SEWARD

June 22~Friday~cloudy/sprinkles.
Lights on the ladder out early for Stan's coffee so he can leave by 5:30am for fishing. Blooie and I wait until 7:15 for the boat to go by, then almost miss Stan waving his arms off at 7:30. We break camp and go to city beach campground (dry camping on the beach-front for $12 OR $25 for water/electric with restroom and showers 50 feet away...nice ones, too!), set up and Blooie and I walk down to the docks to register for our evening dinner buffet cruise around the bay with Major Marine Tours. Also, bought another $25 jacket for Tasha and checked out the Kenai National Park Visitor Center. Met Steve's wife and family, eating with them downtown, then picking up Jack and going to the Sealife Center (started after the Valdez spill to manage the endangered marine wildlife~very interesting), trying to take pictures of the marine birds/mammals that are swimming/floating in the water. By the time we left Stan/Steve and the boat were back at the fish house with 25 black bass and 5 red snapper...all very good eating.
The four hour ~around the bay ~cruise on the Star of the Northwest was so very relaxing, even tho we couldn't see much due to fog and low clouds, but the meal was excellent (prime rib, grilled Copper River salmon, salad, rice pilaf, sourdough bread and dessert~$15~all you can eat buffet)and the company wonderful...'our last hurrah' before Stan and Blooie leave on Sunday. We did see GU-11's, puffins, sea lions, the tail fo a whale (breeching, when the tail flips up, usually means they are about to go deep into the water), sea otters and learned a bit about the geology of the fjords.