Seward, AK

We spent two weeks in the Seward area, using it as our basecamp for all the other places we wanted to visit on the Kenai Peninsula.

We really enjoyed Seward! It was pretty small and definitely had plenty of touristy stuff, but it had a nice balance of non-touristy stuff too.

There was a cute little boardwalk along the harbor consisting of all the tours and gift shops. Out of all of the small-town coastal harbors we’ve seen in Alaska, Seward is my favorite so far. It was super clean, the views were amazing, and there were boats of all sizes. It was beautiful!

Seward is located on the shore of Resurrection Bay.

We went on a scenic drive and ended up on the other side of the bay from Seward. You can see it in the photo above. There were a ton of people fishing right along the coast there…right by the waste water factory…there was a sign that warned against eating the fish raw…we didn’t fish there. Or touch the water…

Seward is also the starting point (one of them) for the Iditarod. We found the Mile 0 marker for it!

There were over 20 murals all over town. It really added to the beauty of the town!

We spent an afternoon at the Alaska SeaLife Center getting up close with some of the animals found in the local waters.  At the Alaska SeaLife Center, the habitats were large enough to keep the animals happy, the animals looked healthy and well cared for, and we could get really close to all of them, safely. The Center was crowded, but it was big enough that you didn’t feel like you were tripping over people all the time. The Harbor Seals were so cute and playful!

Right across from the seals were the Sea Lions…who had a very different idea of how to spend the day.

There was a whole room for birds that you could walk into. The birds were free to fly about the room…we could have reached out and touched them they were so close! There were several different species in the room, but my favorite was the Horned Puffin. These little birds are amazing! Did you know, puffins can dive down to 300 feet in the water? They will work together to herd the fish into balls and then push them to the surface.

There was a touch pool where we were encouraged to touch several different types of sea life while learning all about what we were touching. Charles had no trouble with reaching in and touching everything, but Alex and Nicholas needed some persuasion. I think the favorite was the sea anemone that would hug your finger if you put it near it the right way.

There was a great view of Resurrection Bay out on a deck you could go out on.

We didn’t get to touch these, but I thought they were interesting. Can you spot the fish in the left photo above? I would not want to pull one of those out of the water on my fishing line! I would suggest going to the Alaska SeaLife Center and the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center and skipping the Alaska Zoo. I really hate to say that…but it’s so true.

The only place we ate at in Seward was Red’s Burgers. We ate there twice. You place your order in the building and then go sit in the school bus to eat. The owners had converted the inside of the bus to booths. It was different and fun. The boys thought it was so cool to be sitting on a school bus eating.

I got the garlic burger with garlic fires. The chef wasn’t playing around with the garlic. I thought there would be some garlic worked into the burger patty, but there was about a quarter cup of minced garlic on top of that patty! That’s a lot of garlic. I wish I’d known that before I ordered the garlic fries too. It’s a good thing everyone else had garlic fries with their burgers… The first time we went there, the owner was working the window and it was near closing time. We scored two free mystery cups that are magical mixtures of the ice cream flavors Red’s made through the day. At the end of each batch of ice cream they empty the containers into cups and just layer it up until the cup is full. We had pineapple and strawberry in the cup above. The second time we went we ended up with banana, strawberry, and cookies & cream! So good and only $3! In the top left photo is Reds #1 Burger. It has caramelized maple bacon, grilled ham, onions and mushrooms, jalapenos, cheddar and swiss on it. And it was huge! Charles got this one and ate it all plus his fries. The chili cheese fries were super good! Now, I mentioned we ate there twice…the first time we ate there it was so amazingly good we couldn’t’ stop talking about it and decided we had to eat there again before we left. We didn’t even contemplate eating anywhere else. It was that tasty. But, the second time…I don’t know…something was off. Maybe they were having an off night? The burgers tasted freezer burnt. It was weird.

We did a very short, very steep hike on the Jeep Trail in Seward. We didn’t go all the way up the trail because we were still recovering from our Harding Icefield adventure. It’s hard to tell in the pictures…but you’re looking at a 40 to 50 percent grade there. The Seward area is considered to be in the rainforest section of the Kenai Peninsula. The plants are huge and there’s moss everywhere. Everything is so…green and alive!

Pretty flower, right? Watch out, it’ll bite you! What is it with Alaska? If the wildlife doesn’t get you, the plant life will!!

We only hiked maybe a quarter of a mile to this waterfall and then headed back down.

So, there you have it! This completes our time on the Kenai Peninsula! We enjoyed every minute of it and had the most amazing weather while we were there!

See y’all down the road!

#alaskabound

#keepingitreal