The Edge of Sea and Summer

The first thing that curveball-strikes you about Seward is how-on-earth a sleepy little arctic fishing hamlet can be this signature, destination port-of-call. I wouldn't be surprised if the population and square footage of the giant cruise ship moored at the state ferry dock exceeds that of the tiny, resident township of Seward. This is pure Alaska, where the micro and macro merge.

Seward only takes a few half hours to cover. It's that small. But, it’s a place whose pulse I may have to tap for many more travel seasons to come before I can prop its due online. Whether sea-kayaking Resurrection Bay, sport-fishing the coves along Aialik Peninsula, whale-watching within the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, or simply appreciating the pristine beauty of Kenai Fjords National Park, the source of Seward's spirit is undeniably the sea. You are at its edge, and there’s naught to do but simply dive in.

Online, start at www.dced.state.ak.us/tourism/.

Quick Tips:

Given that you will venture out onto the water, be sure to prepare yourself with either Dramamine or a prescription ear patch, unless you're accustomed to ocean travel or immune to seasickness.

End of summer in Alaska is far better than beginning of summer. Prices that triple during the summer months start to taper downward. The days are still long, but there are enough night hours that you won't feel your cycadian ticker disrupted. Rain is a possibility, but we lucked out with picture perfect weather. The mosquitos are gone; the toxic side effects of DEET repellent is not a concern. The salmon season has just started. Woohoo! And residents have begun to mellow, back into their Alaskan friendliness and ease, after the first onslaughts of tourists.

Best Way To Get Around:

Seward is such a small town that getting around is not an issue. Walking is best.

A all day ticket on Seward's Trolley comes handy. With roughly twenty stops on a two mile circuit running every half hour, it's a slow shuttle. Anchoring the route at each end are the Seward Chamber of Commerce Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Alaska SeaLife Center. My only gripe is that it runs from 10am to 7pm. The trolley is useless for keeping early appointments. And during Alaska's summer hours, 7:00 is like 2 in the afternoon; just as the day’s getting started, the trolleys disappear.

Many people arrive by cruise ship, public ferry, Alaska rail, coach bus, or seaplane. For others who arrive by car: 1) The Seward Highway is a beautiful drive; check ahead for construction updates and weather closures. 2) Parking in Seward is somewhat of a problem. 3) The beachfront camping lots are numerous and spacious. 4) Exit Glacier, Lowell Point, and other nearby sights are worth visiting.

My friends and I debated between a popular motel at the harbor, a celebrated but remote bungalow, and an untested, brand spanking new hotel. We chose the third; the decision was made easier by the offer of an accommodations-plus-cruise package discount.

Hotel Edgewater is at the far end of Seward, across the street from the Alaska SeaLife Center. The location is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it’s a peaceful complement to the rocky shore of Resurrection Bay. On the other hand, it's about two kilometers away from the bustle of the boat harbor.

The hotel is quite small, a three-story structure built in the classic style of a ring of rooms around an open lobby space. The lobby is modern and comfortable, with the one side facing the street housing a gift shop. Personally, I think they should convert it into a deli cafe. My room was also quite small, and rustic in its decor. The hotel sits on a lot that's mostly perpendicular to the sea; not all rooms will have a straight-on serene view of the bay from their large windows. Complimentary continental breakfast is served in a basement room. I skipped it. The hotel should set up a table spread each morning in the lobby instead; again, just my personal opinion.

While waiting in the lobby for my friends, I was approached by a stylishly dressed, petite woman who inquired whether I might be an acquaintance. (I get that a lot from strangers; I apparently have the countenance of an everyday man.) As it turned out, we became instantly acquainted. She introduced herself as the hotel's sales manager, and in the course of explaining how she had mistook me for a friend in Hawaii, we shocked each other with the revelation that we had attended the same high school. Sometimes, I think I travel because I'm chasing such serendipitous moments with interesting new people. Interesting indeed, during Seward's winter hibernation months, she pilots luxury sailboats across the world's oceans to their new owners.

Not that we needed a friend and ally among the hotel's staff. The front desk, although inexperienced, was friendly and eager to please. Here's another unbelievable story concerning Edgewater's staff...

I got a parking ticket at Seward. We drove to the harbor because we didn't want to miss our cruise departure. Maybe I misread the parking signs, I was surprised upon my return from the cruise to have received it. Prompted by the hotel desk's welcome back greetings, I stated that even the parking ticket I had received could not dampen the exhilirating experience of the day's boat trip. On their initiative, the staff took my ticket, called the local police department, and persuaded them to waive the fine. I was floored! This might be an everyday occurence in a small town, I don't know, but even American Express could not have fulfilled this kind of 'service'. For that experience alone, you can count me loyal to Edgewater. Terrific staff!

Earlier in the 'evening', I spent a few delightful hours fishing for silver salmon on the nearly deserted sandy beach at Lowell Point. I didn't catch any. One angler, about a hundred feet to my right, in waders and hip deep water, landed one that was at least eight pounds. One way or another, I would have mine!

When I caught up with my friends at Ray's Waterfront, I told them I had caught and released an eighty pound king salmon, shrugged, winked; and we walked into the harborfront restaurant. It puzzles me because it works -- lots of wall-mounted carcasses of animals we were soon to be eating gave the restaurant an ambience of cozy, casual class.

We had reservations and were guiltily happy for it, passing a lot of people with sad faces in the narrow waiting foyer. Our table was not window. If I was less hungry and desperate for fresh salmon, I might have asked our cheerful hostess to queue us for one. As it was, we were there to eat, not to watch sport-fishers returning to port with their day's catches.

