ALASKA TRIP - MAY 2018 - SEA OTTERS IN SEWARD AND OTHER THINGS - MONDAY, MAY 28TH, 2018

Alaska Trip - May 2018 

A trip to see the Sea Otters in Seward

Monday, May 28th, 2018

We are on the road to Seward in this video.  If you can't see it,  you can go here.  

4.56 p.m. We are back in our hotel room after driving to Seward today.  It is a hundred miles away.  Anchorage is in one direction and Seward is in the other.  As Anchorage Airport is where we are heading tomorrow, we thought it would be nice to drive to Seward, for one last chance to look for the Sea Otters we saw a few days ago.  The weather was a whole lot better than when we were there with our niece and nephew, and also from the first time we were with our bus tour group. 

We stopped in Girdwood first and had breakfast at another local restaurant. The Girdwood Fire Department was having their breakfast in there too, so we figured we had chosen a good place. 

We ordered eggs and sausage patties, home fries  with toast.  It was very good.

 There was a large map of the United States on the wall where people had put colored pins to show where they were from.  

It was interesting to look, people were from every state it seemed like.  We checked Virginia out first.

There were no pins available so we didn't add ours.  I suppose I could have asked but this was on our way out and I was focused on those sea otters.

We checked a couple of other states out where we have family.  I always enjoy looking at maps.

Enjoyable to see where people from Alaska had come from also.

Several from the UK and Europe.

The back of the restaurant was painted in a very cute, kitschy way.

There were three faces painted in the center of the flowers.

The owners and their dog perhaps?

I really enjoyed it here.  Gregg and I love nothing better than to find out-of-the way places.  This one wasn't really out of the way though as it is easy to find.  All you have to do is make your way to the Girdwood Picnic Club in Girdwood, Alaska.

It is a great drive to Seward, along a very picturesque highway.  We traveled this road a lot and this became a familiar sight.

And the signs were always interesting.

Notice the avalanche sign?

There is still a lot of snow up there.

At around the half-way point we stopped at a pull off to take photos of a mountain lake.  There were a couple of men fishing and we watched out of curiosity to see if they caught anything.  Not two minutes later one of them did and he saw us watching. He gave us a broad smile and said it was a trout, holding it up and inviting us to take a photo.  We did!

In the meantime we are getting closer to Seward.

We headed straight to the marina where we had seen the sea otters before.  They were still there.  It must be their favorite hang-out spot.  

They were even closer this time.  We spent over an hour with them.  We noticed a boat heading towards them,  but it slowed down and gently went by without disturbing them.  The otters stared but didn't stop what they were doing, which was floating and eating...

and preening...

and smiling...

I fell in love with them all over again.

Gregg got into a conversation with a man in his small fishing boat, who threw a few of his catch back into the water to try to entice the otters to come even closer.  

These were called Hooligans and are a small and oily fish. You can read a description and about the best time to catch them in this article.  

It was the first time I had heard this name used for a fish.  The only other term I had ever heard of was when someone was talking about a young troublemaker.  No, not you buddy!

The sea otters didn't want anything to do with the fish. They were very happy eating what they could find for themselves, which in the long run is better for them. It was very kind of the fisherman to try though, and we thanked him. He had several, much larger fish in his ice chest. A nice dinner for his family tonight? And probably a few for the freezer. By this time his wife had joined us and they left.

As for the sea otters they were as entertaining as ever.  

One pulled itself out of the water to sniff around the edge of one of the docks...

looking for scraps of fish maybe. 

One last shot with a promise that I will share another post sometime, of them alone.  I took so many photos!

After keeping the sea otters company for quite a while, and not really wanting to leave when we did, we walked around the marina.  There were interesting sights there too, always love the dogs.

Her head was looking in all directions.

Here she is patiently looking at the funny lady with the camera.  She poses so nicely.

And then there are the bears who had also had a good catch that day.

The map below shows you the route we took to get to Seward.  When we got back to the hotel we stopped at the coffee shop for a latte, and we decided to have a bite there also. We chose a turkey and ham panini to share, and we each had a yogurt with wildberries and granola for dessert.  I stopped at the gift shop one last time and bought a few souvenirs.  

It is 11.22 p.m. and we are both wide awake.  It is going to be hard to get to sleep knowing that we are traveling in the morning, and also I am thinking of those delightful sea otters.

He seems to be trying to go to sleep.  I guess I will too.

ALASKA TRIP-2018 - MAY 23RD, 2018 - SEA OTTERS IN SEWARD AND HORSES IN HOPE

Alaska Trip-May 2018

 ~The Hotel Alyeska~ 

Sea Otters in Seward and Horses in Hope 

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2018 

(It was  misty over the mountains today.)

We awoke after 11.00 a.m. and our niece and nephew slept in also. We were all surprised as every morning we have been up early. I think not having a set time table has made us a little more relaxed. 

(This is a fireplace in the foyer of the hotel, a favorite sitting area of mine.  I loved nothing better than to sit down and rest, watch and feel the warmth of the flames and enjoy the salmon design on the grate.)

We told them we were going down to the coffee shop, that they had no need to hurry as we weren't sure what we were going to do.  We would take it slow and easy. 

Our niece and nephew joined us and still in no rush to go anywhere, we talked for a long time. Eventually it was decided that we would drive to Seward.  We didn't have a lot of time to look around the last time we were there, and wanted to explore.  

