July 21, 2009

It is raining hard today so we are glad we planned to visit the Alaska SeaLife Center. This is a research and rescue facility for marine life. They have many very large tanks displaying the various marine life in Alaska. We saw Steller sea lions, harbor seals, a rescued sea otter along with all kinds of fish and birds. We took a marine mammal encounter tour where we went into the research/rescue area. Our guide told us about the rescue and research work being done. We were able to see 3 harbor seals and 1 Steller sea lion close up with a trainer. He showed us how they train the seals and sea lions so they can handle them and do medical exams and treatments safely. We were allowed to feed Addie, a timid female harbor seal they are trying to get accustomed to humans. This is a great facility and we enjoyed seeing and learning about all the marine life in Alaska.

We visited the Seward Museum, a very nice small museum that has a lot of displays about Seward history. They have a pictorial display on the damage to Seward by the 1964 earthquake and tsunamis. It continued to rain all day, we haven’t seen the sun for 3 days but we know it is good for the fires.

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