Anchorage to Seward

(The blog was abandoned our kids and grand kids arrived in Anchorage to visit with us for a couple of weeks. This section was written on 7/29 in Seward)

Polar bear at the Alaska Zoo

We landed in Anchorage ahead of schedule, since we wanted to get a few things done before our kids/grandkids arrived. Good thing we did, as our car needed major engine work. Had we arrived on schedule, we would not have had time to get it fixed. As it was, the work took even longer than the shop expected, and they gave us a loaner to pick everybody up at the airport.

After the kids arrived, we spent a couple days doing the sights in Anchorage. We took a walk along Ship Creek near the campground and watched the fisher people catching salmon. We went to the Alaska Zoo, which was pretty good. The kids got to see all sorts of Alaskan animals all in one place and close up, but being 4 and 8 the attention span was only about 30 seconds each. I'm thinking that TV conditions us to want to look at something else after 30 seconds, or change the channel. I do it, too. But I lasted longer than 30 seconds, and enjoyed seeing and reading about the animals and their lifestyles.

After the zoo, the kids treated us to lunch at the Glacier Brewhouse in downtown Anchorage. If you like beer, they have some great stuff. The food was pretty good, too.

Seaside Cafe in quaint Hope, Alaska

The next day, they checked out the shopping at the craft fair and bought a few unusual souvenirs. On Monday, we headed south, cruising along the Turnagain Arm (the estuary of Cook Inlet extending east from Anchorage) on the Seward Highway, one
of the few designated "All American Highways". It was pretty spectacular, even though we were hemmed in under a 1000 foot ceiling and pushing 30-40 mph headwinds.

Some folks have to choose either the ocean or the mountains when they go on vacation, but here there is no choice. You have both everywhere, and the mountains roll right down into the sea.

Liam learning to pan for Gold

We had one night out before our arrival in Seward, and we decided to stop in the village of Hope, Alaska. The attraction was for Liam, the 8 year old, could try his hand panning for gold. Some folks told us that "there's nothing in Hope", but like most places, some like it and some don't. We fell in love with it. The salmon run
was on, and people were lined up in the stream to catch them, and catch them they did. The quaint Seaview Cafe runs a little campground right next to the stream. You overlook Turnagain Arm, and there's enough history and crusty folks there to keep the whole family amused. The gold panning was excellent. The lady's name was Dallas, and she kept the 8 year old and everybody else amused for over an hour, teaching him that gold was 19.3 times heavier than water. And he got some pretty nice gold flakes out of the process.

We departed Hope for Seward. We had made reservations for a camp space and a boat trip in Seward at Miller's Landing. We were told that the site was right on the beach. We were told that we could pitch our screen room on the beach. We wanted the spot to be memorable for our kids/grand kids to enjoy. Then we arrived, and reality fell far short of our expectations.

On the 'beach' in the rain and fog

Miller's Landing is, to be somewhat generous, a fish camp. The sites by Resurrection Bay are far from level, all rock, and just a tad bit wider than really, really narrow. There's only electric, no water or sewer at the sites. We knew that going in, but were told that they have "hot showers and flush toilets". The hot showers are filthy, as are the toilets. Some fixtures are not working. The building looked like they were last painted in the 60s. The explanation, proudly displayed on the shower wall, was that they had finally received approval to build new facilities, but that was no excuse for not keeping the old ones clean and painted.

Then there's the fees. They have wifi, but they charge $12/day. I offered them $20 for the week, but they said no. We're paying $46/night for a campsite for a week. We booked it in February.

The weather is generating complaints from others for the campground, too. The rain has been incessant for several days, and the roads and walkways are flooded with puddles. Some folks paid for all day boat rentals, got washed out, and the campground said, "Sorry", no refund.

Beyond the control of the campground is the 2 mile road from Seward that leads along Resurrection Bay to Miller's. There's a stream that flows under a bridge at the south end of Seward that leads along the bay to Miller's. We thought there was an amazing amount of water flowing under the bridge when we crossed it on the way in. It rained long and hard overnight, and this morning the bridge is closed, so we are effectively stranded at Miller's. We took a drive up there to the bridge this afternoon, and they appeared to be working feverishly just to keep the bridge from washing away. But we've been without rain for about 8 hours now, and we just got word that we can walk across the bridge tomorrow, and get cars across it by Friday. No word yet on how long it will take to get it up to carrying the motorhome across.

And the road itself is a real piece of work. Driving speed is about 5 mph most places, as it's loaded with pot holes large enough for a tire to fit into. We knew about that before we got here, so we're not surprised. But, Wow!

Steller sea lions

We did discover a nice black rock/sand 'beach', just a few hundred yards from Miller's that has the beautiful Alaska scenery that we wanted from our visit here. Back in February, we also booked a Kenai Fiords Boat trip for the 6 of us through the campground. We expected some confirmation when we arrived at Miller's but they said no, just give them your name when you go into the boat. It didn't matter too much, since the road was closed, we couldn't get there this morning anyway. The tour boat people were kind enough to reschedule our tour for Friday. We're hoping that the weather clear up some by then.

On Thursday, the road was repaired and we drove into town to snoop around and get some groceries. We visited the Visitor Center for Kenai Fiords National Park, bout some books and things, and watched a short movie there. The city had graded the road, so it was a little more passable.

A puffin fishing

On Friday (7/31) the rain had stopped, after dropping another 1-1/2 inches on us. We found a few things to do at the campground. The campground shuttled us into the boat harbor for our tour of Kenai Fiords boat tour. Everybody enjoyed the first few miles of the boat trip, but it was windy, and as we left the protection of the bay, the seas grew to 15 feet. Our 120 foot boat was rocking pretty good, and a lot of people got sick, including Consuelo who suffers from seasickness in the back seat of a car. Liam, Amelia, and Maria were all somewhat unsettled. Unfortunately, there were several hours of boat trip to go.

We got to see mountain goats, sea lions, and some birds on the way to the glacier. The tour was narrated by one of the Park Rangers, who pointed out sights and talked about the history of the area. As we left Resurrection Bay and made the turn into Ailick Arm up to Ailick Glacier, the seas were the worst, and lots of folks clutched their barf bags while holding onto a rail.

The face of Ailick Glacier

We finally arrived at the glacier, in a quiet bay. The boat stopped and faced each side of the boat at the glacier for 20 minutes. Seasickness is something that people recover from almost immediately, so everybody got a good look at the glacier. Hearing it was almost as impressive, as it groaned and cracked like a thunderstorm as it moved down into the sea and calved off big chunks of ice. Forty minutes seemed to pass in an instant.

On the return, we cruised across the mouth of Resurrection Bay to an island that was a rookery for gulls, common murres, and puffins. Sea lions and mountain goats were hanging around here, too.

Humpback whale tail

In the bay, among the islands, a pod of humpback whales were hunting for food. We could hear them blowing when they surfaced, and caught a few whale tails.

The return trip was as rough in some places, but farther up the bay, with the wind now calmer and behind us, the seasickness was more manageable. We arrived back inot Seward around 5:30, regained our sea legs, and called fror the shuttle to pick us up. We got the car and then were treated to an enjoyable dinner in town by the kids. By the time we got back to the camper, everybody was tired out and ready to sleep.