Seward Follies

So, despite yesterdays’ blog being 7,777 hours since the prior one, it’s only been 18 hours since I brought you along the dusty, bumpy Alcan Highway to Tok. So, let’s keep a good thing rolling. The next stop in our Alaska adventure was Seward, a town we have cruised to a few times. While most Alaskan cruises are roundtrip Seattle or Vancouver, a scant few offer different embarkation and disembarkation ports. For Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, their Northern cruise port is Seward. Although harder to find, we like the single direction cruises as travelers get to experience a broader geography of Alaska than what you get on a round trip voyage. So, having been there a few times, we were excited about being able to spend a whole week there, back together with our Escapees RV friends.

Turning off the Seward Highway, it was a muddy slog into the campground with deep potholes and slimy mud everywhere. One of my biggest struggles on this Summer in Alaska was my inability to keep the motorhome clean, inside and out. I’m not the best at rolling with the punches and muddy tires, wheels and shoe prints inside the rig….along with the whole exterior looking grimy and bug-spattered….I absolutely hated my lack of ability to control this. Both a highlight and lowlight in Seward was our eight hour tour of the Kenai Fjords National Park on Major Marine’s 87 foot catamaran. Our hangout also included a hike to Exit Glacier, Alaska’s Sea Life Center, and the Seward Community Museum to learn about the devastating 1964 earthquake and resulting tsunami.

But first, let’s go on a eight hour boat ride in cold, rainy weather and see what happens. We’ve done the Major Marine tour once before and loved it, but it was a decent day. This day…..indecent. Never since a kid have I been seasick. I probably have not puked in close to forty years. But this day…this day was different. An hour out of Seward harbor, I started to become queasy. Meh, I thought. I don’t get seasick. Mind over matter……(It did not matter) – Look at the horizon…..Go out onto an open deck…… For the first time, I really thought I was going to puke, so I wandered to an open deck away from any exhaust fumes. I concentrated on the horizon, feeling the crisp Alaska air on my face. As I was not the only one hanging on by a thread, I saw deck hands passing out ginger chews for nausea. That’s it, I thought, ripping the wrapper off. This will do the trick. Do the trick it did, and as I frantically chewed the hell out of the ginger taffy, something unusually crunchy mixed in as I proceeded to rip an old filling out of a rear molar. Well, the broken tooth succeeded in taking my mind off of the sea sickness, as the sharp edge of my tooth was now cutting into my tongue. So, I obsessed over the prospects of being on a fucking boat, in the Alaskan Kenai Fjords with a messed up tooth and a slashed tongue. Ultimately a few days later I found a sympathetic dentist who polished the tooth so that it would not continue to cut my tongue and planned for a root canal and crown at a later date. Perhaps when I get caught up with my blog, I’ll tell the tale of walking into Mexico for this dental service…but not today, folks…..

Along the voyage, we saw otters, humpback whales, puffins, sea lions, orcas, harbor seals, dall’s porpoises, and an amazing sight – a bald eagle that caught a fish too big to fly with and was swimming with it in open water to a boulder.

On the way back, the boat picked up some glacial ice and made margaritas with the ice and also offered boozy hot chocolate. Lynn sipped on a glacial margarita and I just sat quietly with my nausea.

For some reason, I punked out on the ranger-led hike to Exit Glacier later that week, but Lynn went and had fun, seeing a moose from quite close distance.

Another scheduled event was a scavenger hunt around Seward to find certain murals. Instead, the Zaik’s and Mullins’ decided to visit the Seward Alehouse and concentrate on….ales. We found a fun bartender, sat at the bar and the four of us broke with the larger group but had a memorable afternoon. And…..that’s when…Lynn asked if the bar served food. Thus became the legend of the “Magic Taco Window”, a neighboring restaurant with a service window into the bar. Yes, our bar. Lynn found and fell in love with a rockfish burrito, her favorite food in all of Alaska. So much so that we ventured back there two more times for these magical munchies. Here’s a photo of Lisa and Laura looking up at the Magic Taco Window, waiting for this dude to present magic on a paper plate.

