The Drive to Seward

The Mud Flats Along the Harbor at Low Tide.

A Musk Ox at the Conservation Center for Rescued Wild Animals.

Rescued Kodiak Cubs whose mother had died.

Clouds in the Mountains

Tuesday, May 31

Some side points about our trip to date-

It stays light up here until after midnight and is light again by 4:30 in the morning. In between, it isn't really dark. It is more twilight. We've learned to shut our shades and pull the curtain around our bed. It works good enough as we are usually so tired by 10:00 or 11:00, it doesn't matter. We are 4 hours behind Michigan. It will be crazy to readjust.

Next, we've learned that things always look so much worse when we're tired. Last night doing laundry at our park, I met a lady that looked pretty rough. At first I thought she must be at least 60, and then I remembered my age and decided she must be 70. Her greasy hair was pulled up in a stringy mushroom, top knot. She wore horn rimmed glasses with a leopard print tank with purple trim. Her black bra straps were stylishly showing. She wore a long, peasant skirt with flip flops. She flashed me a toothy grin and confided, "I guess this is where the clean people meet!" Well, God bless her. How could I not grin right back and agree. It just takes all kinds and this morning with the sun shining, I realized this wasn't such a bad park and thoughts of her friendliness just made me smile.

Well, back to our day, we ran some errands around Anchorage and felt happy to leave the city behind as we drove south to Seward. It was a very pretty drive with green mountains on our left and the bay on our right. We saw the mud flats with many warnings to stay off of them as it is so easy to get stuck in the quick sand and then the tide can come back in and it could get ugly. Of course, Bob had to climb down and get a piece of the muddy clay so we could feel it. He promised to stay on the rocks.

We watched for Dall sheep and Beluga whales, but it was low tide and we didn't see any. We did see an eagle feeding on a fish.

We stopped to visit a conservation center that rescues sick or injured wild animals. It was sad, but interesting. We got a good picture of a Musk Ox and of a pair of Kodiak Grizzly cubs whose mom had been killed. We watched them play for quite a while.

The temperature dropped when we got to the cute fishing town of Seward. It was cold, windy and raining. We got a spot in the city campground right on the water. We watched an otter and then a pod of seals as we hooked up.

We went to town and got tickets for a six hour cruise in the Kenai Fjords to see glaciers and wildlife tomorrow. We went to a rustic restaurant named Salmon Bake that advertised cheap beer and lousy food. They played Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, and Patsy Cline and the seafood chowder was delicious.

We went back to our cozy trailer, plugged in the heater and snuggled in for the night.