We biked into the ‘old’ downtown in the morning and had lunch. There are some really pretty murals on the buildings here and this one mentions that Seward was the original start for the Iditarod Trail which was a dog sled mail run from 1910 to 1924. Once the railroad from Seward to Anchorage was complete, the mail would go to Anchorage by train then from there by dogsleg to Nome. Today, the Iditarod is continued as a dog sled race run every March.
From the downtown, there is a good view of the path up Mount Marathon (3,022 ft.).. Every July 4th since 1909, there is a footrace up and down Mount Marathon. It is said to be the 2nd oldest footrace in the U.S with hundreds of competitors and thousands of spectators (quite a few medics on hand, too).
I got a kick out of this whimsical display outside of a shop downtown:
The old ‘mercantile’ is still open. It is Alaska's oldest family-owned retail business:
After lunch we went to the harbor area. There are lots of boats: small fishing boats, lovely sailboats and even a huge cruise ship.
Another nice mural, in the 'newer' commercial area near the harbour:
Alaska exports coal to other countries around the world through this port. The long ‘tube’ in this picture is used to load coal into ships.
Seward is located on Resurrection Bay, an ice-free deep harbour with mountains all around it. The weather was sunny and unusually warm (low 70's) with a light breeze. A great day for taking pictures.
We happened to see a sailboat which had been in for repair being re-launched. They’ve got a really neat remote-controlled lift for handling the boat.
Later in the afternoon, I took Gino and Reba for bike rides then we took all three pups to the beach just in front of the RV sites. There were waves coming in so they weren’t all that interested in going in the water.
We went to a unique restaurant for supper, called the Smoke Shack. It is in a WWII era railcar which is positioned in a circle with three other rail cars, known as ‘the train wreck’. Their specialty is barbecue – we had absolutely delicious barbecued ribs.
After supper we stopped at the fish filleting tables at the marina. There was lots of action there with all the people cleaning their catches of the day.
As I write this, the cruise ship “Radiance of the Seas” is making its way slowly out of the harbour, right past our front window. In fact, it is turning around in front of us. Neat!
Tomorrow we’re going on the Major Marine wildlife and glacier cruise into the Kenai Fjords National Park. It’ll be a long day, but should be a nice trip. Hopefully it will be sunny like today!
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