my friend tanya joined me on a little trek to seward. on occasion i play hookey and take the dogs to the beach there. lowell point is a beautiful beach, not muddy! it's a 2 hour drive to seward from anchorage, but you should have seen how excited blossom was when we arrived and she recognized the beach she was at. after beaching it for a bit, tanya and i went to the sea life center to enjoy the animals. this rather large sea lion was getting a bit of a snack.
seward is a lovely community. the tourists are coming soon, but for today it was mostly locals, several from anchorage from what we were hearing. turned out to be a beautiful day out there! the drive, as always, was spectacular!
one of my favorite exhibits at the sea life center is this bird one. lots of alcids, like these puffins. above are both tufted and horned puffins. have seen them often in the wild up here and will see loads of them on round island no doubt, but this exhibit is great because you can go below and watch thier underwater activities. they fly underwater...it's quite impressive.
i have once again taken way too many pictures and posted them, but it's too hard not to share them. 
if you want to skip my words just click on one picture and go through the pictures. one update on blogger that is helpful is the ability to just see the photo's bigger and grander. 
guillimots, i believe. the alcids only come to shore for breeding. otherwise they are quite happy at sea.
handsome buggers.
not sure what this guy is but he/she sure looked content in the sunshine!
not sure what this guy is either. not sure where they get thier collection from entirely,but i believe many are rescued or injured animals. it's a great center for thier rehab and education.
random picture of blossom. she was enjoying the fresh sheets last night. always tough to make the bed with a dog on it. believe she is on the mend. seemed quite perky today when we hit that beach anyway. no bouts of loose stools on the trip so there is hope. i really don't want my girl to feel bad so i do hope recovery is coming.
the drive down to seward is always scenic. no big tour buses today which was nice. don't mind sharing this state with those who wish to visit, but it is nice on occasion to just enjoy a day tourist free. of course, since i'm from anchorage, i would officially be a tourist to seward i guess. 
it's a popular pick up/drop off location for cruise ships. people take the train between seward and anchorage and do thier land/sea treks of alaska.
haven't actually rode that train, but i hear it is a beautiful trek. i may have to climb on board one of these days.
below are a few shots from tern lake. thought we'd stop by and see if there were any swans. we didn't see any. we did see one on the drive back and those sandhills were still chilling in the potters marsh.
otherwise, we saw several bald eagles.
tanya was happy to play hookie from her various errands and obligations and escape with me. it was a fun day! 
me at the tern lake.
great reflections out there.
rail tressel near seward.
the beach!! if anyone wants to donate a large sum of cash i'd love to have a weekend getaway home on this beach. :-)
of course, i suspect this beach and the homes on it would fare poorly if there is another tsunami here. the rv parks are located in the area that was trashed by the previous tsunami in '64. there are signs all over town directing you to higher grounds and i believe a loud sound system to encourage you to move in that direction.
blossom ran her little doodle tushie off out there. chased her tennis ball, swam, rolled in the leftover snow...she looked pretty happy!
rio joined us today as well and she was quite good in the car and i think she remembers this beach as well. she happily sniffed her way around the beach. 
blossom swims
and the "shaka-shaka". she occasionally shakes on command, or she was going to shake anyway when i give this "command". this is blossom mid-shake. she is such an adorable dog!! 
liked this weather vane...is that what you call it?
here is my happy little dream cabin on the beach. isn't it adorable? 
here is the rear view of the place. 
this cool mural is across the street from the sealife center. 
more sealife center pictures. 
several tanks, some are set up for touching. these are sea anenomies.
pink. 
we were trying to remember both names of the salmon last summer...here is it if i ever forget.
another anenomie and a sea urchin below. pink spines again!
sea anenomie and a nudibranch. have seen a few of these in my tidepooling days out in ketchikan. a rare treat really. 
not sure what this guy is, some sort of brittle star of some sort. 
you'll have to bear with my underwater shots. better live than on here, but still fun trying. many pictures were deleted. these were the best of the lot. the sun was shining through the various tanks which was really cool. 
harbor seals.
these fish look sorta angry and almost not real. they were real. this is the same tank that the alcids were in so we were watching for the birds to swim/fly underwater. always a favorite tank.
a puffin flies past. they fly very fast and they also swim fast. hard to capture puffins unless you get lucky and they are sitting still.
i believe this one is a swimming guillimot. 
this fish/eel thing was pretty ugly, didn't move for awhile, but then took off for a swim. it's alive.
more swimming birds.
as they swim they seem to expell all this air to propel them. this pool is great as you just never get to see this part of an alcid life no matter how many times you see them in the wild. 
of course, i always linger at the jellies. they are so funky and cool. 
love how they move. crazy creatures. 
we shopped at the little store for some goodies and then headed to rays for dinner. it's on the main dock. 
here is the food that nearly killed me. it was no fault of the establishment. one of those potatoe skins in the mashed taters got itself caught in my throat. it was both embarrassing and frightening. i have some reactive airway issues and my airway just shut down. tanya stayed calm and occasionally i was able to suck back a bit of air through my tiny straw airway. she said i never changed colour and seemed to be getting some air in, so she let me keep coughing. eventually, it must have moved. now i'm just hoping it hasn't lodged itself in there and will cause more damage. that is life as a nurse, expecting the worse. i took a few hits of my inhaler as my chest still felt tight 2 hours later after i got home. don't feel very good right now either. i think the restaurant staff were getting ready to perform the hiemlick on me. totally spelled that wrong. anyway, it was ugly. i believe i'm okay though, like i said, i don't feel totally right yet. 
the surf part of the meal never seemed to be cooked so i returned it a few times and then after i choked, they just gave me a discounted meal. they were super nice about it. the rest tasted great before i had my choking episode. may need a few more hits of albuteral before i try to go to bed. 
a few pictures from the drive back. 
driving is exhausting. i have many errands and chores i should do...i am lazy when the sun shines and lazy when it's raining. still a happy lazy person though. 
probably was a lovely sunset. it's taking longer and longer for days to end. 
this was my happy purchase from the day. better than fuzzy dice, everyone needs a jelly fish hanging from thier rear view mirror
i'm loving my new jelly!! peace, love and jellies!! can't go wrong there!! they have that on a shirt there. bought a shirt last time i was there. believe i will take a few tylenol, a few hits on my albuterol and head to bed. hopefully this body feels better in the morning. good night.
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