Seward is a rather more grown up place, it even has a rail link to Anchorage which is the largest city in Alaska but not the state capital, which is Juneau. It counts as our first stop on the Alaskan mainland.
One benefit of being on the mainland is that transport today is by a standard coach, not a school bus. Like the other ports we have visited there is a heavy dependence on the fishing industry to underpin local activity.
Our trip today actually has two highlights. Initially we head into the countryside to see the Exit Glacier. Compared with our experience of the Athabasca Glacier (in Canada) this one is slightly underwhelming. What is dispiriting is that much of the drive to the viewpoint is alongside the grey ground which the retreating glacier leaves behind as it retreats / shrinks having ground the rocks over the thousands of years the glacier was slowly flowing over the land. On the way we pass the “Salmon Bake” bar; apparently the local moose can gather and prevent potential customers leaving their cars (or the bar to get to their cars which I suspect is engineered by the bar owner)!
At the other end of Seward is a Sea Life centre (probably center) which has a wide range of local fish and sea birds, one of the latter seems to be particularly keen on being caught by camera. We use the local bus to return to the ship.