Note
We’ve been having trouble completing blog entries because the internet in our currrent AirBnB is spotty. Hopefully we’ll get this one done today. We’ll be moving from Seward to Homer on Friday.
Rainy Sunday
The weather was predicted to be a bit more rainy and cloudy on Sunday that it had been the the prediction turned out to be correct. There were only a few periods where the rain was bad and a fair number of other periods that reminded me of home.
In the morning we stayed at the AirBnB and took turns on the rowing machine. After lunch we decided to go to the Alaska Sealife Center–the Seward aquarium–which is one of a network of one of maybe 25 similar coastal education/research institutions. It was a great bird day at the aquarium, e.g., look at this posing duck which I believe is a King Eider:
And this Common Murre:
In another section we found a Pacific Octopus. One of the workers at the aquarium came in and started telling us about her. He said that she is 5 years old and would occationally stretch herself out and would be 8 feet wide.
Monday
The other day before the hard hike around Exit Glacier, we skipped some of the more popular paths. So we tried to get there early and avoid the rush and it worked until nearly the end. We walked out onto a rocky outwash from which the glacier had been retreating for more than 200 years. We walked toward the glacier until we found a sign that told us not to go any further because it was dangerous and we trusted the people who placed the sign and didn’t go any further.
In one place the water coming off the glacier was meandering wildly into a bank and undercutting a bunch of trees.
After returning to the AirBnB for lunch we drove drove past the southern edge of Seward and out toward the trailhead to Caines Head. We had planning on hiking the whole route but then realized that there is a place that can only be passed at low tide so, realistically, the whole route would take two days each of which would require a tide that was low enough. We just went until our next steps would be wet and then turned around. Out in the water this guy was performing:
Tuesday
Feeling done with Seward. Erg in the morning. Laundry in the afternoon.
Wednesday, Checking Out Soldotna
This morning we went to the store to get some cabbage for our lunchtime taco salad. And, of course, we stopped for coffee. We’ve decided that the best coffee in Seward is Summit Sips; today was our third visit.
As we drove out to Soldotna we resumed our ranking of REM songs. As a reminder we started by listening to them all and Arlene and I indepentently put them into quintiles. Since we weren’t tracking how many actually ended up in each quintile, the second stage is adjusting. So I originally put 24 songs in the first quintile when there should have been 36. So on the drive we listened to my whole second quintile and I picked 12 of them to move up. Next we’ll listen to Arlene’s second quintile and she’ll pick which to move up.
In Soldotna we visited the Visitors Center at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. We went for a walk near Headquarters lake and since the Visitors Center is adjacent to the Soldotna Airport, as we walked we listened to airplanes and were consumed by mosquitoes. (Honestly, the mosquitoes haven’t been too bad in Alaska with the execption of maybe 3 great battles each lasting about 45 minutes.)
Here is an usie that was photobombed by some tree fungus.
Tomorrow
The plan is erging, hiking up Mount Marathon, then starting to pack up.
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