Seward Kayak Trip July 2010

This is a trip that was on my list of things to do this summer. I have been wanting to try sea-kayaking for a long time. I have kayaked a few times on a lake, but I heard it was much better on the ocean. I got the "GO" for the week in Bethel for Aug 5-11, therefore this will be last weekend off for about 3 weeks. I wanted to do something fun and of course spend time with my guy. We got the trip all booked and planned. His roommates would be joining us for the trip too! This summers' weather has been, shall we say.... less than a perfect Alaskan Summer. The rain just won't stop.
However, I told Alfred that I didn't care and wanted to camp anyways!! I also was looking forward to some hiking..even in the rain! We got everything all packed up Friday afternoon and headed out of town. We had to stop by REI and pick up an aerobed. The twin areobeds were not cutting it anymore :). We got what we needed and zoomed down to Seward. We arrived just in time to grab a campsite with a gorgeous view. It was a lovely evening with NO RAIN!!

We picked that awesome Italian place for dinner. Alfred had lasagna and I had eggplant Parmesan, it was fantastic. After dinner we grabbed some firewood to have our first campfire of the summer. All the camping we have done has been in the rain with no chance to have a decent fire! We made some smores and watched the huge cruise ship pull out of Seward. It was a very nice evening alone with him. Sometimes I feel like he is all I need. He can be quiet sometimes, but that's ok because I talk too much..lol. It was the perfect night...we had fun taking pictures of ourselves by the water.


Saturday morning we slept in pretty late. His roommates arrived around 930am and we headed to breakfast. The plan for the day was to do some hiking around Exit Glacier. It was looking pretty cloudy, so we geared up for rain. We started the hike and I was feeling really good for the first hour!!

It was a pretty decent hike not super steep, but I was starting to wonder how long it was going to be? We were all sweating through our layers and the rain was starting to come down pretty good. It was such a beautiful hike, but I was starting to freeze and get sore after about 2 1/2 hours. We finally reached the 2.8 mile mark and I decided it was time to go back. There was a bit more hiking up to the Harding Ice Field, but I just wasn't up for any more. His roommates decided to keep going and we headed back down. The view of the glacier was beautiful and I wished I had the energy to keep going. We dried out nicely on the way back down and heard there was a black bear with cubs somewhere on the trail. Somehow we missed the bear, but saw some poop!! I felt pretty accomplished after the hike, it was my longest one yet. It felt so great to get a shower and into warm/dry clothes when we were done!!


That evening we went played a little pool and went to bed early. I know that hike wore me out pretty good and we had an early date with the sea the next morning. Oh I almost forgot about the LEAK! Our new tent...holes right through the top!! We were laying in bed getting dripped on...unbelievable...it has been such a great tent and kept us sooo dry!! We would have to investigate this situation and fix IMMEDIATLY!! Good thing REI's return policy is awesome!! Alfred rigged up a lovely drainage system with a baggie and off to sleep we went. First nights sleep....awesome...second night...well, not so awesome. It was like everything that can go wrong camping..did. We woke up in the middle of the night flat on the ground...NOOO not the new bed too!! Geez REI was going to get some serious returns when we get home. We actually thought something was a little faulty with the bad anyways, so back it goes.


Today was the day of our kayak trip! We heard rain all evening and woke up to a pretty steady flow of rain as well. I did not let it bother me. I put on lots of warm layers. Our boat was leaving at 9am for Fox Island. We got our coffee fix (oh and a very naughty pastry....our eating habits were not in control this weekend at all..btw...I will address that later tho) and were ready to get started. The boat dropped us off around 10 am on the island. It was beautiful!! I hope we can go back and stay there sometime. We met our guides and I was thrilled to see they had all kinds of rain gear for us to use!! We all took advantage and put on everything they had to offer!


We got a quick lesson then out into the ocean we went. I enjoyed it so much. I was hoping to kayak next to a whale, however, that didn't happen. We did not get completely skunked on wildlife viewing...there was a puffin nearby at one point. Just 1 puffin...yep that's about it. We were in tandem kayaks, Alfred was steering in the back. We did a pretty good job except he had to ask me to even out the pace a few times. I would get little bursts of energy and paddle like crazy. We have a good connection, but reading my mind is not one of them...quite yet :). I'm glad he spoke up and asked me to steady my pace. I was having so much fun that I kind of forgot he had to follow what I was doing...lol! After about 3 hours of fun in the rain it was time to head back.

They fed us an awesome salmon lunch! We had to grab another boat to get back to the harbor. We both fell asleep for most of the ride back. I learned that being active in the freezing rain can make you pretty sleepy. We got off the boat and headed back to camp. We must've set a record for the quickest tent take down ever! I think putting all the gear away and tent down took us about 7 minutes. We make a pretty awesome team! On the way home I wanted to stop at Double Musky for dinner. We got really lucky because it wasn't super crowded. Alfred had never been there before. We ordered a bunch of appetizers to share and boy was it amazing. I felt pretty guilty about the entire eating habits of the weekend and this ending did not help lessen the guilt. We usually make pretty healthy choices, but it's Double Musky and they have Jalapeno Rolls....I know it shouldn't be an excuse. I would like to try and make some better choices in the next few weeks. All the working out won't help if we eat bad. However, it was like a little mini vacation and we enjoyed it so much. After all this rain I will be looking forward to our Hawaii trip in a few weeks. I have to get through the long 3 weeks ahead first.

The rest of my week off was good. Got tons of chores done and spent lots of time with Alfred. I won't see him much for the next 2 weeks, so I went a little overboard this week with spending time with him. Well it's wonderful for me, I just hope he doesn't think it's too much! I just adore him and his company...can't get enough ;)