Day 51 18 September Seward

Seward is a small coastal town (2,700) on a fjord. It is named after the Secretery of State who purchased Alaska on behalf of the US in 1867.  It is the southern terminus of the Alaska Railroad and the starting point of the original Iditarod Trail.  A large portion of Seward was damaged by shaking and a local tsunami during the 1964 Alaska earthquake.

We went to the Alaskan Sea Life Centre.

 An infra-red scan of us,Elizabeth is on the left  I am on the right.Not the most flatteriing photo.

Lots of touch tanks and sealife exhibits.

Crested Puffin

The Puffin which is not crested.

The Puffin enclosure.

There was a sea lion here. Photographing above water was difficult because of the transparent barrier being heavily marked with water stains.

This gives you an idea of scale.

When he swam around he would rub against the glass.

The local museum was very good too. The outside of the building looked like fish scales shining in the sun.

It was quite a small but well-designed museum. They even had a gold medalist who went to the Olympics.

A citizen of the town, Benny Benson as a thirteen-year-old, won the competition to design the flag of Alaska. The flag is a brilliant blue.

A friendly local said that the snowfall was recent and that it was a signal that Summer was over, so he was very sad.

Mount Marathon. The annual race goes to the top and the men can make it in 42 minutes and the women about 7 minutes more. The juniors only go to the top of the tree line. The hospital is conveniently located at the base of the mountain. There are sharp stones on the scree slopes so competitors wear gloves and put tape around their shoes, so stones don't go into their shoes or through their socks.

The southern terminus of the Alaska railway. Somewhat underwhelming.

The weather fined up beautifully for us. Tonight, we saw a talk on bears that was interesting. Apparently Grizzly bears and Polar bears have started to interbreed. Depending on who did what to whom, they are either called a Grolar or Polizzy.