Seward, AK 2014 - Day 6

Well, Chad was right. Seward is completely stunning when the sky is blue. He was at work by 6:30 and, once again, the teenagers wanted to sleep. Ashley and I walked to the bay and spent an hour and a half exploring. She played at the skate park for a while, threw rocks, and about every eighteen seconds or so, hollered “Mommy, look at this!” I sat on a bench and breathed. It sounds kind of dumb, but that’s what I did. Big, deep, energizing breaths—I just listened to the quiet. And I was so grateful.

When we came home from the bay, I made oatmeal for Ashley and we watched TV. And when the other kids woke up, we kept right on watching it. We have DirecTV here and you would think we have never seen a television in our entire lives. There are hundreds of channels to watch. We watched the last seven minutes of The Fresh Prince series finale (I cried when Will hugged The Banks goodbye, it was like 1996 all over again). Then I read all the listings. I’m serious when I say there is a show about everything in our galaxy and maybe even Andromeda. But we watched Harry Potter, which we do once a week in our house. 

And when it was over I wanted to turn off the TV, but Signs was on and it was just getting to the good part where the alien is trapped in the pantry (oops, I just spoiled it if you haven’t seen it) and so we watched that, too.

That's Chad

I made spaghetti and garlic bread for lunch and Chad came home to eat and then have a video conference call. He didn’t need to worry about us being loud—we were glued to the TV, but he worked from the bedroom anyway. We drove him back to work so we could have the car. I figured a morning at home would ensure that the kids were ready for an adventure. I was wrong. We walked to the beach at the shipyard and watched kitesurfers. That lasted for four minutes and the kids all wanted to go home. We made our stop at Sweet Darlings for gelato and the kids didn’t even want to eat it outside, they just wanted to go to the apartment. So we watched Panic Room while we enjoyed our treats.

Their moment at the beach

Ready to explore the aquarium

I picked Chad up at 4:30 from work and then we met the kids at the Alaska SeaLife Center, which is across the street from our apartment. It’s an aquarium and wildlife rescue center where they care for sick and injured marine animals with the goal of releasing them back into the wild. We spent a few hours there and I can say, without question, that our kids were the most excited tourists there. Forget that we frequently see seals in the bay back home in Olympia, seeing them in man-made concrete enclosures just made those kids giddy. They named every animal from tiny snails to a stellar sea lion. Normal names like: Dust, Abram, Wrinkle, Retainer, Sucker, Concrete, and Hard. I really don’t want to go on and I’m sure you’d rather I didn’t either.

We are here *
*Apparently my dad doesn't know because
he left a voice mail asking if he could stop by for a visit.

Our first time seeing baleen up close
I was thrilled when Chad rubbed my face with the hairy part.

 When it was time for Woody the sea lion's snack, I stood next to the ladder the trainer was on. When she pulled the fish out of the bucket and threw it to Woody after he waved his flipper, fish slime dripped onto my head, splattered my neck, and slid down my arms. And being a person who needs to always smell stuff, I kept sniffing my arms for the next ten minutes and it was really unpleasant.

Woody about to catch a fish in his mouth
I caught the fish juice in my hair

Pretending it's her kitty back home

We walked home and Chad cooked the rock fish that Janeal from Sweet Darling’s gave him. Whether it was the freshness of the fish, or simply how it was cooked, I’m not sure, but it was exceptionally good. Tomorrow is supposed to be another gorgeous day and this time I’m putting my foot down about the TV. The rule will be: No TV whatsoever. Today was an exception because everyone was tired from yesterday’s hike, but tomorrow? Tomorrow we'll have an adventure. But I gotta go because The Flintstones is on.

Alaska Fact #6:

In 1991, Exxon, the Federal Government, and the State of Alaska settled out of court for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill that dumped over eleven million gallons of oil into the Prince William Sound. The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council oversaw the $900 million settlement. Two-thirds of the cost of the Alaska SeaLife Center ($37 million) came from these funds. 

I also thought this was interesting: Every 9 months more oil goes into U.S. marine waters via runoff from roads, parking lots and incidental land based spills than was spilled by the Exxon Valdez. Something to think about.

The Niemeyers