Exploring Seward + Kenai Fjords National Park

We have been in Alaska for a month and a half and this campsite right on the lake has become one of our favorite spots. We had some time to kill before we wanted to make the drive down to Seward so we spent our days sitting by the water, kayaking, and catching up on some work. One of the best ways to spend the 4th of July in Alaska is to go to Seward because they have a festival, boat parade, and a firework show even though it doesn't completely get dark here. Wow, that's really good. It's nice and refreshing. There's a lot of like actual berries down in there. Almost like a bubble tea. A natural bubble tea? Yeah. Definitely a 4th of July meal. Yeah. Got some chips, pulled pork sandwich. That's very good. Softy. This is the wild berry sweet tea though it's what Madison got but it's the sweet tea. That's really good. All right, here we go. Oh yeah, that's really good. Yeah, I've never gotten a root beer float with a whole ice cream bar in there. Trying to get Madison to do the egg toss but she wouldn't do it with me. They should do like hard-boiled eggs but I'm not trying to. Oh, that would hurt. We found this spot over here by the water that's a free parking spot. Luckily we got here earlier because it's filling up. I knew that the campsites were going to be completely full because this was kind of a last minute thing for us but I checked and every campsite is full and there's a lot of spaces. There's a lot of people here. There's two cruise ships out there on the water. I'm sure they're gonna stay overnight and watch the fireworks too. They'll get a great view. We're just gonna wait till midnight and then, well actually we'll wait till 11 o'clock because they have a boat parade right in front of us so we'll probably walk to the shoreline. But yeah, the sun is just still hitting that cruise ship out there and it won't go down until like 11 something. They're starting the fireworks at 1201 July 4th because if they were to do it tomorrow it'll technically be July 5th when they started at midnight so that's why they're doing it July or they're they're having the festival July 3rd but they're starting the fireworks July 4th at 1201 in the morning. Yeah, we're gonna eat some ravioli and wait till 11 o'clock. We can stay awake. Might have to make some coffee. After we ate dinner in the RV we went down to the shore in the RV park to watch the boat parade. It was so cool to see all the people out celebrating, the boats decorated, people kayaking, and the cruise ship light up in the background. And it's a whole vibe here. There's a ton of people on the shore. Boats going by honking their horns and campfires burning. The light is all moody. We're all just waiting for the fireworks now. Since it doesn't get as dark here as we're used to in the lower 48, they don't start the fireworks show until nearly midnight which is definitely past our bedtime but was worth staying up late for. Oh wow, that's a big one. That was pretty fun. That was a lot of fun. All right, let's go back to the RV. Get in there. Hi buddy. I read online that it's bumper to bumper traffic once the fireworks end and by bumper to bumper it's probably nothing in comparison to what we've experienced in like Nashville after the fireworks. But it did get like filled up so quickly. Like we ran out here there was no traffic and then it was just like bam. Yeah, I mean look people are all over there. It's already, yeah. I mean for a small town in Alaska this is bumping. Yeah. There's a lot of people here at this uh basically just a gigantic parking lot next to the river bottoms but it kind of sounds like people are like high on trims or something like that. Ollie has decided to finally eat. It's one o'clock in the morning and uh it's time for bed. His poop schedule is gonna be off. It is gonna be off. Gotta get the slide out real quick. We're gonna call it a day. It has been a long day. So we're gonna get some sleep and probably sleep in tomorrow. Happy fourth of July. Good morning. Well yesterday we went on a super long crazy hard hike. Probably the hardest hike arguably that we've ever done. It's called the Harding Ice Field and it was about 8.6 miles. Rated hard on all trails and we actually went with one of Tyler's friends who he hadn't seen in 12 years. We made it to the top. Mount Everest. Who happens to be a tour guide here in Alaska for the summer. So we planned a hike and probably wouldn't have done it without him honestly. But we are so beat. We are so sore. We both had like extreme muscle cramps last night. It was it was a rough night for both of us. But we popped some ibuprofen and we're on our way to a bucket list experience today. We're going to go on a boat tour through the Kenai Fjords National Park and the weather is a little bit rainy but fingers crossed we'll still be able to see some wildlife. There's like killer whales, humpback whales, gray whales, puffins, seals. That's what you should expect but I guess we'll see what we see. Had to fight parking but uh we are finally here and getting on the boat. The boarding process was very easy. We just told them our names and they gave us our assigned table. Luckily we had a window seat but there's really not a bad seat on the boat and you can walk outside anytime you want. Included in your ticket is a deli lunch which they serve not long after we took off from the harbor. We chose the six-hour Kenai Fjords cruise to be sure we had ample time to see wildlife and they take you to see an active tide water glacier. The coastline of Resurrection Bay is absolutely stunning and kind of reminded us of the moody Oregon coast. Everything was so lush and green. The first stop was Spire Cove. It's such a photogenic place and was once voted by National Geographic to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. Next we went to see a tidewater glacier in Aliak Bay. This national park roughly spans 600,000 acres and about 51 percent of this is covered by ice which is why boat tours like this is one of the best ways to explore this national