On another day, we took a tour of the Seward Community Museum and got an up-close and personal experience (via film) with the 9.2 fucking magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami that killed 131 people on Good Friday. To date, this was the most powerful earthquake that has ever hit North America and the second most powerful in the world. The resulting waves reached 220 feet above sea level in parts of Alaska. With that sobering information recounted at the museum by survivors in our minds, Lynn and I settled into bed that evening……only to have both of our Iphones blaring a Tsunami Warning at around 11:00PM, ruining our likely / collective buzzes. Not having my glasses on, I simply thought it was an Amber Alert. Nope. It was a Tsunami Warning. Blissful Ignorance for the win! While we didn’t experience any strife, Escapees in Texas hustled a mail shipment to Alaska of our prized dongles, recognizing us as Tsunami Survivors. Compared to my septic shock survivor dongle, this one makes me smile a bit more. Side note – my wonderful therapist suggested I ditch the Bash 2020 (septic shock) dongle and while I’m keeping it…..I feel better not wearing it.

Benny Benson…..the boy….the man…..the myth….the legend…..

Personal side note…..besides being the epitome of beauty, majesty and scale, Alaska is QAF (Quirky As Fuck). One of the coolest things about Alaska is that their state flag was designed by Benny Benson. In 1927, Benny (at age 14), won a contest to design the flag for the (at that time) Territory Of Alaska. At three years old and after his mother died, his father sent Benny to an orphanage in Unalaska (Dutch Harbor, for those Deadliest Catch fans). He used the $1,000 prize to enroll in engineering school and became a diesel mechanic and then aircraft mechanic. After his death at age 59 in 1972, his legacy is impressive with Benson Boulevard in Anchorage, Mt. Benson overlooking Seward, the Kodiak Benny Benson State Airport and the Benny Benson School in Anchorage named for him. The kid did OK for himself and I’d loved to have had the chance to shake his hand.

One evening, we had a charcuterie board competition. Whether via legitimate means or not….Lynnbo won. Each person could purchase voting tickets to support CARE, Escapees’ assisted living center in Texas for RV’ers that can no longer travel due to age or health conditions. Well…..Lynn purchased a shit ton of tickets…..and voted for her board. Despite the scowls of less-creative competitors, my girl won a hand-made charcuterie board and some other Alaskan goodies. You Go Girl….

Squint your eyes and they will reveal snow capped mountains, lush meadows, a river (of ranch dressing) and flowers on a sunny day!

This was the hand-made board that Charlie Kavanagh made as a prize and it now proudly travels with us.

And, besides sanding down my tooth, the Seward dentist told me about a place to watch salmon jumping up in a river right next to our campground. Stop what you are doing and take in the beauty of a mid July Alaskan salmon run……

Onward to our next stop. Homer Alaska Time – One of the high points this Summer was our week on Homer Spit, on the Kenai Peninsula. We loved Homer more than any other single place and are thrilled that our close friends’ son and daughter-in-law will be stationed there in the Coast Guard starting this Summer. Blaine and Ashley, new fishing opportunities await!

The King salmon run was concluding and the sockeye salmon run was starting in Homer, so I purchased a non-resident license (to no avail). I casted a variety of metal spoons over and over as the schooling salmon passed by. A local walks up, casts a bare hook out into the school and reels one in. Then he does it again…..No idea what he was doing…but I was clearly not doing “it”. Lynn found Alaskan Chai from Homer Brewing and we took some for the road, which was fun.

OK, nuff for today. Am I in a rhythm? Not sure. Driving 4 hours tomorrow from Pender, Nebraska to Altoona, Iowa for a few days. So rest assured I won’t pull a three days in a row blogging effort. Time to sit back, sear a pork roast from the sous vide and spark one up.

Night from the parking lot / campground of Blue Ox Tow Bars.

Me.

Lynn’s Two Cents – Not enough can be said about the Magic Taco Window in Seward. So much yumminess! That picture of us on the beach at sunset in Homer at 11:50 pm is my absolute favorite of the whole trip. That right there made the long drive totally worth it.