Day Twenty-One - Seward, AK

---

The list of activities on the itinerary for today include driving into Seward to visit the Alaska SeaLife Center and see the Iditarod Trail Mile 0 marker.

The SeaLife Center is a very nice aquarium. It has two floors and you start your visit on the second floor. There are the usual aquariums with a variety of fish, urchins, sea stars and one tank had a Giant Pacific Octopus hiding in a corner. They made it interactive to a degree with a tablet sized screen that scrolled through the inhabitants of each aquarium and how many of each animal was in the tank. It encouraged you to find them all, like an I Spy book come to life. Outside are three large tanks. The tank on the left was enclosed with netting and housed a variety of sea birds. The Kittiwakes were so noisy! They look like seagulls and I thought they were until I looked it up on the ASLC website. Other birds included ducks, eiders, and of course Puffins! The center tank was used for Stellar Sea Lion feedings and demos. We were there at the right time to see one of these feeding demos. I know from seeing similar demos the "tricks" they have the animal do are naturally occurring behaviors. The animal is trained to do a specific behavior on cue. Having the animal go through all of their behaviors on cue helps the trainers and medical staff examine the animal and track its health. I was on the opposite side of the tank from the trainer as she tossed fish to the first big guy they brought out. There was a tall, thick plexiglass wall that blocked anything she might have been saying. I would like to think she was explaining the same things I just talked about. The big guy was out there showing us his flippers and teeth, diving into the water to launch himself onto a different rock in the pool, or up onto "land" at the back of the pool and up onto a higher rock overlooking the pool before descending and slipping back into the pool. When his antics were finished he was called back to wherever he hangs out when he's not showing off and replaced by another, smaller male and an even smaller female. The two of them acted like an old married couple at times. She was up on a rock and he came up next to her, trying to get up there as well. She turned around to tell him off! She had a large scar across her left side. Mike asked an official looking person about it and her reply was that sometimes they just get that naturally from rubbing against rocks. I don't know, it looked worse than that, but I guess it could happen when they're getting in and out of the water. The tank to the right had three seals swimming about in it. One was a ringed seal and the other two were spotted seals. Seals are so much fun to watch - when they're under the water. Up on top they're kind of boring. Upstairs also had a series of touch tanks. As you worked your way to the left the tanks became increasingly more shallow. I just had to go touch the creatures. There were sea stars, anemones, urchins, sea cucumbers, and prawns. The prawns wouldn't let me get near them. The water was so cold I could only keep my hand in for a minute or so. I couldn't feel the Sea Cucumber at all between the coldness of the water and the fact they're just so squishy. You can't stick your hand in a touch tank and not let an anemone taste you. The hard part is going slow enough to disengage your finger without damaging the tentacles. Unlike the soft, squishy tentacle, the base of the anemone feels rough and somewhat rigid. Okay, enough playing in the water, let's go downstairs.

The three big tanks are even more interesting from below the water's surface. The three seals spun, dove, twirled and entertained everyone from the toddlers with their noses pressed to the glass, to the adults standing behind them enjoying both shows. The sea lion tank was empty now that the demos were finished. The tank that had the aviary above was teeming with life below as well. There were salmon, Wolf Eels, skates, rockfish ... and Puffins! My favorite part of this tank was definitely watching the Puffins dive down into the water and just have a look around. It was as if they were asking, "Whatcha doin'?"

As with many aquariums around the world, the Alaska SeaLife Center is also involved in education, research, conservation, and rehabilitation.

We didn't need to go far to find the Iditarod Trail markers. The were near the SeaLife Center. The markers were not about what I was expecting. If I had remembered my history I would have realized it wouldn't be directly connected to the famous diphtheria serum run from Anchorage to Nome. Duh. We were in Seward, Anchorage is just a wee bit north. The Iditarod Trail was originally a series of trails used by Native Americans and Russians. In early 1908 those trails were used as a winter mail route between Seward and Nome. When gold was discovered in the Yukon and Alaska in late 1908, the trail was used to connect the various mining camps, trading posts and other settlements. In 1909 merchants in Seward hired a couple of renowned mushers to see if the trails would be a feasible way to get supplies to and gold from the Iditarod gold fields. They did and it was. The two men improved the Seward-Iditarod section of trail making it easier to navigate. The historical markers we saw in Seward were centered around the accomplishments and contributions of these two gentlemen. It was really windy so we didn't stay too long looking at all the markers, statues and informational signs.

All the walking around and battling the wind made us hungry. We strolled up the main street in town and checked out the menus of several eateries and, as is often the case, went back to one of the first restaurants we stopped at. Lunch was delicious and hit the spot.

Back at camp we relaxed and I set to work on the blog. It's crazy how much time I spend on this thing. You would think it would only take a couple hours at most, but I can sit here for three, four, five hours or more writing, editing, and saving the text then cropping, uploading, captioning and putting the pictures in the order I want so they match up somewhat with the text. When the internet is slow, the uploading is agony!

Okay, back to work. Talk again soon.

---