park. But a major highlight of this cruise was how much wildlife we saw from dolphins to sea lions, puffins, and whales. It was such an incredible experience and highly recommend booking with major marine tours if you come out to Seward, Alaska. That was such an incredible experience. I'm so thankful we had the opportunity to go and do it. We saw all kinds of wildlife and we got fed. We got an incredible brownie. Yeah that was a lot of fun. So glad we got to do that. The next day we decided to go and do a bunch of chores that have been piling up. First we went to the grocery store at the local Safeway. Since Seward is far down the Kenai Peninsula, the prices are definitely higher than a Walmart in Anchorage. $290. Four bags. One, two, three, four full bags and then this bag just has the eggs. Next we went to the dump station and thankfully it was free which is a huge bonus so I guess that makes up for the high grocery prices. After we filled up our water tank and threw away our trash, we went to do laundry. Laundry is definitely not our favorite thing to do since it takes the longest. Once we were finally finished, we drove back to our campsite so we can get ready to catch a plane and fly home to Tennessee for our nephew's birthday party. Madison was supposed to fly home yesterday. Out of Anchorage and there was of course something that went wrong. Some kind of nationwide IT outage thing that's affecting like thousands of businesses and airlines. So had to go pick her up last night or technically this morning at 2 a.m. and we've been here trying to figure things out so it doesn't look like she's gonna go. We'll see. Our plans made a little bit of a detour when there was the nationwide shutdown for 9-1-1, airplanes, banks. I'm sure you heard about it. Unfortunately, that was the day that I decided to fly home for my nephew's birthday and my flight was just so delayed that I was going to miss the birthday party. The tears are over but or at least for now. My family's gonna FaceTime me later on today so that way I can at least wash and blow out their candles. But we're going to stay positive and it's our anniversary weekend. I was actually going to miss it so now we get to actually stay at a cabin this weekend. We're gonna drive down to Seward and just have a little romantic getaway but first we have to do a little bit of chores. We're gonna go to Walmart, get a couple of groceries, maybe some wine to be able to celebrate this weekend and Tyler's gonna get a much-needed haircut. That's the plan. It's not that bad. No, you're always handsome but you need a haircut. But yeah, that's the plan so it's gonna be a great weekend. All right, let's go. You know, I always forget. I always forget about Cabela's but it's like definitely better than Walmart because you don't have the noise and the people and like there's like 40 or 50 campers in this parking lot so we're all just kind of here. And this is literally just one portion. There's literally a whole other section on the back side of Cabela's with so many campers. And it kind of makes you feel safer than Walmart too. The only drawback is that if you need something you can't really go inside and get groceries but if you need a gun or a fishing pole or something go for it. Paddleboard. Paddleboard, kayak, yeah. Well, we were on our way and we just got south of Anchorage. Not even five miles. And just came to a stop and we were sitting there in traffic and probably five fire trucks went by and there's a cop over here just turning people around. So they have this road out of Anchorage completely shut down and nobody's getting out. They're turning people around. So we pulled over to this little pull-off here and we're just gonna wait it out and see what, I don't know, see what happens. Hopefully the whatever's going on is not too bad but I don't know. I think it's pretty bad whatever it is. We decided to put the slide out. Might as well make ourselves comfortable. We're just gonna make some lunch while we wait for traffic to clear up. So we got mac and cheese going on the stove. Ollie's over here chilling. We moved back onto the road a couple hours ago but we've been sitting here since noon and it is now 5 30. But seems like there's some movement. They're getting some people over here. Oh, they're moving. So once they go, I think we go. From what we were told, it was a drunk driver and that's pretty unfortunate. Head-on collision, I think. Yeah, we're gonna move and we're headed to Seward finally. Met this really nice couple right in front of us and then met their whole family and got to talking to them for a while. Kind of passed the time so that was nice. We're ready to go. We finally made it to Seward. Going down this little gravel road down to a place called Lowell Point. I am ready to be done. I am so excited. I am ready y'all. The chocolate bar. Chocolate bar? What is that? Hot sauce. Hot sauce. Alright. Nice. Got us a bathroom. Same size shower as the one in the RV but that's okay. This will be a great place to hang out too. That is going to be our dinner for the night. I'm gonna put the camera away because I'm tired. I was gonna film the whole breakfast thing and you know with the cabin but I'm just gonna eat. Today is our anniversary and it is a beautiful day here in Seward. Could not have asked for better weather. I mean it's sunny. I know. I mean it's incredible. It looks so good out today. It's been so cloudy for weeks and we have the best weather today. Yeah it's nice and warm. We're out here grilling, making some lunch. Of course we're filming a little bit so we can stay here but we're just gonna hang out here all day and enjoy this beautiful weather and this great view. Play some games later. Just relax. Take it easy. Happy anniversary. A little bit of work we had to do but we got it done and we're gonna sit here now and enjoy the rest of our evening with some mac and cheese. Of course our favorite. And then watching the Vampire Diaries season... What are we on? Season 7 episode 19. Yeah that concludes our day. Wedding anniversary number six.