Seward, part 2

I’ve been in Seward almost 2 weeks. It’s a nice small town, and it’s main industries seem to be tourism and fishing.

     

Camping at the water’s edge, you have a great show in front of you, and it goes on all hours of the day and night. We’ve seen orcas, humpbacks, seals and sea otters, and many eagles right in the bay. Plus, a constant parade of boats of all shapes and sizes, and even one crazy freaking person waterskiing out there!

  

We continue to fish, and have a lot of fun with it! Seward serves up a couple of nice sunny days, which makes it even better.

     

OK, so you caught all those fish… Congratulations! Now what?

Well, first you get to drag or carry 50-60 pounds of fish back to the truck. It’s like a half mile away. Whew!

  

Then, you fillet them all out and either freeze or smoke em. This is Tuesday. We went fishing at about 4pm, really started catching them around 6, and both Wallace and I limit out with 6 each. We get ‘em back to the truck about 8:30, then stop at the marina to filet them all out. 6 of these fish have an appointment with the smoker tomorrow, so I spend the next couple hours prepping them and getting them into the brine overnight. The next morning, the fish comes out of the brine and onto the smoker racks to dry for several hours. Then, it’s into the smoker.

  

About 8 hours later, the fish is all smoked and packaged. Alaskan salmon, smoked in Alaska, doesn’t get any better than this!

  

My last day in Seward, Wallace, Wanda, Elouise, and her grandsons Kenny and Colin and I hop on the Major Marine glacier tour boat and spend an amazing sunny day cruising the fjords. Look, there’s my RV! 

  

We see many animals and birds along the way, including many Orcas. in fact, we cam upon a pod of 4 swimming and playing in tight formation, apparently, an unusual thing!

     

We visited a stellar sea lion rookery. It was amazing watching them up on those cliffs, and wondering how they managed to climb up there!

        

Here are some more assorted animal pix.

     

And the glaciers! That is so cool to see. The boats get quite close, and you can hear the glacier creaking and snapping. Every so often, a big piece of ice falls majestically to the water with a BOOM!, We’re talking a piece of ice the size of a Buick! And those are the small ones. These bergs slowly float away. this is called “calving”. Why, Hell, I don’t know, it just is!

     

Check out these videos of glaciers calving!

www.marxrv.com/glaciers.zip

These boat trips are very well managed, and organized. We had a park ranger onboard to talk about the wildlife and the glaciers, and lunch was excellent prime rib and salmon on a buffet. The crew even went out and captured a chunk of glacier ice and made margaritas out of it. Cheers!

     

I’m leaving Seward now, with a freezer full of salmon, and will hook up with some other gooseys, maybe go to Hope for the weekend, we’ll see. I’ll be coming back to Seward in a week or so to go Halibut fishing, so there will be a part 3. Till then, enjoy this alpenglow shot, taken out my front door about midnight Friday evening.

In Memory of

Kay Peterson, one of the founders of Escapees, and a long time friend and mentor to me, passed away last week at age 90. While I am deeply saddened by our loss, I can’t help but feel lucky to have known such a unique person as Miss Kay. She influenced everyone she came in contact with, and she had a lasting influence on me. I really got to know Kay when I joined the Toastmasters club she founded at the headquarters offices. I remember I wasn’t too keen to join, but Kay wasn’t someone who’d take NO for an answer…. she gently persuaded me to get involved in Toastmasters, and shortly thereafter, I found myself alongside Kay at a local club’s contest, competing in the humorous speaking category. We competed in many contests together, sometimes against each other, and we did pretty well, bringing home a fair number of trophies. As the years passed, Kay moved away and we saw less of her, but I always looked forward to seeing her whenever I could. Just last March, Kay stood up in front of a capacity crowd at Escapade to speak, and received a 5 minute standing ovation. From the minute she opened her mouth, she owned that crowd. At age 90, she was still the most masterful speaker I’ve ever had the pleasure to hear. Talk about a role model!

Good-bye, Kay. I’m sure going to miss you. We all are. Thanks for, well, everything!

Seward Part 1

The road from Tok to Anchorage is called the Glenn Highway. I’d like to say it’s a better road, but it isn’t. Same old frost heaves and gravel spots, and it’s raining, but if you look real hard, you can see Alaska out in front a ways.

  

As the road approaches Wasilla, a rapidly growing city just north of Anchorage, you get into a winding pass through the mountains, a very pretty drive. Oops, a moose!

  

Animals are everywhere along the roads, and you really have to watch out for them. A moose this close to traffic is pretty dangerous, and not just for the moose! Rolling into Anchorage, it looks like any city anywhere. Hey, there’s a Taco Bell! And a Wendy’s. Looks like civilization.

South of Anchorage, you travel the Seward highway, which twists along the shore of the Turnagain Arm. A very scenic drive! I’ve yet to travel it under sunny skies, but today is better than average for mountain views.

  

Arriving in Seward, I park right down along the edge of Resurrection bay. Man, a site with a view indeed! There are several RV camping areas operated by the city, and some are water/electric sites, and some dry camping. I opt for a dry site which saves me $20 a nite. Don’t need no steenking electricity!

  

My old friends Wallace and Wanda are here, along with my new friend Elouise. They got here in late may, and have been hanging out, waiting for the salmon to come in. The next day is bright and sunny, a rare occurrence in Seward, and we take full advantage of it. Fishing in a place like this is a privilege, the scenery alone make it awesome, even if you don’t catch a thing!

     

The sun doesn’t last, but the fish are starting to come in, so we catch a few. Damn, those are nice salmon! They are Sockeye, and so far, that’s my favorite for good eating and smoking. A group of eagles looks on from across the river.

  

When we get back to the truck, there is this amazing eagle show going on, not ten feet away from us. A fellow is cleaning his fish and tossing the scraps out for the seagulls, when half a dozen eagles show up and start squabbling over the scraps. Absolutely amazing to watch. I took more than a few pix, hope you like ‘em! This is one of those Alaska Moments, fer sure!

                 

We are fishing every day. Sometimes the weather is nice, sometimes it’s downright shitty. Sometimes we catch fish, and sometimes we get skunked. But overall, it is great to be here, and I feel super lucky, even if I don’t catch nuttin’.

     

And on the days we get skunked….. We go to the brewery!

I’ll be here another week, just doing what feels right and good. Maybe go fishin’…. yeah, be right with ya, Wallace, I gotta post this blog first. Say, does anyone else see faces on this mountain?

More from Seward in a little while! Stay tuned….

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