Alaska: The Seward Highway

On our first full day in Alaska, the twelve of us - with three car seats and one booster seat - piled into a giant white van (four full rows of seating behind the driver and front passenger), and headed out of Anchorage, down the Seward (soo-word) Highway. Destination: Seward.

As I pointed out previously, Anchorage is surrounded by mountain ranges. A drive down the Seward Highway puts you up close and personal with the Chugach Range, directly on your left, and the Kenai Range, across the water (the inlet called Turnagain Arm) on your right. From the shimmering water to the stark peaks to the angelic, sometimes misty-sometimes puffy white clouds against the true blue sky, this highway is the definition of scenic.

stark mountains + misty white clouds against blue sky

shimmering water

stark mountains + true blue sky

Since I planned this portion of the trip, we had a schedule to keep, so the scenic highway pictures were taken through the van window, even though there were plenty of places we could have stopped to take pictures.

Our first stop was Girdwood, a small town at the base of Mt. Alyeska, less than an hour outside of Anchorage (making it, of course, an ideal location for a bathroom break, apart from everything else). Girdwood is known for its Bake Shop and Alyeska Resort. Since it was 9:30am, and some of us (namely moi) hadn't had breakfast, The Bake Shop was first priority.
The advantage of being in between seasons (ski season and summer tourist season) is that you don't have to deal with crowds. There were already a handful of people (and by people, I mean senior citizens - apparently the mid-May Alaska tourist group consisted of a few senior citizens and my family) having their breakfast in The Bake Shop, but there was no line to speak of, either for food or bathrooms. Had I known the kids would find the gravel parking lot plus staircase leading to a landing in front of I-don't-know-what to be the perfect playground, I would have sat down to a hearty breakfast as well.
Instead, thinking no one else was interested in eating, I opted for a portable, and larger-than-life, liverwurst sandwich, and Mark ordered one of their giant-sized sweet rolls with butter (looks like a cinnamon roll sans cinnamon and icing).
As it turned out, I had plenty of time. The Hynes kids shared a giant cookie (are you sensing a theme here?), the Hynes parents shared a sandwich, and not to be left out, my mom broke out snacks for the Nelson boys.

After more than half an hour at The Bake Shop, we finally headed to the main summer Mt. Alyeska attraction: The Tram. It was advertised in the guidebook that the tram would be open daily during the summer season from 9am to 9pm, and shorter hours in the winter. I was unaware there were a couple of weeks during shoulder seasons, including one in mid-May, when the tram was shut down on the weekdays for maintenance, and guess what day we were there: Monday, May 17, smack dab at the beginning of the maintenance week.

Although the kids took the disappointment in stride, my sisters and I were not to be deterred so easily. So I confirmed with the resort that the tram would be running on Saturday, when we would be traveling down the Seward Highway again, this time to board our cruise ship in Whittier, and Sandy, who had booked that transport, arranged for the driver to stop in Girdwood for an additional hour.

Meanwhile, the gang boarded the van for the remaining two hours to Seward, a small town comprised largely of two main streets - Ballaine Blvd. along the water, which turns into Railway Ave. at the Southernmost edge of the town, and 4th Ave. There didn't seem to be much by way of restaurants in this town, but by all accounts, Christo's Palace was our best bet. The guidebook, as well as the Yelp reviews, boasted decent quality food despite an oddly varied menu featuring seafood, steak, Mexican food, burgers, pizza and pasta. Although it seemed pizza was the sure way to go, none of us felt like pizza. So we went a different way, which was maybe a mistake. The French dip sandwich was passable, but the French onion soup could hardly be called a French onion soup. The best dish that ended up on our table was the Caesar salad with blackened halibut, but that same salad with blackened salmon wasn't so appetizing.
Although the food in Seward left much to be desired, the scenery and the Alaska SeaLife Center across the street from Christo's did not disappoint.

View from the empty gravel lot across the street from Christo's

View from the SeaLife Center balcony

For those of us with ready access to big city aquariums (i.e., Monterey or California Academy of Sciences), the size of the Alaska SeaLife Center is unimpressive. Indeed, I figured it would be a nice, brief distraction for the kids, with little of interest for the adults.

I was wrong. The place was bloody fantastic. Nearly every exhibit was captivating and the animals were all out to play and show off. I found their display of three salmon tanks featuring salmon at three key stages in their development - as fry, smolt and then full grown salmon - was interesting and educational. Kids and adults alike marveled at the "ginormous" (Conner's term) Steller sea lions, the largest of which weighed over 2000 pounds! The giant octopus, which usually hides from me at every other aquarium, was all over the glass, and the puffins were chasing the fish through the water (that's right, these birds are great, fast swimmers!).

While we were there, they fed the puffins, the Steller sea lions and the missile-like harbor seals. We had front row seats to all the feedings, and free reign to ask any and all questions that came to mind, because there were no crowds.

giant octopus

2000+ lb. Steller sea lion named Woody

viewing harbor seals in peace

3-year olds captivated by flying+swimming puffins

There was even a shallow tidepool full of colorful sea urchin, sea cucumbers, starfish, and more, for you to touch (akin to the Discovery Tidepool at the Cal Academy).

sea urchin

After nearly two hours at the SeaLife Center, we walked down to the water's edge for some scenic photos.

the original five

Finally, Saturday came, and we stopped in Girdwood on our way to the cruise ship to take that Mt. Alyeska tram. It runs every ten minutes, and is about a five minute ride to the top.

view from the tram

The snow up at the top (which is the base of the ski lifts) was pretty enough to make a snow cone - like uniformly and finely crushed ice.
It was super bright, and very tough to keep your eyes open without sunglasses.
But the views were breathtaking.
An hour was just enough time to get tickets, go to the top, take some pictures, make the trip back down and hit the bathrooms, but it would have been nice to to hang out a bit longer and maybe sit down to a drink or two. So for future reference, I would give myself an hour and a half to two hours at Alyeska.

Before turning onto the Portage Glacier Rd. toward Whittier, we spotted locals dipnetting along the glimmering Turnagain Arm for candlefish (aka hooligan), an "oily" smelt with an extremely high fat content.
A license is required, and we were told by our driver that only locals are allowed the license. It was a sure sign of Spring, or should I say Summer since Alaska doesn't really have a full Spring season.