Wednesday Day Five in Alaska -Seward and back to Hope
We woke up when KC arrived at 8:15 telling us he wanted to take us out to breakfast. OK! Don't need to tell me twice! I was up and ready and in the car waiting before Jams or Jamie were out of bed! Take me to food!
We had breakfast at place in town called The Goldrush. Pretty delicious and as they gave me an extra stash of hollandaise I was pretty pumped for my eggs benny. Jamie had biscuits and gravy (spectacular), KC had corned beef and eggs (great!) and Jams had eggs benny with tomato and bacon (can't go wrong there). Most importantly, the coffee was strong. We took a leisurely breakfast and then went down to the Sealife Center to meet the fiancé of an old college acquaintance who got us tickets. (Matt Murphy was my acquaintance, for those of you from UMASS. Murph from Earthfoods)
The Sealife center was GREAT! Started with some small exhibits of Alaska and commercial fishing, moving into some tanks with local fish and then it opens up to a great touch tank area. Aside from poking the anemones, I love watching barnacles fan out and try to catch nutrients in the water. That's a gorgeous thing to see if you want to check it out. By the touch tank, you can look out and see the animals that are being rehabilitated. Two otters, a baby seal, a bigger seal and LOTS of birds. The woman who got us tickets told us they just got a 3 day old baby otter and a bearded seal! (don't tell anyone, there hasn't been an official press release yet!) We didn't see either of those things but I enjoyed knowing they were there.
We wandered out into the aviary where there were puffins, cormorants, gulls, and eiders all just flying around. Some of the gulls literally flew within striking distance of our heads. They look just like your everyday bird but Jamie says he overhead the guy talking about how they are a very rare species that only nests in three places in the world. They looked like any run of the mill sea gull).
We wandered through the Salmon exhibit (mandatory in Alaska). There's lots of types of Salmon here. Once the season starts (with King salmon), you can pretty much be fishing some sort of Salmon all the way through September. The salmon life cycle, as you might know, is interesting. They are born, go out to sea (where we know very little about what they do) and then when they are about 5 years old, they come home to spawn. After which, they promptly die. When they come back to spawn is when people are doing all the salmon fishing here. On their way home, they go through a crazy physical transformation. One of them develops a gonzo type nose. I'm not kidding - I think it's the sockeye. Anyway, as they come back to spawn, they stop eating, they lose all the fat stores in their bodies and their meat kinda turns to mush. You can really only eat them as they begin their adventure. This surprised me because as they swim upstream they get redder and redder but, while salmon meat is red/pink you don’t want the salmon you catch to be that color.
After Salmon, we went downstairs to see the big tanks and watch the sealions, diving birds and seals from underwater. Dang-sealions are big! They are more closely related to bears than to dogs. They have ears, really long whiskers and are massive. The male Stellar Sea lion (the ones up here) can get up to 2,200 pounds. THAT'S MASSIVE. It was captivating to watch them circle around. (also a little sad).
At that point we were just about at the end of the center and so after scoping out the smack of jellyfish (yes, a group of jellyfish is called a "smack") we wandered out. At this point, we heard a story about a baby walrus that was brought to the Sea Life center and it was so young and sick and alone that they had to organize 24 hour cuddle sessions for it. For weeks! How adorable! (and also sad).
After our sealife center adventure we wandered around Seward a bit more. We stopped into the Seward hotel and met Robby, the manager. There were lots of stuffed bears and Alaska things. The original was built in 1905, survived the earthquake and the fire. The new side was built in the 80s and they’re open all winter. Mostly, it seems, because they house a lot of the railroad personnel. And they have little trinkets that tie them to the railroad too. The bell on the desk came from the railroad depot and the big bell on the floor was from the rail station and it used to ring when a train came into the station.
Next, we went into a random gift shop that was Russia Themed but had lots of Alaska stuff. Russian stuff makes sense as Russia was the first nation to claim Alaska but the small Peruvian dolls and Scandinavian keychains and Atlanta Georgia Jewelry - I had a harder time making the connection. Anyway, there were great carved stone figurines, lots of Russian dolls and various other trinkets. Smelled a bit like patchouli but looked like a swanky gift shop so that was another hilarious incongruity.
Next, we crossed the street to the original Bank Building -Brown and Hastings. Those two came up for the gold rush and became good friends and opened some banks. They decided they needed a move and so went up to Turnagain arm and Knik arm areas and anchored themselves in the mudflats and opened a store/bank. They called it "the Anchorage" or rather, people referencing where they were going called it the Anchorage and as they were the only thing around, it started to reference the whole area and the name for Anchorage was born. The bank then became the Bank of Alaska.
We had Gelato at the Sweet Darlings Candy Shop - Whiskey Cream, Brownie and Peanut Butter (KC had added in Vanilla).
I chatted with Cliff in the attached gift shop where he tried to pitch the "Men of Seward" calendar and then we went to Ray's Reusables and chatted with Ray. He's trying to make a go of a reused retail store in Seward. His old shop burnt down 5 years ago and he didn't want to end on that note so he started anew! I hope he can make it work but unless he figures out how to sell things on the internet, he's not gonna get very far.
Continuing on our full adventure of Seward, we went down to the pier to see if Kenai Fjords National Park Visitor Center was open (it wasn't) so went to Kenai Fjords Tour Company. It's owned by the same company that KC works for (Pursuit) and we took some time looking at all their wares and trinkets which included some crazy whale, walrus penis, walrus tusk and mammoth bone carvings.
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