RV and Outdoor Adventures of Julie & Tom: Our time in Seward Alaska

Monday, August 26, 2013

Our time in Seward Alaska

Dates: 8/26/2013 – 8/27/2013

After our nine hour boat tour of Kenai National park on Monday, we were ready for some time on land! Someone in our group (won’t say who) doesn’t do very well in rough seas and at the end of the trip fed the fish off the back of the boat (if you know what I mean!!). Even with that little uncomfortable event, it still was an awesome trip and would definitely do it again. After exiting the tour boat we located the bus stop near the boat harbor that would take us the lodge we were staying for the night. The Windsong Seward Lodge is located about 3 miles north of Seward heading towards Exit Glacier. We made our way to the Seward lodge and got checked in. This is a very nice, although a little older, lodge right on the river that flows out of Exit Glacier. We did get upgraded to a suite room, so that was nice.

After getting settled in our room, we rested for awhile. We were tired from our long day and didn’t feel like taking the hotel shuttle back to Seward for dinner. So, we decided to check out the restaurant associated with the lodge called the Resurrection Roadhouse. We didn’t eat in the dining room, but choose the pub side which pretty much has the same menu as the main dining room. We again tasted some of the local brews and split a pizza which was actually pretty good. This pub also had a nice combination of locals and tourists. We always like to find places that the local people frequent and this seemed to be one of those places.

The weather, especially in the morning, was a little chilly. So, Julie enjoyed warming up by the fireplace.

On Tuesday morning the Windsong lodge offered a guided trip to Exit Glacier which is just up the road from the lodge. Exit Glacier is another of the many glacier that flow off the Harding Icefield. This was a view of the glacier from a pullout along the road. There was only a few of us on this trip, so again it was a nice, un-crowded outing and we enjoyed talking with the young (college aged) guide who led the trip.

Here is the visitor center for the Exit Glacier park.

This park had several different choices for hikes to the Glacier and further on to the Harding Icefield. We did the more leisurely hike up to the glacier which was about two miles round trip.

Exit Glacier, like almost all the glaciers in this area are shrinking and doing so very quickly. This sign was about a quarter mile from the toe of the glacier and was where the glacier was located back in 1961. There was also a series of signs long the road leading into the park with dates previous to this. It really gives you a good understanding of how fast these glaciers are receding.

This is the GPS track of our hike at Exit Glacier

Seward Alaska - Exit Glacier Hike at EveryTrail

After our hike around Exit Glacier we headed back to the Windsong Lodge to catch the Shuttle down to Seward. We had several hours until we had to catch the Alaska Train back to Anchorage, so we decided to spend some time checking out the Seward area, plus we had tickets for the Sealife Center and a Back Stage tour. Again, the lodge took good care of us and took our luggage directly to the train depot for us. This was a common theme as we traveled on this trip. The hotels/lodges work very closely with the Alaskan Train and do all they can to make your travel pleasant.

We took the lodge shuttle to the boat harbor in Seward and did a long walk around this area. This is the small boat harbor looking south towards Resurrection Bay.

Julie is ready for the Iditarod race which used to start in Seward, but has since moved to Anchorage.

So, this was an interesting boat/ship we saw anchored in the Seward Harbor. It was the talk of the town when we were there and it turns out it is owned by Paul Allen who is the co-founder of Microsoft. This ship, the Octopus, is 414 ft long and looks like one of the cruise ships which frequent this area, Julie and I were going to make an attempt to get on-board and check it out. That was until we heard he employs about 10 Navy Seals to protect him and his ship. We actually saw some of what we assumed were the seals circling the ship in one of the security boats. So, we decided to keep our distance.

From the boat harbor we walked down to the “business district” about a mile away, We were hungry for lunch and found a Greek Restaurant named the Apollo. We found this place served really good food. Who would have thought that there would be a good Greek restaurant in downtown Seward.

This picture shows downtown Seward with Marathon Mountain in the background.

All this walking made us a little thirsty. So, we just had to stop in to the Seward Brewing Company, which is a restaurant and pub, to try one of their home brewer beers. The owners of the business just totally rebuilt the building which houses the restaurant and brewing room (s). They did an amazing job or re-doing this historic building, The inside is somewhat rustic, but at the same time very classy with all the interesting art work on the walls. If you are ever in this area, be sure to check it out.

Of course Seward is a major fishing port. This charter fishing boat just came into port and was showing off their catch.

The last thing we did at Seward, before boarding the train back to Anchorage, was to visit the Sea Life Center. This was a good way to spend a few hours and we did the back stage tour. Although not great, it was kind of interesting. I’m not a big aquarium/museum fan but I can see where others would find it interesting. They actually do a lot of marine research and animal rehabilitation.