Camping Trip in Seward

A friend of mine gave me a great summer tip (thanks Mollie!) ... the Sea Life Center in Seward is celebrating its 10 year anniversary by granting free admission on the 10th of every month this year. We invited our friends, the Quiner family, to join us. They had the brilliant idea of turning it into an overnight camping trip! What would we do without our friends??

We planned our menus, did some shopping, packed up our cars and off we went! I was so glad when the Quiners suggested that we stop at Quartz Creek to have our lunch. I keep hearing about this place from several different people, and now I finally got to experience it for myself. The part we went to is a beautiful little day use area with a picnic table just yards away from a gorgeous lake. We ate our lunch and then went straight to the water to throw rocks, play and take pictures. Jacob was trying to teach me to skip rocks (I was the only adult that couldn't do it!). I was starting to get just a tad frustrated, when Jacob suggested that I try it with my left hand. Yes, I am left-handed, but aside from writing, I do everything with my right hand. Lo and behold, the first rock I threw with my left hand skipped two times!!!

The kids had fun, too. Ziya even got to play in the rocks, which she loved (and which I loved too, I might add... rocks are so much better than sand!). We did our best to keep everybody dry, reminding them that we had limited clothing with us! This was a great start to our camping trip.

 

We couldn't check into our campsite until later in the day, so we drove straight to Exit Glacier for a short hike. The Quiners have five children and we have three. We made quite a hiking party! I've been to Exit Glacier twice before, but the beauty and sheer size of the glacier plus the wonderful scenery all around was still awe-inspiring for me. I learned that there are signs along the road and the trail that mark how far the glacier has receded. This made me kind of sad.

We stopped to see why groups of people were gazing into the mountainside. Using Angeline's super powerful camera lens, we were able to see... a tiny brown blob! It was moving and it had two tinier blobs with it... a bear with two cubs! Jacob refused to even look in that direction. He claims that he won't get excited until the bears are within 30 feet of him. I, on the other hand, did get just a little bit excited!

 

 

 

We finally made it to our campsite, Miller's Landing, just about 2.5 miles outside of Seward. We all got just a bit nervous when we pulled up to the check-in building and saw what basically looked like an old run-down beach town. Thankfully, we were directed into the woods to two campsites snuggled in between gorgeous trees with enormous root systems above the ground. The kids immediately found a favorite tree to climb where their vivid imaginations gave birth to some pretty interesting adventures (this turned out to be the pasttime of choice for the rest of the night and next morning). Angeline wowed us all with her ability to set up a large tent single-handedly, start a fire and get dinner going all in less than an hour... can I say SUPER WOMAN? The rest of us were a bit slower, but we eventually did get our camp all set up.
The kids had a five course meal... hot dogs for starters, then bean burritos, then smores... and when the "adult" hobo dinners were ready (ymmmmm!), they took bites out of those, too! Thanks to Jacob for using his boy scout camping expertise in giving us directions for making the hobo dinners - they were really good! Angeline and Matt also made an amazing half apple, half peach cobbler (the fifth course). We all dined like kings and then had to recover from it all by sitting around the campfire!
Ziya went down for the night fairly early, but by the time we were able to tame the boys enough to lead them in the direction of the tent, she was awake again! My vision of the adults staying up late chatting around the campfire went up in the flames! We had quite a frustrating time getting her back to sleep... I eventually dozed off and never made it back out to the fire.
We woke to the sounds of a million crows cawing. Breakfast was another feast (I love camp food!). We had pancakes, eggs, bacon and hot chocolate. Ymmmm. We packed up our camp, took some group pictures and were on our way once again. I think the consensus was that our next campiing trip needs to be longer - it's a lot of work to set up camp for just one night!



I am a snob when it comes to aquariums. When we lived in California, we had passes to the amazing Long Beach Aquarium, where the boys and I used to spend countless hours wandering, touching, learning, etc. I was leery about trying out another aquarium and hoping that I wouldn't be too disappointed. My snobbery was relieved to find that we all loved the Seward Sea Life Center! My kids still weren't patient enough to stop and read and actually try to learn much, but they ran from exhibit to exhibit in great excitement.
My favorite stop was a bench in front of an enormous stellar sea lion. The kids hugged the glass for at least half an hour as they watched the giant swim past them time and time again.
I did take some time to read about different types of salmon, and feel a tiny bit more prepared for a summer of fishing!
We enjoyed a picnic on the lawn and then headed to town for Seward's famous ice cream, the Harbor Street Creamery... ymmmm! What a delicious way to end our trip!