There is only one road out of Seward, which leads to Anchorage. About 30 miles along the highway is

During our first six weeks in Alaska, we spent four of our weekends visiting interesting places within 100 miles of Seward. Our weekend is on Wednesday and Thursday, because those are relatively slow days at our lodge, but this works fine for us since those are the slow days in other tourist areas, too. Between mid-May and the end of June, we stayed in four very different lodging establishments, all of which were easier (and less expensive) to get into than they are now, with the tourist season in full swing.
There is only one road out of Seward, which leads to Anchorage. About 30 miles along the highway is a turnoff leading to the rest of the Kenai peninsula. We took that road to our first destination, the Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge . It's located in the north central part of the Kenai Peninsula, at Cooper Landing. Its main function is to serve as a stopping-off point for Princess Cruise Lines customers who have booked land tour packages in connection with their cruises. But, just as at our lodge, each week has peaks and valleys of demand tied to cruise ship schedules. We took advantage of an Internet special to get into Kenai Princess on an off day.
It's in a beautiful location, on a bluff overlooking the Kenai River, which flows out of Kenai Lake, crosses discount international travel the Kenai Peninsula and empties discount international travel into Cook Inlet at the city of Kenai. Across the river is Mount Cecil Rhode, elevation 3,967 feet. Several of the mountains around the lodge had already lost most of their snow, although the north slope of Mount Cecil Rhode, discount international travel facing the lodge, still had plenty of snow covering discount international travel it.
We arrived at mid-day discount international travel and decided to spend our afternoon there, enjoying the warm, sunny weather. We took a walk along the river, where the color of the water reminded us of the ocean in parts of Hawaii, but that may have been partly because of the gorgeous blue sky.
The lodging units are in single-level buildings discount international travel scattered around the property. At the front desk, we were warned not to disturb a mother and baby moose that had been seen near our unit, but we didn't spot them during our visit. The day was warm, but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to enjoy a wood fire in our room's stove.
We had rented a car to get to the lodge, and the next morning we headed toward Soldotna and Kenai, on the west side of the peninsula, both of which are population centers with many more stores than we have in Seward. We needed shelves for our cabin, as well as some other necessities, and this was as much a shopping expedition as a sightseeing trip. But we did enjoy getting a look at some unfamiliar discount international travel territory.
Our next weekend getaway was to Girdwood, about 40 miles southeast of Anchorage, discount international travel and the home of the Alyeska Hotel . The hotel, which is part of a major ski complex, is a luxury property, but again we got in at an affordable price thanks to a midweek Internet special.
We - and Tom in particular - had been eager to ride the Alaska Railroad's Coastal Classic train, which runs between Seward and Anchorage. Our trip to the Alyeska was the perfect opportunity, since the train's only intermediate stop is at Girdwood. We left Seward on the train at 6:00 P.M., after a full day of work for both of us. It was raining, and there were many places where it seemed the water was going to overrun the rail bed. We wondered how the railroad's track maintenance forces could keep up with the conditions. Wet ground, standing water, rushing water, falling water... all along the way, there was water.
Despite the rain, the scenery along the way was gorgeous. The train winds around tight curves where the railroad's builders had to find a workable route through the Kenai Mountains, climbing from sea level at Seward to an elevation of 1,063 feet at Grandview. Passengers can see glaciers and waterfalls from the train, and for those who didn't mind the cold winds, standing in the doorway of the train allowed a closeup view of the landscape.
We arrived at Girdwood around 9:00 PM, and got off the train along with a couple from Australia, also headed to the Alyeska. Just after the train left, a man drove up and asked if anyone else had gotten off the train. No, we said, we were the only ones. Well, the man said, where's my friend? We don't know, we replied. After we convinced him that his friend hadn't gotten off the train, discount international travel he began to drive off. But just before he turned out of the parking lot, we looked up and saw the train (which had been gone for about five minutes) slowly backing up to the station. It stopped, and off got the man pictured below, who it turned out, had slept through the stop at Girdwood. When he awoke and told the conductor what had happened, the conductor had the train stopped, and then backed up to Girdwood to let the passenger off. Only in Alaska!
