Seward is a stop for cruise ships and while out early Saturday morning we managed to capture a nice photo of one of the ships sailing in. The cruise ships often move in and out of ports during the night while the passengers are sleeping. We awoke one morning to find one had appeared overnight. This one was in front of our motorhome at 5:00 AM.

Cruise ships arrives at 5 AM

Downtown Seward

On our last full day in Seward we visited the Alaska Sea Life Center and drove out to Bear Creek to view some salmon moving upstream. We saw Puffin out in the wild during our boat tour but at the Sea Life Center we were able to view them up close in the water and see how adapted they are underwater.

Puffin in the water

Video of Puffin underwater

We also saw a King Eider duck at the center. This duck is only found in the Arctic regions and we had to ask what it was.

King Eider Duck

After our visit to the Sea Life Center we walked downtown for lunch and then headed out to Bear Creek to find the salmon. Here are two short videos on the salmon we saw. The first video shows a small group of salmon about to go under the bridge over Bear Creek and the second video shows a single salmon jumping the weir dam on the other side of the bridge.

Video of salmon moving upsteam

Video of salmon jumping weir dam

On Monday we traveled back through Anchorage and caught the Glenn Highway in Wasilla for our journey to Valdez.  We stayed the night at a campground at Glacier View meeting back up with our friends.