Day 5: August 25, 2000
Drive from Homer to Seward

Before we got out this morning, Walendo tried to call his mom to figure out what to do about his Irish dad's funeral but she wasn't there, so he left a message. He also dialed up so he could check in to find out if everything was going okay with our software project. He ended up text messaging with Dipti though our software while I packed up the car. After he said goodbye, we headed out. It had been a really nice place to stay, both the hotel and Homer overall. It was a little sad to leave.

We drove out of town, admiring the beautiful view along the way. The naturalist had told us about a gallery outside of town that we should stop in, but we missed it somehow, oh well. We drove along, listening to Harry Potter along the way. When we got to Soldotna, we stopped at a Subway for Walendo to get lunch and I had a TCBY yogert (though they had only oreo, no chocolate, can you believe it). The Subway was part of a lonely little mall, which I wandered around. Some of the stores were empty, and others had things like Marines and Army recruiting centers, bible book stores, and the like. After lunch, we stopped in Fred Meyer again, this time to buy a cheap tape deck so we could listen to Harry Potter on the plane. We bought a second headset and a splitter, so we could both listen. While we were there, we ended up absorbed in our usual shopping mode. They had colorful face plates for our phone, which we hadn't seen before, but not the colors I wanted. They had sales on some DVDs so we browsed that for a while. And they had the "Brand New Day" Sting CD on sale (and there's no state sales tax and no shipping of course) so I wanted to buy it. They didn't have any on the shelves and I ended up going through a bunch of boxes of incoming stuff, but no luck. Finally, we managed to get out of the store.

Kelly Lake

We continued along the highway, listening to more Harry Potter. At one point, Walendo noticed a sign for a lake, Kelly Lake, so he suggested we drive in. After less than a mile, we came to a gorgeous lake with snowcapped mountains in the background. It was a warm sunny day, probably the warmest since we'd been here, so we hung out and enjoyed the scene for a bit. There was a campsite and a trail around the lake, it seemed like a great place to camp. I found some more berries to shoot, this time with my tripod, so I dove in. While I took some pictures, Walendo picked up a rock and decided that he would make a "travel fountain" with it and the other rocks he's picked up on other vacations. I like this idea because it means we have to go to lots of locations for rocks. He marked the rock with AK, and then made a "way point" on the emap so we'd know the exact longditude and latitude of the spot.

Berries at Kelly Lake

When we were ready to go, we continued on, again listening to the tapes while watching the lovely scenery. We again got stuck in construction, twice this time. But both times we were fully stopped only about 10 minutes, although the driving was pretty slow going while we were on the rough road. Finally at around 4pm we made it to Seward. As we drove through the main street, we stopped to find our hotel, the Harborview Inn, on the emap GPS and it told us it was directly behind us .3 miles. We turned around, and lo and behold, there it was. We'd passed right by it. This hotel was ranked as one of the best values in Alaska in Frommer's. It certainly had a nice exterior and our room is nicely done, with nice touches. It doesn't have a fridge, as the other place did, and our view is of a bank next door, but it's certainly comfortable. The woman recommended a bakery and a restaurant at the harbor, which we figured we'd check out later.

We brought our stuff into the room, and then made a few phone calls. We called to find out when the ferry went from Seward to Valdez thinking we might leave a day early and cut out some driving while getting to see Prince William Sound. Turns out the ferry goes once a week on Thursdays, so we won't get to do that plan. It'll be a lot of driving on Tuesday, and it's a shame to miss Prince Willaim Sound, but so be it. Walendo called his mom and this time reached her. They talked a while and she said she didn't think he should fly back to the funeral. After they hung up, Walendo tried to reach his Irish family to check in. He didn't reach them but he left messages.

Seward Boat Dock

After that, we drove around the small town of Seward. First we headed out to Miller's Landing, which is where the kayak and small boat tours leave. There's a three mile dirt road along the coast with spectacular views across the bay. In fact, all the views from Seward are gorgeous, since it's right at the mouth of Resurrection Bay and the opposite side of the bay has towering green and granite peaks jutting out from the water. Especially today with a bright blue sky, the views were wonderful. At the end of the road were some well-worn buildings. We entered one to find that they didn't lead tours, they only rent boats if you're experienced at kayaking. She suggested we try one of the places down the road. One was closed and the other was an open barn-like building with a guy who was cleaning up, called the Alaska Kayak Camping Company. He said they had an all-day tour available the day after next and showed us some pictures. The tour is about 8-9 miles with about a 5 mile hike, which sounds great to me. We signed up. He didn't even take a deposit, just told us to call if we had to cancel. It was pretty informal, you might say.

We drove back along the dirt road and then stopped at the one-street downtown area, which had a whole bunch of gift shops and the like. The first one had some good prices on tshirts and sweatshirts, so I bought an Alaska sweatshirt with the yellow stars of the big dipper on it. That's the Alaska flag, a really nice one. I also bought a postcard with the flowers of the area, which I'm gradually getting to know. As I was buying it, I realized I left my wallet in the room, dope, so Walendo had to pay. He started showing me a funny weather reader thing that he said would be funny for my dad, but I was too preoccupied to look at it, so he didn't get it. Oh well, maybe we'll look again later. We wandered up and then back down the street. It seemed a little sad, like it had once been a booming town and now it was on the decline, with some stores unocccupied and the others all selling similar things to tourists. Walendo was already starting to size up the town as not as nice as Homer. I'm still open to seeing how it develops. In some ways it's prettier, but it's true that it seems more commercial and yet more run down.

Next we drove up to the harbor on the other end of town, and we saw that this was where they had more current shops and restaurants, some of them more upscale. We checked out the restaurant the hotel had recommended, Rod's, but it was more expensive than we wanted and we weren't that hungry. We checked out a few others and wound up at Chinooks, which was only slightly less expensive but had a nice view of the boat docks. Walendo got the stir-fry special with halibut, shrimp, veggies & rice and it was delicious. I also got halibut and veggies which was also good, but I kept sneaking bites of his, which was especially yummy. I ate a few sprigs of his broccoli, and he made a big deal of how I was keeping him from eating his one vegetable of the week. While we were eating, a fisherman came up to a dock and gutted what looked like a halibut, cutting out the filets and then dropping the skin below into a vat, that was being kept wet with a sprinker. We weren't quite sure why they kept it wet. In any case, we were glad we'd eaten there, it was delicious and the waitress was very helpful. After dinner, we stopped at the Harbor Creamery, and I fully admitted it was crazy to eat ice cream when it was that chilly out, but I couldn't help myself. (It was still sunny, but the air was cold and it was pretty windy -- even Walendo was cold.) It was pretty good ice cream. Walendo got a chocolate cone too and when he decided he didn't want to finish it, I did it for him, a nice twist on our usual pattern.

We made it back to the hotel and settled in. We watched a comedy central show for a while, but then Walendo read while I caught up on this journal once again. He's snoozing away now, and I'm about to get into bed. Tomorrow is a boat trip to the Kenai Fjords. I've got all my layers ready, and I'm psyched for some beautiful scenery.

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