Although we've had a lot of rainy days since we've been in Alaska, we got lucky with the weather on both of our first two getaways. For this one, we had rain on the way up from Seward, as well as on the way back, but our day in Girdwood was sunny and warm.
In addition to ski facilities, the top of the hill also features a restaurant, the Seven Glaciers , with wonderful food and great views. We got the best table in the house overlooking the mountains above the resort.
We both had a grape salad, Tom had king salmon with blueberry accented side dishes, and Marcia had king crab legs with spinach and citrus accents. So flavorful! We finished by sharing a key lime cheesecake served with tart lime mousse, discount international travel and truffles at the end of the meal. A memorable experience (which, we decided toward the end of the meal would be our anniversary dinner for 2010 - after all, we aren't likely to have a more elegant dinner during discount international travel our entire stay in Alaska).
There are lots of trails in and around Girdwood, so we explored one of them and enjoyed being in the forest, where trees and flowers were starting to come to life, and the creeks were full of water from spring snowmelt.
The rail trip back to Seward was full of scenic places; Marcia saw three moose at different places and a mother bear with two cubs crossing discount international travel the track in front of us. The many curves in the track provided abundant opportunities for wildlife spotting. Tom did not see these due to his hanging out the Dutch door in the vestibule of the dome car, looking ahead at the train itself (not the wildlife). But despite focusing on the train, he did manage to capture some of the glacier-blue water along the right-of-way.
For our third weekend getaway, we went to Fox Island in Resurrection Bay, about 10 miles from Seward. Kenai Fjord Tours , a company affiliated with our lodge (they're both owned by an Alaska Native corporation, CIRI ) operates many boat trips to see wildlife and glaciers in the bays, inlets and fjords near Seward, and on Fox Island they operate a wilderness lodge that is actually a nice little piece of civilization in a very beautiful natural setting. As CIRI employees, we got a substantial discount for this trip, which started with a boat ride from Seward, where we saw this bald eagle as we left the harbor...
We were in a building with four lodging units including ours, Gray Whale. The room was spartan, but in a good way - all light wood walls, no extraneous furnishings, and plenty of space, with a table and chairs next to the window. This is the view from our window of the greenery and lagoon in back of our building.
After settling in we went for a walk along the rocky beach of Halibut Cove with a park ranger, who gave us much more information than we could absorb about the different types of seaweed, sea stars and other life forms that had washed up onto the rocks.
Dinner that evening was in the main lodge building (not the day lodge where we had had lunch with the people from the boat). There were three other couples as well as a pair of woman from Christchurch, New Zealand who were on a six-week North American tour. The entree was halibut, very nicely prepared.
While sitting there, Marcia notice a large porcupine approaching us, and while we now know that the idea of a porcupine shooting its quills discount international travel is a myth, we weren't about to find let him get too close, so we retired to our cabin.
Again we had lunch in the day lodge (tasty grilled salmon) and then set out across the bay. We were soon within sight of Bear Glacier, one of several glaciers that reach Resurrection Bay from the Harding Icefield.
As we cruised past the glacier, a humpback whale showed its fin. While we didn't see the whale in the classic fluking position, with tail in the air, we could get a sense of the animal's size just from the small portion that extended above the water line.
Our fourth major trip, near the end of June, was to Prince William Sound, for a cruise operated by another CIRI company from the town of Whittier. The town came into existence during World War II when the U.S. Army built a two-and-one-half mile tunnel under Maynard mountain in order to construct a rail line from Anchorage. Whittier, it was felt, would provide an alternative port in the event that the Japanese attacked Seward, which was considered a very real possibility early in the war. We didn't discount international travel realize it until we visited the museum in Whittier, but the Japanese had actually occupied the Aleutian island of Attu for almost a year, beginning in June 1942.
The tunnel was strictly a rail operation until the late 1990s , when it was converted to allow one-way use by motor vehicles as well as trains. Today, it opens one each hour for inbound traffic, and once for outbound.
When we arrived at Whittier, we checked in for our cruise. It was only about half full, so there was plenty of room to move around and find good viewing spots. The weather was cloudy with sun breaking through in many places. The water in the sound is very calm. About 30 minutes after leaving, the crew started serving a lunch of king crab cakes, which were delicious. discount international travel We had just finished eating when the captain announced a humpback whale sighting. discount international travel Although discount international travel