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Published: February 7th 2018
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We reached Seward late afternoon on Saturday. We checked into the Breeze Inn, just off the main drag through Seward; it was an odd motel that backs up to a pretty busy road. This wasn’t the best room we stayed in during the trip, but was clean enough. One of the most interesting things about the hotel is the display of photos from the 9.2 magnitude earthquake that occurred on Good Friday in 1964. A huge chunk of the coast dropped into the bay, the shock of which created a 30 foot tall Tsunami wave that went nearly a mile in-shore. There was also massive damage in Anchorage, 75 miles away.
After settling in, we walked to the "restaurant row" for dinner, where we had fresh fish at The Alaska Seafood Grill. It's a very casual atmosphere, kind of a cafeteria-style layout, but the fish was local and great.
Sunday We were only at the Breeze Inn for Saturday night; we had to be up and checked out of our room fairly early so we could take the Kenai Fjords National Park Excursion on Sunday. After checking out of the motel, we headed down to the marina, where
we saw the boat we were going on. It was a good sized vessel with protected seating area inside, and exposed deck area where you could walk all the way around the cabin for a better view.
The day was in the mid 40s, cold and gray, with a damp mist, so it was great to be able to be inside the cabin when we were under way. The captain was great, cruising around until they found wildlife. Despite, or maybe because of, the gray weather, we saw harbor seals, sea otters, sea lions, Dall's porpoises, and pods of Orcas and humpback whales. We maintained a good distance from them, so the pictures aren't great. But it was exciting to see them frolicking together in the water. We also saw some mountain goats WAAAAY up the cliff, so far up that they looked like tiny specks of white.
The highlight of the trip for me was the glacier, though. I don't remember which glacier we visited, but we got to about 100 yards from the edge of it. He waited in the bay until it calved with a loud crash, and more ice littered the bay. It was
odd to hear the clunks as the ice hit the hull of the boat. They gave me a chunk of ice to hold that came from the glacier...but they could have gotten it out of the drinks cooler, you couldn't prove it by me! On the way back to Seward, we saw 2 or 3 sailboats, really heeling into the wind. It would have been a cold day out on the water with temps in the 40's and about 18-20 knots of breeze!
When we got back from the excursion, we drove back to Anchorage, back to the same hotel where we stayed a few days earlier (My Place) and returned the rental car. It is still so odd to me that it's still light at 11:30 PM!
What’s on for tomorrow? Off to the train station for our trip up to Denali!
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