Alaska - Day 5 - We don't want to leave Seward, Alaska

We started Day 5 with the priority of going on a boat cruise out of Resurrection Bay in Seward, Alaska. We wrote about that wonderful experience in the last blog. But that blog was already long with way too many pictures of sea creatures. We found so many fun things to do in Seward on Day 5 that we didn't want to leave! Shortly after getting off the boat, Denisa stopped for a rest on this wooden sea otter bench.

Seward, Alaska, was named the "Mural Capitol of Alaska" by Governor Sarah Palin. Walking around town, it was easy to see why.

Denisa got a bigger picture of her adorable puffins on this two-story mural close to the harbor.

Fishing is also a big part of Seward's attraction for tourists, and this is an interesting mural celebrating its fishing industry.

Getting off our boat at 5:30 p.m. is a great time to see the fishing charters hang their "catch of today." They don't mind if a random wanderer takes a picture with the fish that are almost as big as she is. From talking to the returning fishermen, we found that most of them got their two-halibut limit.

Waiting nearby are the professional fish filleters. They make it look easy as they hoist those big halibut onto their fish cleaning stations.

Then they start cutting steaks off the fish. The meat is taken to a nearby business that will vacuum seal and freeze it, to be shipped on dry ice to their homes far away. It's not an inexpensive thing to go on a fishing charter in Alaska. But it's also not inexpensive to buy halibut steaks in the fish market. Those steaks cost $27 per pound.

We are finding that it's very nice to have our touring vehicle, bed, and kitchen with us all the time. When we got hungry in Seward this evening, we just pulled into the park next to the bay and put our camp stove on a picnic table. There we cooked and ate our dinner with views like this of Resurrection Bay.

We found that past the touristy section of town, the road narrows as it follows the edge of the water. We stopped in at Lowell Creek Waterfall to watch the snow-melt-swollen falls gushing off the mountain.

Lowell Point Road is a gravel road that literally hugs the edge of the mountain as we drove several miles deeper into Resurrection Bay.

The road ends at Lowell Point State Recreation Area, where we walked along the rocky edge of the water to do a little beach combing. We saw no sea shells, only dark rocks on the beach today.

We saw seals playing in the surf, but they are hard to photograph. Seals swim with only their nose sticking out of the water.

This bald eagle was much easier to photograph, as he stood perfectly still on the rocks very close to us.

We couldn't help but notice that at 9:00 p.m.--eleven hours since we arrived in Seward this morning--the clouds were still laying on the water and hiding the entrance to Humpy Bay.

It had been a beautiful weather day, and we certainly have enjoyed our time in the town of Seward on Resurrection Bay!

We toyed with the idea of camping in town, so we drove to the city campground with sites right on the bay. With no hook-ups, these camp sites rent for $40 each. We think we can find something just as good for free. But we noticed people on the bay-walk looking towards the water. We have spotted seals in the past, but this group was circled up, with their bodies unusually high out of the water.

Another group with over twenty seals was doing the same thing--moving across the waters of the bay together. (Later we asked a ranger and also a marine biologist what they might be doing. The ranger suggested that they might be hunting together, the biologist thought it was just a social gathering. Either way, it was interesting to watch.)

Then we spotted a fin slicing through the water, and saw our last humpback whale of the day. That was #6 for us! It's been a great day in Seward for us, and we obviously are having a hard time leaving.

Mark read about free camping sites just a few miles outside of town, so we headed up Hermann Leirer Road. Two miles down that road we found an entrance, and took a hard left turn into the trees. The road was a little questionable, so Mark walked ahead to see if it would be safe for the van to continue.

He found that right beyond the trees was a river, but he was chuckling when he got back to the van.

Walking through the trees, he found the perfect site for us, right after the moose moved out of it. We didn't want to leave Seward, but we've found another great free camping spot for night 5 in Alaska!