Into Alaska - Alaska and Points North: Tips and Tales from the Road - page 108

Seward
Today we traveled down the Kenai to Seward. This is the little town that was divided into
old Seward and new Seward by the 1964 tsunami. Old Seward is now an old-fashioned main
street lined with cafes and galleries.
The art is outstanding - sculptures carved out of whale bones, moose antlers and wood are
prevalent and beautiful. Over and over again I have been struck by the quality of the artwork
and the crafts in the north
Swept away by the 1964 tsunami, the old harbour has been replaced by the Alaska Sea Life
Centre. Inspired by the Valdez oil spill, this facility researches Alaska sea life and serves as
an interpretive centre. It's a nice combination of aquarium and natural history museum. One
of my favourite exhibits was a “sound lab” where you can press buttons to hear sounds like
glacial ice moving, a beluga whale, a humpback whale, a sea otter, and so on. Very cool.
Ilovedthebirdrefugewhichextendedoverseveralstories.Aglassviewingwindowcovered
the whole height, providing unprecedented views of these ocean diving birds at work and
play. You walk up and down a staircase to watch the birds. The docent mentioned that one
of the birds is capable of diving as deep as 600 feet. At the higher levels there were nesting
boxes tucked into the rookery with sneaky little webcams trained on the tiny chicks and par-
ent birds incubating their eggs.
A touch and feel exhibit encouraged us to use two fingers to gently stroke the surface of a
star fish, a sea slug, an anemone and such. There were Stellar sea lions and harbour seals
and salmon moving up the spawning channel. All of it fascinating.