Day 41: and Seward again!
Friday, June 10, 2016
Seward, Alaska, United States
Yes, we're still here and thinking we'll stay tomorrow night also. We just love our view and tomorrow is church night and predicted to be rainy, so we'll stay on one more day. Really we are killing some time since we don't have to be in Anchorage til next Monday and we have seen most of the Kenai Peninsula on the way down, except for the town of Hope which we will head to as we leave here. But we figure why leave a great place when we still have things to do?! So we got up for the morning dog walk, and walked Linda into the Seward Post Office (2 blocks from here) so she could mail some items (wonder if my items in Moose Pass will ever get to Georgia?) and then came home for brunch about noon. We met our new neighbors, whom we had heard getting the spot this morning within minutes of the last family pulling out. This couple, Larry and Debra, are from Michigan and drove in with a group of 5 RVer's - the men are all fishing, and the wives had gone to the town quilt shop. Hope Larry gets a haul of fish, maybe we can be friends!! We then geared up in our bike outfits, more layers as it is cloudy and feels colder than the 58 degrees it says. Not 2 minutes out, my handlebars go loose and my bike tools are not working to tighten the stem. As our luck would have it, we noticed the bike rental and repair shop down in the old "train village" - it's 4 old train cars forming a square with different businesses in each car: the bike shop, a "liquid refreshment" car (bar), a smokehouse restaurant, and a cute little lodge where you can rent a room - collectively, they are called the Train Rec! So I wheel into Bike Shop and he tells me notches are gone on my "old" bike (don't be calling my bike old, cuz I'm not sure what that makes me!!) and he will have to replace the stem - he could do it now, but we are anxious to finish our bike ride, so I say I will return later, and will attempt to ride without putting pressure on the handlebars - not hard until you try riding uphill, but that's later! So off we go, down a great bike path out the north side of town toward Anchorage and Exit Glacier. The turnoff to Exit Glacier has a couple dog sledding businesses, the main one being Seavey Dog Sledding, a family who has won the Iditerod several times over the generations. Unfortunately, you need to be there for a session in order to see the kennels, play with the puppies, and ride the summer practice carts. Linda really wants to go on the helicopter ride to the glacier where you ride the sleds on actual ice, but I'm having trouble parting with the $ for that expedition - we'll see since that trip departs from Girdwood, back closer to Anchorage! So we got back on our bikes and took a side road that took us to the other side of the bay from our RV park - we were now looking across the water at our RV. It was a pretty ride, but when the road turned steeply uphill, we only went .5 miles before deciding it was time to turn around! So back into town by 4pm and 17 miles completed, we meet the bike repair man - he took my bike in and also gave us a good rec for a seafood restaurant near his shop. We had decided tonight would be our night out, and we were determined to eat some local fish that would be memorable! So we stopped into the hardware store (wanted to buy a camp grill rack that will fit over a campfire so we will be able to grill our own fish - got it!) then went to Chinook's Seafood Restaurant. They only had about 5 fish dishes, but said only salmon and halibut were fresh and locally caught - so we both ordered the Copper River, local salmon! And it was great - some nice Chipotle, sweet glaze with a dollop of avocado relish on top, and more surprising were the grilled, julienned fresh squash, broccolini, and mushrooms served over basmati rice as a side. It's just hard to get good veggies on the side! And a Golden Denali Ale as my beverage of choice, while Linda imbibed in fresh, local water - both very good! We had a great view of the marina as we ate, and saw the coal chute up close - apparently this town gets shipments of coal from northern Alaska by train, then puts them through a coal chute which transfers the coal to ships, where it is then shipped to South Korea and China! This coal is "good", but has a low burning temp, so is not optimal for use to burn for heat, so it is exported. We then hiked back to bike repair and reclaimed my bike, all good now! But, the temp is now about 54 degrees with strong wind, and it's really cold! We made it back to the RV and were very happy to come inside to the warm, cozy atmosphere! We are now making a second attempt at baking brownies in the convection/microwave oven and I can't find the manual - last batch did not come out well, and we notice that we set the temp to 375 degrees, but the oven turns off every 5 mins - thus requiring us to jump up and restart it, thereby burning a few more calories so we can have 2 brownies, if they ever get done!! Life is good!
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