 

On the way we spotted a sign that pointed to the historical town of Hope. It was one of those impulse things to drive down this very quiet road. I saw the sign and Gregg's curiosity was peaked.  It was only a short distance later that we  saw the moose munching on tree branches, just like the other one.  It was tucked down an incline behind the guard rail.  Only the top of the head was showing.  (If you can't view the video above you can go to this link.) As it was not a well-traveled road Gregg reversed as quietly as he could, and slowly backed up to the moose.  Another very exciting time but we restrained ourselves and spoke in whispers, and then not at all.  That beautiful animal didn't pay us much mind, though she (I'm assuming it was a she) was aware of us. We didn't get out of the car as the moose was too close to the road, and we didn't want to startle it and put ourselves or her in danger.  She let us stay in her company for a couple of minutes, though it seemed much longer, and then not wanting to bother her any longer, we moved on.  What a gift! 

The town was very quiet but apparently people flock here for the salmon fishing when they are in season.  

In its heyday Hope was a gold-mining town.  In 1889 a miner discovered nuggets in nearby Resurrection Creek and the population swelled to 3,000 residents.  Today there are about 200, according to this link.  I am not sure when it was last updated but it has very interesting information about Hope.  According to the website Hope's heyday was short lived.  By 1898 news of the Klondike Goldrush had spread, and most miners packed up and headed to Canada.  

Today we couldn't see that many places were open but it was still worth the trip as we loved looking around.  It was very rustic and very quaint, definitely this place had history.

We found one small café but it was closed.  A very friendly lady came out and told us where we could go for lunch, which was another café not too far away.  A young man made us Philadelphia Sub Sandwiches. We told him how good they were and got into a nice conversation about the area.  

We mentioned the moose we had seen and he told us there were others. There were four females, one of whom had just had twins.  The other was pregnant and due to give birth any day now. He thought she would have twins also and seemed to know a lot about them.  

He also said there were no bears in the area, and volunteered that if we liked horses there was a field where we could see several. We followed his directions and while our niece and nephew crossed a make-shift bridge across a stream, I stayed behind. 

The ground looked a little too uneven for me, and knowing my history, no way did I want to tempt fate.  

Gregg walked further along. 

Niece and nephew had a good time visiting with the horses who were fenced off...

and they took more photos.

We looked around for a little while but then it was time to move on to Seward. 

As we reached the town we saw a cruise ship sailing out of port. I couldn't tell which company from that distance. A back drop of mountains and the cruise ship was fast disappearing.  What a beautiful sight.  

I asked Gregg if he would stop at an interesting stone memorial I had seen.  I am always curious. 

We stopped close to where our cruise ship had tied up, as this is where we disembarked for the land tour. There were all kinds of boats moored nearby.  I remember  them when we were on our balcony shortly after we woke up the morning we got here, and it was such a pretty sight with all their lights twinkling.  

Today Gregg saw what he thought was a floating 'log', and the harder we stared we saw that there were another three identical looking 'logs' floating close by.  We were still in the car and decided to park and walk down. 

(I cropped this photo of  two of those 'logs'.)

There were all kinds of boats tied up to several docks, and as we wanted to take a closer look we got out and walked towards the boats, and the 'logs'. With nephew striding far ahead we followed him, and when we saw him quickening his pace as he turned down one of those docks, I just knew those 'logs' weren't logs at all, they were sea otters! 

We found a family of four and studied them for half an hour, in a bitterly cold wind.  Our nephew and niece took all the photos of the close-ups. 

It was a lot colder than the last time we were in Seward. We eventually started feeling it but we couldn't leave just yet and kept taking photos, and looking at these adorable otters.

Slowly turning into popsicles but just a few more...

 and a few more. 

The otters were slowly floating away and we decided it was time to go.  Niece spotted a harbor seal some distance away.  

His adorable face stared in our direction, as curious about us as we were about it, as if asking,"Got fish?"  Nope, sorry!

It was another day of wonderful wildlife.  

We started back to the hotel and it took us a couple of hours to get there.  

On the way home we saw Bald Eagles on the mud flats, and an occasional trumpeter swan, lots of gulls and the occasional magpie.  Not much opportunity to take any photos of the birds, too far away.  We never got close to an eagle, disappointing but I'm happy to get something.  I kept hearing you need to come when the salmon are running (too early right now) or, you should go to Homer, they're all over the place there.  Maybe next time.

These mud flats are very dangerous by the way.  Our tour guide told us stories of people getting stuck in the mud walking across to the island when the tide is out.  Locals and tourists have had their problems. I am glad she made us aware, not that I would have ever gone out there. Doing some research on line later I read stories that made me shiver. No way should people walk on the mud flats.  In parts it is like quicksand.    

(This is an addition I added on 6-27-18. Not to be a downer on my post, but I thought it was important, just in caser anyone decides to go to this part of Alaska.  Forewarned is forearmed.)

The surrounding scenery of water and mountains was absolutely stunning.  The light in the sky equally so. 

We eventually arrived back at the hotel and took a half hour break before going down to the ground floor for a late dinner.  We were in the same place as last night.  The other restaurants in the hotel were closed.

(This is the Walrus from my last journal post.)

When we got back to our room it wasn't long before we were counting sea otters instead of sheep, and then we were asleep. 

(This clever artwork was done by Gregg using one of his apps on his iPhone.  

All I had to do was add my name. 

Toodles my Lovelies!)