Life is Grand: Seward, AK

Seward is a little fishing village right on the water. I am unsure what I was thinking Alaska would be like, but what I had imagined was not what we experienced. I thought it would be a little more touristy. Seward is a stop for all of the Alaskan cruise ships and I thought there would be a lot of cute little shops and great restaurants. Well I was mistaken. No shops and only about 5 restaurants, who all served the same general American menu, of course everyone had salmon and halibut on their menus but they all wanted like $30-$50 for a fish dish. I thought the dinner prices were outrageous. I overheard a local telling a government worker who was in the area off of a fishing vessel that all of the restaurants hike up their prices in the summer because they only make money about 3-4 months out of the year. So if everyone hikes up their prices and there are no cheaper alternatives, the tourists will have to pay. The first night we were in Seward we had pizza and ate it in our hotel room and the second night we ate at a waterfront restaurant. AJ had salmon and I had halibut. The Alaskans are not what I would call good cooks. AJ’s salmon was completely over cooked, but my halibut, since it was fried, was delish.

Seward still had some very visible damage from a large earthquake and tsunami that happened in the 60’s. All near the coastline you come across a lot of still standing dead trees. These are known as ghost forests. They are very creepy looking.

Before our glacier cruise, we headed out to see Exit Glacier. Not as cool as Bryan Glacier, but still neat. Now I was really nervous on this hike because I had checked the bear report before heading out there and a mama and her cubs had been seen in the area. Luckily, I am sure due to my big mouth, we did not encounter her!

We went on an 8 hour glacier cruise to Kenai Fjords National Park. It was very cool. Before leaving, we were all told to eat some disgusting, chewable sea sickness medication but AJ still got a little sea sick during a portion of the cruise (it was very rough seas that day). Thankfully he did not puke, nor did he puke in public like a bunch of other people. That was just disgusting! We saw otters, puffins, sea lions, hump back whales, a dead orca whale and a bunch of glaciers. They had already determined the dead Orca whale had been killed by some other orca whales. It will take more than a year for its body to decompose. We also saw some bald eagles (which were described to us as the rats of Alaska because they are everywhere and are constantly eating out of public trash cans). We were very weary of an 8 hour tour, but it went by so quickly, I was shocked when I looked down at my watch and it was almost over.

Below are some photos of Seward, Exit Glacier and our glacier cruise (I was unable to capture any whales on film):