To Seward and the seaAug 12, 2008
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Bluegrass musicians jam in the middle of the bar while waiting for...
Young fiddler performs a tune
Jamie, our friendly hardworking bartender/host always took very good care of us...
Our last night in Hope, we went again to the little Seaview bar to enjoy more live music. Three nights in a row, and three different genres of music. This night it would be a mix of country/blue grass. The band was delayed in arriving, so some blue grass musicians in the crowd decided to jam right in the middle of the bar. A young girl, don’t know if she is a local or a camper, joined them on the fiddle. We missed a lot of it, but managed to hear their last tune, followed by a quick ditty by the young fiddler alone. And as always, Jamie, our smiling bartender/host took good care of us.
Sunday, Fred dragged me kicking and screaming from my new favorite Alaska town, Hope. Well, ok, maybe not kicking and screaming, but whimpering and reluctantly, and we are now in Seward. I don’t love it yet, but like an arranged marriage, I’m sure I will grow to love it. Because I have to tell you, I am a slut for Alaska. There are not many places in Alaska that I haven’t loved.
A lot of times when we tell people we are fulltimers, and have been traveling for two and a half years, one of the first questions they ask is “what has been your favorite place?” We usually hem and haw because we’ve visited a lot of places we really liked, and picking one favorite is hard. But from now on I will have no trouble giving an answer. It is Alaska! What part? ALL of it.
One of the conversations that Fred and I have from time to time is “what do we do upon death: burial or cremation.” Before you think this is a morbid conversation, bear with me. Fred has always said he wants to be cremated, so if he goes first, I will be carrying him around with the rest of the dead people. (New readers, see our June 25th blog.)
I used to think that when I died, I wanted to be buried with the rest of my family in a cemetery in Milwaukee. But I think I’ve changed my mind. Cremate me and spread my ashes in all my favorite places in Alaska. If Fred wants to keep a little bit to carry around with the dead people, that’s ok, as long as the rest of me gets to spend the rest of eternity in the water, air and land of this wonderful place.
We haven’t done too much exploring in Seward yet, just wandering around the small boat harbor, and checking out a few gift shops downtown. Mostly we are just resting and relaxing in our quiet, beautiful campground, Stoney Creek RV Park. The sites are large, and we have a nice one backed up to the tall trees and bordering the creek. It’s five miles outside of town, so we have to get in the truck and drive whenever we want to do something. That in itself results in less activity for us.
Besides, we are storing up energy in anticipation of our visitors, daughter Faith and granddaughter Isabella who arrive on Friday. We’re in Seward so we can take one of the Kenai Fjords cruise tours, and introduce Isabella to some of the mammals and birds of this great state at the Sea Life Center. We’ll spend 3 days here, 3 days in Homer on the Spit, and finish up with 2 days drycamping in the U.S. Forest Service campground, Williwaw, near Portage.
It will be a whirlwind eight days of Alaska fun so we’re resting up now.