An awesome day in Seward...

On Sunday, Natalie and I drove South to Seward, which is one of the places the cruise ships make a stop at the coast.  The pictures you are seeing were taking with a very small Nikon camera we got on closeout at Target.  They aren't nearly as good as the ones we were able to take before, but they will at least give you the flavor of what we were seeing and experiencing.

When we arrived in Seward, we went straight to the Sea Life Center, where we were able to get really close to the birds in the Aviary, like these Puffins.  We also saw Sea Lions and Seals, and Natalie was actually able to touch a wide variety of sea creatures.

Natalie loves all animals, and she had been waiting since we got to Alaska to see the Puffins...and what a thrill to be able to get up so close to them. One regret is that we have seen no whales in our time here.  Apparently it is too warm in the bays and inlets now, which is hard to imagine, because every time we are able to touch the water it is freezing!  But that water is not cold enough for the whales...

The Sea Life Center wasn't huge, but it was very rewarding...one of Natalie's favorite moments of the day was playing a game against yours truly in the educational wing.  Now, my Natalie is SUPER competitive, so this wasn't a simple learning activity...this was LIFE or DEATH! Unfortunately, my wife is also a genius, so I stood no chance.  She saw me do play the first move, figured out the entire game and whooped me...

Then. she needed me to take a picture of it, so we could 'remember it'.  Ha!  I will definitely be reminded of that moment in the years to come...

After dinner in Seward (more on that to come later), we went to Exit Glacier.  Here is a real glacier that you can get within 50 yards of the face of it.  We went and spoke to the Park Ranger, put on our bug spray and took off for the trail, which was rocky, but manageable.

We crossed a mountain stream several times on the way to the glacier, and anticipation was really mounting for us to see how close we could actually get.  The answer is...VERY close!  How impressive it was to be next to this wall of ice. The signs told us that it was alive, and indeed you could see water running through various portions of it and you could hear it groan and moan and heave.

I think it may have been a once-in-a-lifetime shot for me, and I was ever so thankful that we had made it down to see it.  It was a very warm, almost balmy evening in Southern Alaska, but as you approached the Glacier, there was a stiff, arctic wind.  It was amazing!  But, stepping just yards away from the glacier, the temperature rose immediately.  It was a little unnerving to be that close to a glacier, as well.  The only thing that separated you from certain death was a very small rope.  Hardly seemed to be ample protection against the danger at hand.  There was a Japanese family there at the same time we were with a little boy in tow, and he made me very nervous, jumping and running and darting around.

On our return trip to Anchorage, we were greeted with some of the most beautiful sights of our trip.  The snow on top of the mountains is quickly melting, and the runoff waterfalls from some of the points farther South are breathtaking...

We stopped for Natalie's favorite treat (Pizza) at the Girdwood turnoff, which is the only place you can stop between here and Seward.  Can you even imagine such a thing?  Two tourist destinations, separated by only about 130 miles, with NO PLACE to stop between them?  Such is the country you find here in Alaska.

As we made the last curve and began to come into Anchorage, we saw the best sunset of the trip.  The mountains were tinged with pink and purple, and Natalie and I found out what purple mountain majesty really means.

It was the perfect ending to the perfect day...the ONLY problem was that it was 11:30pm when we arrived back at our apartment, and it was mighty tough to get Natalie up for work this morning!  Tonight, Natalie made dinner for us, and we started packing our things and I made reservations for us, in preparation for the trip home to Texas / Arkansas.  After that, Natalie needed a snack...any guesses what she wanted?  Yep, Pizza...so we closed the evening with a pepperoni pizza from the Great Alaska Pizza Company.  Hope you all had a wonderful start to your week!