I ordered one of Alaska's signature dishes -- a surf 'n surf, if you will -- king crab paired with salmon. It's sublime! The crab was sweet and meaty, the salmon (slightly overcooked to my preferred taste) was nutty and flaky. The combination is delicious. I was satisfied.

After a sightseeing boat cruise of the Kenai Fjords, its glaciers and wildlife, a visit to the Alaska SeaLife Center is a great way to put the experience into perspective. Several aquariums, with mesmerizing underwater viewing windows and outdoor viewing platforms, offer close looks of the many creatures you may have seen earlier in the day from afar.

My favorite exhibits were: the intertidal marine creatures 'petting' tank, the endangered Stellar sea lions, Alaskan king crabs in deep pressurization, and puffins "flying" underwater to catch fresh frozen fish.

Be sure to note, first thing, the time for the start of the next film showing in the large screen theater. It's worth watching, an excellent overview of the Kenai Fjords National Park. Another looping film to watch, either sitting on the carpetted floor or on vinyl ottomans, is a brief historical vignette of Seward and the seas of southern Alaska.

The Alaska SeaLife Center does not have a football field size aquarium. This isn't SeaWorld San Diego; it is very modest as must-see destinations go. Its primary function is a research facility, in part supported by public viewing of its exhibits. The ASLC was built, in fact, with reparations from the Exxon Oil Company for the Valdez oil spill that devastated the Alaska coast of Prince Edward Sound in 1989. Consequently, it is renowned for its wildlife rehabilitation expertise. Exxon's settlement and continuing payments for the ecological disaster may have faded from most people's memory, but the Alaska SeaLife Center is 'righting the ship' and insuring that the fertile waters of Alaska remain pristine for our future.

The ASLC is located at the far end of town, at Milepost 0 of the Seward National Scenic Highway. Admission is $12.50, $10 for children and free for kids. Its gift shop is excellent, for all ages. I purchased a caution-yellow long sleeve t-shirt that, to this day, is a wardrobe favorite.

Exit Glacier Road is a gravel road (and is planned to be paved) which runs alongside the Resurrection River a couple kilometers away from the town of Seward. The park entrance is a pretty 10 kilometer drive from the T-intersection at Seward Highway, even if bumpy in places and stretches.

Exit Glacier is within the Kenai Fjords National Park, and normally charges a nominal vehicular entrance fee. But Park Rangers were absent, the entrance kiosk empty, on the day of our visit.

A maze of nature trails leads from the parking lot to the head of the glacier.

After the previous day's viewing of Aialik Glacier from the safe, distant vantage point of our cruise boat, Exit Glacier was an unbelievable, close encounter. Close enough to nearly touch its blue ice, to watch the wall melting into the mineral laden, milky white flow of a vigorous river, to pick up its calved ice chunks washed up on the river's shore, to taste the crystallization of earth's ancient precipitation.

I was sorely tempted to take the Harding Icefield Trail which leads onto the glacier itself. But its crevasses and seracs shouldn't be taken lightly, and I certainly wasn't prepared for a stroll on the surface of this river of ice. We were in no hurry to return to Anchorage, but the playful, hands-on experience we had at Exit Glacier was satisfying enough - a fitting farewell to Seward.

My friends were quiet and subdued on the drive back. Until we began to wish out loud an itinerary for exploring the rest of the Kenai Peninsula! Perhaps next year...

Among my friends gathered in the hotel lobby, only Kaz appeared to have perhaps ignored the advice to get a good night's rest, to eat a light breakfast, and to go easy on the coffee. I gave her a Dramamine pill as a precaution. We were scheduled to depart at 8am on "Kenai Fjords National Park Tour", a 120 mile roundtrip cruise, operated by Kenai Fjords Tours. They offer other routes and several departure times, but I sensed from the beautiful morning that we had chosen the right one. The ocean was like glass, reflecting dense, bright clouds. Sea Otters floating on their back appeared to be waving 'bon voyage'.

On open water, the skies cleared, and I familiarized myself with the well designed ship. The interior was spacious with table booths and unobstructed windows. The rear galley sold beverages, snacks, and photo film. Both decks led to outdoor observation areas fore and aft. The craft, at maybe sixty percent capacity with sixty people, was a comfortable ride.

The abundance of life was beyond mine and my friends' conceptions!

There were thousands of sea gulls, gangs of cormorants and murres, thousands of puffins diving in and out of the water. To be sure, beneath the ocean surface was a large school of herring with countless salmon and seals. And this was just one cove. Every cove, every island, of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge was filled with life. Our sharp-eyed and knowledgeable tour escort was the boat captain.

We passed Three Hole Point and continued toward the unmistakable white slope of a glacier. The water became shallow, and as ice floated by, the boat slowed to a drift. We crept up on a wall of ice.

Aialik Glacier was huge. And, an unworldly experience. Time and space entered a different dimension. Size, distance and perspective became difficult to gauge. Everyone aboard watched the glacier calving in awe, perhaps once every 5 seconds, perhaps 50, the interval was difficult to tell. Typically, a shower of snow would cascade down the glacier’s face in slow motion, upwelling a large plume when it finally hit the water. A second or two later came the dull sonic boom, like a distant lightning bolt.

We snapped out of our reverie with the announcement of lunch over the loudspeaker. I wasn't looking forward to the 'deli style lunch' advertised for this cruise, but couldn't ask for a better picnic spot. Surprisingly, it was good - crispy fried halibut from the fryer in the galley, in my case. Lunch finished and everyone satiated, we started our full throttle return to Seward.

Two final notes: First, I recommend binoculars, not too strong in magnification; and second, you’ll have rubbery knees for a while after you disembark around 2pm.

Without exaggeration, I would catalog Kenai Fjords National Park and the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge as one of the world's great natural wonders. I’ll have to visit again for orcas...