The Wandering Koi

We started off the day to a beautiful sunrise over the campground .

Seward Sealife Center

The camp runs a shuttle to the Sea Life Center in Seward (the closest stop for the town’s free shuttle that runs almost to the other end of the city). We took advantage of this to visit the Sea Life Center, and if you’re in Seward and can spare the time, it’s absolutely worth it. I would budget 1-3 hours depending on your interest in watching animals. Our crew was entertained by everything from sea lions (which are impressively big up close) to a neurodivergent seal (who enjoyed swimming upside down, which is fine. That was just his thing.).

One of our group got lost more than once because she kept getting distracted watching the puffins swim (which in all fairness was pretty cool). Turns out puffins are alcids, which are a group of seabirds which use their wings to “fly” underwater as well as in the air. They are distinct from penguins, which while they use their wings underwater can no longer fly.

Later in the day, we took another hike back to the delta we had been at before, thinking we might see the river otter again. No otter this time, but still a really neat place.

The forest here is near the upper limits of the Pacific Coast temperate rainforest, so a lot of similarities between what we saw in northern Washington state and British Columbia.

On to Anchorage

The next day, we were catching a train out of Seward in the late afternoon, but we also needed to catch up on schoolwork. What better place for doing schoolwork than the Seward Public Library! They had a nice collection (including some cookbooks that I can’t get at our local library back home) and a nice seating/reading area on the second floor with a sunny (at least that day) view of Seward. Thanks to Seward Public Library, Little Koi caught up on class work.

We also learned that in 1910, the original starting point of the Iditarod Trail was in Seward, although it isn’t on the race route now.

That evening, we boarded an Alaska Railroad train bound for Anchorage.

And of course saw more beautiful scenery, more glaciers, and a lovely sunset. It was pointed out in Seward that fireweed is a natural calendar. The flowers on a stem bloom from the bottom at the beginning of summer. When the top flower blooms, summer is at its end. The uppermost flowers were open in Seward, and you can see the red leaves of fireweed plants in the foreground here as we traveled further north. Fall was on the way… more to come about this soon!

Adventures in Anchorage and points further north to come!

P.S. – We arrived at the rail terminal in Anchorage around 10 p.m. We decided to walk to our hotel as it was not that far. Little Koi was a trouper and took the uphill portion (with her backpack and carry-on roller) with equanimity. It may have had something to do with our welcoming committee. As we were walking out of the train station grounds, we noticed two railway workers moving slowly near one of the vehicles. Turns out they were herding a porcupine that had come to welcome us to Anchorage. Last we saw, they managed to coax him safely back toward some trees. We didn’t get any pictures in the dark, but it was one of those neat interludes that happens sometimes when traveling, and the first time any of us had seen a wild porcupine… and it happened in the middle of a city.