Before you even get to Seward, Alaska you are in for a treat. The drive down from Anchorage goes through the most amazing scenery, with view points every few miles where you can stop stretch, breath in the air and look around. It is the kind of journey that can take forever on a sunny day, with the mountains reflecting in the water, their snow covered peaks looming ominously overhead. One of the weird things you see is a whole series of dead trees, they are still tall and straight, but clearly dead. We learned later that these are as a result of the earthquake that hit the region in 1964. The ground lowered during the earthquake by several feet, allowing salt water to flow freely, covering the roots and petrifying the trees, resulting in these ghost forests. (I have learnt so much by exploring the world, I had no idea salt would petrify a tree or even that an earthquake could drop the ground level by 10 feet).
The town of Seward itself is named after William H. Seward – the guy who negotiated the sale of Alaska to the USA from Russia. It is small, with a few outdoors shops on the main street, a great coffee shop in a converted Church and a Sea Life Centre (Aquarium). Arriving too early for our hotel we headed to the Sea Life Centre and spent a happy couple of hours learning about the various creatures that live in the local waters. I like such places, often (as was the case here) they have a very strong conservation ethos and you can see the animals and sea life at various stages of recovery from various injuries sustained in the wild. If you do go, check out the crazy octopus made by local kids out of rubbish picked off the shore – its fab (and a good reminder not to litter!)
That evening, we wander around looking for something to eat and came across a nice looking place called Chinooks. The restaurant is right on the water at the harbour, we were given a seat at the window and were perhaps 3 or 4 metres from the water. Whist admiring the view we suddenly noticed a sea otter swimming along right outside the window. These are the most amazing little creatures, they are apparently a member of the weasel family and are unbelievably cute. This little guy hung around for about an hour, diving, swimming along on his back and generally splashing about; it was a great show. Also, the food was really tasty, some of the best that we had the whole trip. Top Tip – get a window seat!
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