2023 - A Trip to Alaska
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The Hendersons 2023 - A Trip to Alaska - Seward |
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2023 - A Trip to Alaska |
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August
1st Tuesday Up early and shuttle to the Alaska Rail terminal. We had a bit
of a kerfuffle in that we were supposed to be Goldstar but it wasn’t indicated
on our itinerary. Tom realized that we were in the wrong class and we got moved
to Goldstar. Breakfast was on the train. We arrived in Seward and walked the short distance to our
Major Marine Kenai Fjords sightseeing tour. Tom packed ahead and his scheme was
brilliant. He packed clothing and toiletries for our one night stay in Seward
and we left our bags at the hotel in Anchorage. It worked really well and made
it very efficient for our transfers. The cruise was focused on seeing wildlife which was abundant.
Birds, sea lions and a very impressive show of humpback whales feeding. The
birds are wise to the debris around the whales feeding and swarm to pick up the
leavings.
We cruised near the Aialik Glacier – very beautiful.
We met a man from Maryland and his adult daughter on the trip
and had a great conversation. Tom took photos of wildlife and glaciers. Upon return to Seward we checked into the excellent Harbor 360
Hotel and walked to the nearby Ray’s Boathouse for a wonderful meal. We don’t
eat as much any more so we had a scallop appetizer with pesto aeoli and shared a
salmon with fresh bell peppers and maple Dijon dressing. Wonderful. August
3rd, Wednesday We had booked a sled dog trip at the Seavey Ididaride facility. The business was founded by Mark Seavey who had won the Iditarod race multiple times. I was surprised at the small size of the dogs, I had assumed they were Siberian Huskies, but they are not an official breed, short hair, long legs and rather skinny. And very noisy. The ride was on a dirt and rock track, extremely bumpy and curvy and the dogs made a heck of a racket barking excitedly. We were in the front of the sled and had to hang on to the bar at the front with one hand and our cameras with the other.
On an official race the dogs and driver are outfitted with a
lot of special gear and the dogs are on a high calorie diet up to 20,000
calories a day. The dogs begin training when they are nine months old, in fact
they aren’t named until they begin training. After our visit to the dog sled facility we were taken to a
restaurant in Seward. In retrospect we should have skipped the remainder of the
activities and walked across the street to the Seward SeaLife Center. Instead we
were taken into the Kenai National Park. Some folks went on a short hike but we
stayed around the ranger station. The flies were horrible and made the
experience very unpleasant.
It is the beginning of the salmon migration. The salmon are
coming back to the spot where they had been hatched where the females will lay
their eggs, the males fertilize them and then the adults will die. Rather
interesting the carcasses decay and actually fertilize the vegetation along the
river. We hadn’t realized how important salmon are to the Alaskan economy with
affect on tourism, commercial fishing and sport fishing.
We were driven back to the rail
station and boarded the train for the return to Anchorage. We had dinner on
board. It was pretty good
but not exceptional. The railroad uses a shared
table system (festival seating), so we shared a table with a couple from
Michigan. Generally, we’ve enjoyed meeting folks from different places. Back in Anchorage we called for a shuttle to the hotel, went
to bed and had a good night’s rest.
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