Alaska #6 - Seward
Our waitress, Amethyst at 49th State Brewing, from our first night in Anchorage, really steered us in a great direction with her Seward recommendations. She pointed us towards this smoked fish shack, which we wouldn’t have stopped at otherwise. Her recommendation: the smoked black cod. The guy working there was named Buck, a 78-year-old from North Carolina who moved to Seward over 40 years ago and has watched the town change and develop.
Because we were here in the off-season, we were the only ones in the building besides Buck. We asked to try the smoked cod. His response, “well, why don’t I just give you a bit of everything?” He talked us through the smoking process and their different dips and spreads that they make with the smoked fish. This stuff was delicious, and Buck was a cool guy to talk to. We actually made a second stop to buy more food from here, and ran into him at a local bar later in the day.
Saltwood Smokehouse is a must visit, or if you’re not making a trip to AK anytime soon, they ship online orders!
Another recommendation from Amethyst (and everyone else we talked to in Seward) was the Alaska Sea Life Center. Common refrain on this trip: this was great.
My favorite part of the sea life center was the aviary with puffins, ducks, and gulls. These birds are spazzy and just zip around the water racing each other.
In addition to birds, we saw two seals and a few sea lions. Watching the sea lions move around is kinda funny because they just slip and slide everywhere. No arms or legs, but their flippers do the trick.
After the sea life center, we had some phenomenal Filipino food at this random food truck. Better than the Filipino food scene in Boston!
And we ended the night with a small hike around Bear Lake (no bears were seen) until we hit an area that was impassible with snow and ice. The reflections in the water made an amazing backdrop for portraits.
One more day of the trip…
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