Thursday, June 26, 2008

 

Today we had breakfast in bed.  Of course it was cereal like we have most mornings but it was raining outside so we brought all the breakfast fixings into the camper and everyone ate breakfast in their bed.  Surprisingly no one spilled so no one had to wear his or her breakfast.  After breakfast we packed up camp in the rain. This was the first day during our entire trip that we had to pack camp in the rain and we are very grateful that there haven’t been more times.  We headed south to Seward, AK. 

 

When we got to Seward we looked around for a campground and since Seward is a pretty small town, we also saw much of the town during our campground hunting. We found a place called Resurrection Bay North Campground that is right on the beach of Resurrection Bay.  There were sea otters playing in the bay while we were setting up camp.  It is a working bay so there are fishing boats and cruise ships going in and out of the bay.  One man told us he saw dolphins, sea otters, and whales in the bay this morning.

 

Seward is a nice little town with a population of 2,600.  The boat harbor is the main business in the town but there are some nice restaurants and shops for tourists along the downtown strip.  There were a couple of chain stores like Safeway and Subway and the rest of the shops/restaurants were locally owned. 

 

This town is surrounded on three sides by mountains and the other side has Resurrection Bay that flows out to the Gulf of Alaska.  The mountains have glaciers in them and some of the glaciers have minerals and silt that have turned a blue-green color making them really pretty.  The salmon don’t run here until mid-July and early August so we won’t see salmon in the creeks but there are many black bears around. 

 

We wanted to see a glacier close up so we went to Exit Glacier.  There is a visitor’s center and a walking trail that leads right up to the bottom of the glacier so we could see it and touch it.  Most of the glaciers we have seen have a lake at the base or they are so far away we can’t walk to them.  This was really a treat to see the glacier and hear all the water dripping/running from it.  There were streams of water coming out from several places on the bottom of the glacier.  We had to cross several streams to get to the glacier.  Some of the streams had rocks strategically placed as stepping-stones.  The water was rushing over some of the stepping-stones and there were many streams to cross so I think everyone got wet somewhere on our walk to the glacier.  It was comical to see some of the kids try to jump streams and almost make it.  It was also comical to see someone stay dry over a few streams only to fall in another stream.  We had a good laugh trying to get to the base of the Exit Glacier.  When we got to the base of Exit Glacier, we walked around as much of it as possible.  Chris and Cameron decided to try to jump across a stream that had a mound of land humped up on both sides about twice their height.  Cameron went first and cleared the stream but crashed into the other bank with a thud.  He said the icy bank was really hard.  Chris decided to take the jump at an angle so that he would land on the flatter area of the bank.  We got some great pictures of both boys getting some air.  They loved the pictures.  Exit Glacier is blue-green colored, 3 miles long, descends 2,500 feet and is receding at a rate of a few feet per year.   There are many shale colored rocks that are round and flat, perfect for using as skipping rocks so we spent a bit of time trying them out.  We could skip them 10-20 times in a pond formed by the streams.  I think the boys could have stayed there for a long time.  We climbed up to see the glacier from a lookout point and when we got back to the visitor’s center, we were told there were two black bears on the trail to the bottom of the glacier.  We were sad that we didn’t see them but glad that we weren’t too close.  We have been told to make lots of noise and the bears to give the bears a warning and they will probably not bother you.  I think our group of eleven is probably pretty safe as loud as we are without even trying to be loud.

Since this is our last night together, we decided to splurge for supper and try their local restaurant’s fish.  We each ordered something different so we could share and taste many different kinds of fish.  We had salmon, halibut, rockfish and shrimp.  It was delicious.

 

The last thing on our agenda was to get a shower.  I have never seen a group so enthusiastic about getting a shower.  Of course, I don’t think we have ever gone this long without one.  We each had to pay $2.00 for 10 minutes and the showers were in a drafty, public restroom that anyone in town could use but we were thrilled.

 

Cameron spent the night with us in our camper and Sarah spent the night with the cousins.  They got to stay up late talking and enjoying each other’s company one more night.