July 18-20, Seward AK

It was supposed to rain but were greeted by bright sunshine for our 43 mile trek to Seward. We pulled into the city campground on the bay just as the only guy leaving was pulling out. Dennis really has this timing thing down! Since we have learned to take advantage of blue skies, we headed directly to Exit Glacier & took the 2 mile round trip trail to the glacier's edge. The trail was really nice and we loved the blast of cold air once we came out at the glacier. We then visited the Alaska Sealife Center in Seward. It was really nicely done, but paled a bit since we'd all been to the Monterey aquarium. We continued to the end of the road, where there wasn't much! We did wonder if this boat was a victim of the 1964 earthquake or just an unfortunate incident. We returned to our fabulous bay view in time to see the Kenai Star boat come by & were excited to know that we'd be on it for our glacier cruise the next day. The locals call our RVs in Waterfront Park the "first line of defense" in case another tsunami hits! We had a warm (for Alaska) and sunny day for our glacier cruise. Our sightseeing trip was amazing! We saw otters, orcas, Dalls porpoises (which look like orcas), a humpback whale, puffins, a bald eagle, seals, sea lions and a little bit of glacier calving. The humpback jumped several times and spun around & around with his tail in the air. The ranger & crew didn't really know what he was up to, but we sure enjoyed watching it. Our cruise included a salmon & prime rib buffet, followed by a dessert buffet a couple hours later. The crew fished out some glacier ice & made margaritas. The day was so great that we just had to include a slew of pictures!

A cargo barge followed us into port and a yacht was anchored directly in front of our RV. Google told us the Alucia was originally a research vessel with quite a pedigree that had been converted to a luxury yacht & recently sold for $30 million or more. It has 2 submersibles that we desperately wished we'd get an invitation to tour around! Someone important either arrived or left via float plane. Dennis & Mom spent most of the evening in the front seats of the RV, monitoring the situation with binoculars. For some reason, both vessels were gone before we woke up. Supposed they noticed their stalkers?!