Alaska Trip: Day 2, Seward

  Saturday July 24

I slept fine in the old hotel. Erik picked up an omelet breakfast with a side of reindeer sausage at Wild Catch Cafe for us to share before packing up. Before we headed out of Whittier for good, we looked in a shop and walked around for maybe 5 minutes. Then we drove an hour and a half to Seward where our next boat cruise left.

The reindeer sausage didn't taste very different from regular sausage.

One last look at Whittier before going back through the tunnel.

The boat cruise in Seward visited Kenai Fjords National Park, and it was slightly longer than the last cruise. It was similar, although we did see more animals than we did the last cruise, and it was a bit more scenic. We didn’t have a very good view from our seat, and lunch wasn’t that great. We were also told we had to wear masks, but I didn’t wear one at all. And neither did the captain of the ship, so whatever.

One of many bald eagles we saw on the cruise. You can see its white head near the top of the tree.

The chicken wrap lunch was nothing special.

We saw some puffins and tufted puffins in this crevice.

More sea lions lounging around

There was a house and a lighthouse on this little island in the open water.

More sea otters doing the backstroke

The cruise went to one glacier called Aialik Glacier. Erik got a video of a really good calving. It was just too cold to step outside, so I let Erik get most of the pictures.

Aialik Glacier is over 1 mile wide and over 1700 feet tall.

After going for a swim, this black bear headed toward a group of kayakers resting on the shore.

We saw the blow from this whale, but we didn't have time to get any closer.

Really pretty rock formations on the way back from Kenai National Park

After we docked we headed to our next place to stay, called Twin Peaks to check in and drop off our luggage. Then we drove to downtown Seward. We tried to eat at The Cookery but they were all booked for the evening. So we ended up going to a restaurant not to far away called Gold Rush. While we were waiting for a table, we stopped by a few shops. I found a ruby chocolate bar with grapefruit filling that I wanted to try and a few lollipops to bring my total up to $5 so I could use my credit card. The ruby chocolate bar was kind of odd-tasting and not too impressive. We got called back to the restaurant sooner than expected. It helps to have a party of just 2 instead of a party of 5 or 7. Erik ordered the chipotle bacon cheeseburger and I ordered the halibut tacos. Erik thought his cheeseburger was too spicy, but we both agreed that my halibut tacos were pretty darn good. The clam chowder we ordered was good, too.

Our delicious dinner

The weird "chocolate" bar. It was fun to try, but I wouldn't buy it again.

After dinner we went back to our Twin Peaks room for the night. I didn’t like that we could hear all the noise from the other guests, and I also didn’t like that our bath towel wasn’t much bigger than a hand towel. Other than that the place was ok I guess.