Seward on the Kenai Peninsula--Segment 3

On July 11, we flew from Seattle to Anchorage.  When we arrived in Anchorage (between 3:00 and 4:00 p.m.), a wheelchair met us for Gene, which was a very good thing, because the baggage and then the car rental place would have been a very long walk for him and it would have taken us far too long to accomplish both tasks. We picked up the car, which turned out to be more of an economy car than we’ve ever had—a Chevy Aveo, and we had a bit of trouble getting our luggage in, but finally figured it out. We won’t get that size car again! So off we went to the Kenai Peninsula and our hotel in Seward. It was raining, which it did for about 2-1/2 days, and then on and off during our stay in Alaska, so the driving was a bit slower than we’d figured it would be. It was only about 132 miles, but it took us longer than the three hours we had figured. We stayed at a delightful old hotel in Seward. Yes, Hotel Seward—what else?  Because of the rain, the original cruise we'd planned was canceled, so we took a 4-1/2 hour cruise in Resurrection Bay, which included a delicious all-you-can-eat buffet of grilled salmon and prime rib.   Although we didn’t get to see the fjords or any tidewater glaciers, we did see bald eagles, whales, a variety of seabirds, including puffins (which I thought were mythical birds) and lots and lots of seagulls, stellar sea lions, sea otters floating on their backs in the bay, and mountain goats.

Aren't these sea otters cute?  They were swimming and playing near us in our boat.



If you look closely, you can see a mountain goat.  We saw several, but this was the best picture we got.

This is what our boat looked like.  Quite comfortable, if only it hadn't been raining.

 

Stellar sea lions "sunning" themselves.  Well, resting anyway.
Seagulls in the background--just a very few of the many we saw.

 

After the cruise, we headed over to the Alaska SeaLife Center, where we saw lots of salmon of different kinds, a puffin up close, and some jellyfish.

Before we left, two days later, we took some pictures in the hotel lobby area.  Doesn't he look kind and gentle?

   That’s one ferocious grizzly about to attack!  Glad it's mounted on a wall!

 

  I like this one of Gene—it almost looks like the moose is going to "kiss" him.