Seward

As I'm seriously thinking about moving back to the Lower-48 at the end of this year, I thought I'd make a list of things I'll miss about Alaska if I do leave:

While March 27th marks the date of the 1964 Alaska earthquake, today, March 28th, is being celebrated as Seward's Day in Alaska, the day the area now known as Alaska was purchased by the United States. (Technically Alaska was purchased by the U.S. on March 30, 1867, from Russia, but I assume it's celebrated on a Monday to make things easier for everyone, not to mention the whole three-day weekend thing.)

Sigh, I woke up this morning to read that the Northern Lights -- the Aurora Borealis -- were very clearly visible from Fairbanks in the north to Juneau in the south, including all points in between, including Palmer, Alaska, where I was sleeping.

I've signed up twice to receive Northern Lights alerts (using two different email addresses), but for some reason I'm not receiving them. But this one is also my fault, as I left the earphones in my phone last night, and while a friend and former neighbor tried to call me from Wasilla, I never heard it ring.

I've been meaning to write for the last few weeks that the gasoline here smells very different in the winter, specifically when I'm first warming up my car. At first I thought there might be something wrong with my car, but I've noticed that my neighbor's cars produce this same "winter gasoline" smell -- it smells like the glue or "dope" my dad used to use when making model airplanes -- so I decided to research it a little bit.

The Seward, Alaska scenic drive: As I mentioned in an earlier post today, I just came back from a short vacation in beautiful Seward, Alaska. One of the things many Alaskans may take for granted is that the drive alone down to Seward is a beautiful vacation for tourists. Most of the drive is through a national forest, it's lined with mountains and bodies of water, and there isn't much traffic, especially this time of year.

Mmm-mm, I just returned from a short vacation to Seward, Alaska, and I just found my new favorite restaurant in Seward. I was turned on to the restaurant by several of the locals that I've chatted up during my last several vacations to Seward, and I'm here to tell you, they were right.

Moby Dick Hostel, Seward, Alaska: I don't have too much to report about it yet, but I took a couple of photos of the Moby Dick Hostel in Seward, Alaska, the last time I was in Seward. I haven't seen the inside of the hostel yet, but I plan to stay there the next time I'm in Seward.

Here's the first photo of the hostel. (Click the image to see a much larger version. You can press [Esc] to close that larger image.)

Alaska's Marmot Day: In the Lower-48, February 2nd is "Groundhog Day", but in Alaska, thanks to the former governor and another Republican from Wasilla, Alaska, February 2nd is Marmot Day. This day was just put into effect last year (2010), and at this point it essentially doesn't mean anything.

It seems that Alaska doesn't have many (any?) groundhogs, so in an effort to have a day that is a little more meaningful here, this day in Alaska is "Marmot Day", apparently because we have a lot of marmots.

I don't mean to make light of recent deaths in Alaska in any way, but people in Alaska have died in a variety of different ways lately. The recent deaths include:

My Alaska Bridge to Somewhere project: While nobody has asked me what bridge I'd like to build in Alaska, my first choice is -- and has always been -- a bridge to make it much faster to get from Anchorage to the Kenai Peninsula. The current long drive around the Turnagain Arm is certainly nice for first-time tourists -- especially if you don't mind getting in a caravan behind a slow-moving RV until your head explodes. But after you've been down that road once, what you really want to do 98% of the time is just get to the Kenai Peninsula.