Anchorage to Seward

Sunday, 22 August: Part I

Our only ERA flight experience before the one that brought us from Kodiak to Anchorage last night was one that was billed as “nostalgic flightseeing.” And nostalgic it was — from the DC-3 we flew, to the stewardess in her impeccable period uniform, to the refreshments served, to the June 1944 issue of Life magazine that was handed out … everything harkened back to the 1940s.

Blast from the Past

Last night’s experience was in a Dash 8-100, a more modern aircraft. ERA Flight 899 took off on time at 11:30p. The hour-long flight to Anchorage was uneventful and went by in the blink of an eye. By 00:45a, we were at the Alamo counter at Ted Stevens International to pick up our rental car; fifteen minutes later, we were checking in at the Courtyard by Marriott just down the street from the airport.

Room 342 — Courtyard by Marriott Anchorage Airport

After a good night’s rest, we were up at 8:00a. We had breakfast at the hotel and headed to the nearest grocery store to stock up on snacks and beverages for the week. By 11:00a, we were on the Seward Highway, heading to — you guessed it — Seward, some 126 miles (202 km) away.

Left: Google Map showing where we are on the Kenai peninsula in relation to Kodiak.
right: you can’t get lost driving to Seward; there’s just one road.

Seward Highway is one of the most scenic roads in the US; maybe even in the world. In 2001, we drove the 50-mile or so (~80 km) section that follows Turnagain Arm several times. The weather then was comfortably warm with blue skies and sunshine that enhanced the spectacular scenery. In fact, we made so many stops along the way on one occasion that it took us almost the entire day to drive that small section. Not so this time.

Scenes from Turnagain Arm — June 2001

Today, overcast and drizzle plagued us the entire length of the Seward Highway. Add to that the chill generated by the breeze and we had conditions that discouraged any dalliance along the way. Indeed, it was actually cold enough at one point that we shelved plans for a picnic lunch on the Kenai Peninsula and ate in the car instead.

One story has it that William Bligh (of the hms bounty fame), who was
captain cook’s sailing master, named this body of water turnagain arm
when the expedition party dispatched to see if there was an outlet to
the famed northwest passage returned with the news that there wasn’t
and they had to turn the ship around again.

The silver lining to our rather quick drive down from Anchorage was that we arrived in Seward at a more reasonable hour than we expected. First on the agenda was checking into the Seward Military Resort, located on the outskirts of town.

Conveniently located, the resort makes a good base of operations for us.

Staying here was a last minute decision as we didn’t know about the place until I chanced upon a mention of it in a blog. Military resorts tend to get booked up well in advance, so we didn’t have high hopes that there would be anything available when we called a mere three weeks before our arrival date. As luck would have it, they still had a few rooms available.

We’re in Room 303 in the Pony Cove building.

OK, so our accommodations may not be luxurious or charming. But the room is clean, spacious, and warm — which means that it meets the criteria we look for when we know we’re going to spend very little time in the room. The nook by the windows has a small table that serves nicely as “office space” to download and review photographs and write blog entries. For the price, I can live with the outdated furnishings.

The room may lack charm, but it’s sufficient for our needs.

Once settled into our room, we moved onto the next part of our agenda — getting to know the town.