Our day on the Alaska R.R.

Our day started at 4:45 am for our trip on the Alaska Railroad to Seward. But, since the sun comes up at 4:30, we had plenty of daylight for our drive to the train depot in Anchorage.

This was easily some of the best scenery we've seen since we've been here. Our trip to Seward took us out of Anchorage, around Turnagain Arm, past the Chugach mountains, through the Kenai mountains, past Kenai lake, and eventually into Seward on Resurrection Bay. (Map of our route. Not the exact route of the railroad, that's the Seward Highway, but that's roughly our travels.)

The train starts out in Anchorage (elev. 38 ft), climbs just over 1,000 feet in the mountains, and then ends up back near sea level in Seward. It varies in speed based on climbing or not and for the scenery outside. It slowed for glaciers and other photo ops, but did about 40 to 45 mph while traveling next to the Turnagain Arm.

Seward itself isn't a huge destination, it's a pretty typical small coastal Alaska town. Except his one receives a number of cruise ship tourists and is home to the Alaska Sealife Center. We walked around the town and visited the Sealife Center, which is well worth the visit. The downer to Seward is that the train stops on one end of town, the Sealife center is on the other. Nana and Brendan decided to walk it, Alex, Wendy, and I decided to wait on the trolley to save Big Al's legs for later. We waited and waited and the trolley never showed...because it only runs on cruise ship visits. So, we got a cab, which took a while to arrive, but got us there for $5. The van was missing a few key parts, one of which was the muffler, but it got the job done.

The return trip on the train was just as much fun as the morning trip. We left Seward about 6PM and returned to Anchorage right around 10PM. Plenty of sunshine for photos on the way back, but it was a bit foggy up in the mountains. A couple of the glacier shots make it appear as if the glacier just appears out of the fog. A neat effect, but you miss the upper portion of the glacier.

All in all a great day. The folks that operate the Alaska Railroad are some of the nicest people we've come across. Each car has their own tour guide, all of which were working for Alex by the time the trip was over. He and Brendan both ended up with AK RR "Security Officer" badges, other small pins, and temporary tattoos. I wouldn't hesitate to take any of the other AK RR trips on a later vacation. (The ONLY downer on the train...the food is expensive and almost mediocre. Everything else was excellent.)

The Alaska Railroad pictures have been uploaded to our album, and there are plenty of them to see.