Alaska Sealife Center

This weekend, Frank and I went to the Alaska Sealife Center, down in Seward. Seward is a beautiful town on the Kenai Peninsula, about 125 miles from Anchorage.

It was funny, but Frank and I had been a bit down on Alaska lately, I think mostly due to the fact that it's been cloudy, yucky, and there is no snow to ski on. When we decided to go to the Sealife Center, it was a last minute decision based on the fact that we had nothing better to do on Saturday.

Well, I'm glad we went. The highway to Seward from Anchorage is the most incredible roads in the world. It certainly rivals Highway 1 and the road from Sedona to the Grand Canyon in my book. Every time I drive this road, I feel how incredibly lucky we are to live in a place so incredibly beautiful. Right now, the bushes are this deep red color, and the trees themselves are kind of a brownish purple. In the mix is evergreens as well, and of course, black rocks and brown dirt. On the right side, you have the silver/blue color of the Turnagain arm, which contrasts with the grey mud flats (depending on tide) and the white mountains on the other side of the arm.

The arm itself is very interesting. The tide here changes 35 feet within a day, making the arm very difficult to negotiate, which is why you never see boats out there. Because of the tide changes, you are never, ever to walk out onto the mud flats -- if you get stuck, you could drown very fast. There is something called a bore tide, is the first wave of an incoming tide. In order to see it, you have to really know the tide tables, which I don't know anything about (yet).

I can't wait to see what it looks like in a few weeks(?) when things turn green as well!

The Kenai Peninsula is beautiful as well, and it looks like they got significantly more snow than we did in Anchorage. It's weird to see street signs almost completely covered in snow. To get to Seward, you go right through this pass of mountains so that everywhere around you is beautiful white mountains, and all these tracks of various snow sports along it. In general, the terrain reminds me a lot of Italy/Switzerland, with these big glacial lakes that are the most incredible blue color. Then, you get to Seward AK and Resurrection Bay. An incredible city, along this incredibly beautiful bay. This is where many of the Cruise ships depart from (the other place being Whittier).

At the edge of the bay is the Alaska Sealife Center. Since AK has so much coastline and this coastline harbors some of the most incredible animals, the Alaska Sealife Center conducts incredibly meaningful research while also educating the public. We got to see Sea Lions, harbor seals, multitudes of birds (right there, with nothing between you and the beautiful creatures). They also have built a way to monitor remote sea lion areas without disturbing the environment too much. This is also where Aurora and her brood are hiding as well.

Anyways, if you are ever in the area, really the Sealife Center is completely worth it, and you should go.