A tale of a frozen family

So I was suppose to *ahem* get my butt back here and finish my Seward blog, in addition to about a million other blogs that I had in my mind to do.   Then this thing called life keeps getting in the way.   The really annoying thing, is that I can’t narrow down any one thing in life that has kept me at bay from the blog. 

At any rate…. if there is anyone left, subscribed to this pathetic little neglected blog… here goes

Seward, Alaska… the continuation.   A little Seward tidbit/history:

Seward is situated on Resurrection Bay on the southeast coast of the Kenai Peninsula, 125 highway miles south of Anchorage. It lies at the foot of Mount Marathon, and is the gateway to the Kenai Fjords National Park. It lies at approximately 60° 07′ N Latitude, 149° 26′ W Longitude (Sec. 10, T001S, R001W, Seward Meridian). The community is located in the Seward Recording District. The area encompasses 15 sq. miles of land and 7 sq. miles of water.

Resurrection Bay was named in 1792 by Russian fur trader and explorer Alexander Baranof. While sailing from Kodiak to Yakutat, he found unexpected shelter in this bay for a storm. He named the Bay Resurrection because it was the Russian Sunday of the Resurrection. The City of Seward was named for U.S. Secretary of State William Seward, 1861-69, who negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia during the Lincoln administration. In the 1890s, Capt. Frank Lowell arrived with his family. In 1903, John and Frank Ballaine and a group of settlers arrived to begin construction of a railroad. Seward became an incorporated City in 1912. The Alaska Railroad was constructed between 1915 and 1923, and Seward developed as the ocean terminus and supply center. By 1960, Seward was the largest community on the Peninsula. Tsunamis generated after the 1964 earthquake destroyed the railroad terminal and killed several residents. As an ice-free harbor, Seward has become an important supply center for Interior Alaska.   The information source is found here .

Sooooo…. the weather over the weekend was some what dismal, but amazingly, as we set sail on our bay cruise, the clouds broke and the sun shone.  It was beautiful.   I have to giggle a bit though, because as we were getting ready to sail, a young woman announced to the whole ship that she had prayed that we would have nice weather that day (that wasn’t the funny part) and that she was thankful to god for giving us such beautiful weather (again, not the funny part).   She DID however, neglect to pray to God to keep her from barfing all over the back of the boat.  I would have taken a picture, but I feel that would have been in bad taste *giggle*.   Okay… so silly school girl mentality aside.   Here is a photo montage of our day.

This is how the weather started this morning:

And although quite dismal, it’s still got some breathtaking beauty.   I adore this waterfall……

I really wish we had that kind of beauty in the burbs that we live.  I can’t complain though…. the beauty we have within a few hours drive is well worth the lackluster surrounds we have.    NOW.. remember how I said the weather cleared that day.  This is literally 2 hours later!  You have to love ocean towns and ocean weather fronts.

 Hello little sea otter….. aren’t they CUTE!

Oh… and can you say BOAT ENVY????   I don’t even want to know how expensive this little “blow boat” is.   Interestingly enough, the boat is from South Africa.   Nothing like be a tad bit from home huh?

Boat envy aside, it was a beautiful day and the seas were somewhat calm (well, except for that poor girl *giggle*)  Here is the boat we set sail on.

So much pretty scenery.  That is the one thing that you will just never run out of in South East Alaska.

One thing I don’t truly understand about this area of the state is the agriculture.  I’m a little dumbfounded as to how vegitation will grow on rocks…. with no dirt, surrounded by extreme weather and salt water, but it really does happen.   We have flowers that grow on rocks…..

And we have trees that grow on rocks….

and then we have ADORABLE  seals that are cute as can be…. and oh my holy heavens do these things STINK!  We got close enough on the boat to truly catch a wiff.   OY VEY!

And lets not forget big papa… the Stellar Sea Lion (he’s the very large mass at the bottom of the rocks)

 We were fortunate to see an amazing waterfall with a rainbow.  It truly was beautiful and I wish I could have captured it better on camera.

Then we can’t forget our glaciers.   We have thousands of them.  Here is one of the smaller ones that we passed as we were cruising back into the bay.

 Did I mention we have some pretty kick butt fishing????   Can you say HOLY HALIBUT????

Fish & Chips anyone?

So there you have it.  A little recap of a great weekend in a great little town in Alaska!   

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