weir where the AFG monitors Salmon. It was something else to see the fish in the water and jumping up the weir into the river that fed the lake. The lake is where the plane is at. We continued our journey out to the end of the road where the big ship yard is.

There was still a lot of daylight left so I went on a big bike ride. I came back and got Mike as I had to show him the the beautiful waterfalls towards Lowell Beach. At Lowell Beach is a small campground and fishing village which was pretty cool.

It was a great day even if we didn’t get to do our hike and fishing.

Seward was beautiful and we really enjoyed it :)