In which Layla and Roz explore Alaska beyond the cruiseship

by Layla

On our last night on the cruise we were warned about the onset of the ‘cruise blues’ – withdrawal symptoms from being on such a beautiful yet also relaxing vacation. Lucky for us, our vacation wasn’t over! When we docked at Seward, Alaska, in torrential rain, we bade farewell to the boat and got a shuttle to a hotel that told us we were welcome to check in seven hours from now… We looked at each other, determined to somehow have a lovely day, even though all of our plans had relied on sunny hiking routes…

Instead we dashed in the rain to a very cool coffeeshop in an old church, and installed ourselves there for the morning with a ridiculously nerdy geography trivia game – which I’d like to note I won. We had quiches for lunch there, by which time the rain had eased a bit and we decided to go for a short walk in Two Lakes city park. One thing we’ve learned about Alaska is that city parks aren’t little manicured affairs like they are in other cities – before long we were deep in a forest, hiking rough, muddy trails and feeling rather hardcore. The hike ended at a waterfall, after which we walked back into town along a coastal walking trail that would have been scenic, had not the mist extended to within a metre of our eyes… But we did manage to spot a couple of sea otters frolicking and were very much pleased. We ensconced ourselves in a second lovely café, this one with lots of salted caramel chocolates, then in a fit of weather optimism, walked up to a kayak shop to book a kayak trip for the following day. That done, we finally checked in, had a truly outstanding dinner at a lovely wine bar called the Cookery, and finished the evening watching the film Castaway in our hotel room. Given the horrible weather, not a bad day!

We had a long lie the next day and then breakfast in the Sea Bean, a delicious little café near our hotel. And then wound our way to the kayak tour. Alas Google told us it was a 40 minute walk along the coast and I persuaded Roz of the merits of us stretching our legs rather than getting a taxi. I hadn’t accounted for the rain, the mud road with massive potholes, the cars zooming across said potholes and splashing us with mud, the entire lack of visibility, and the fact that the location was further away than Google thought. We were almost late, and had to eat the sandwiches we’d brought for lunch while marching along the road, but we got there in the nick of time. We greeted our guide, donned many waterproof items, and then gazed out at our kayak spot: Resurrection Bay. This is apparently a popular place to kayak because of its amazing scenery. On this day, scenery was zero percent visible. I could hardly see my own hand in front of me. It was some of the thickest mist I’ve ever seen in my life! Undaunted (i.e. we’d already paid for the trip), we got into a tandem kayak and started paddling along with our group. What a weird experience: wrapped up against the wet, and with almost no visibility, it was serene and mystical and Lord of the Rings-ish and surprisingly excellent. The fog cleared a tiny bit and we saw bald eagles in the trees nearest the water. Then a little brown head appeared: a harbour seal! Next came lots of fins: porpoises! We were charmed by this wildlife popping out of the mist to greet us.

After kayaking (and a glorious lift back to town by our fellow kayakers), we returned to Sea Bean for hot chocolate and to buy take away dinner for the evening. Then I found a quiet spot to have an interview with the Guardian, which was very cool. As soon as I hung up, Roz hustled me to a shuttle bus and a few minutes later, we were boarding the Alaska Railroad train to our next stop: Anchorage.

The mist had lifted so slightly that you wouldn’t have been impressed unless you’d experienced the morning’s whiteout… which was particularly annoying as the train was a special scenic route. We could just about make out the soaring glaciers and numerous beautiful lakes as we would through some national parks that were clearly, in better conditions, truly spectacular.  And even in the conditions we had, the views were pretty amazing.  And the excitement of the onboard tourguides was hilarious (“look, look it’s a moose, it’s a moose on the left hand side, don’t miss the moose”)! The train took more than four hours, and we munched our take away dinners from the Sea Bean and supplemented it with beer from the train. Since it gets dark so late here, it was surprising to find that despite the coast and mud flats being clearly visible, it was 10:15pm and we were in the biggest city in Alaska!

We took a cab to our AirBnB apartment, which turned out to be a little out of town, but very comfortable, and impressed by how the television magically had Netflix on it (ah we are so easily impressed), we watched a little Friends, drank some Alaskan beer, and went to bed.

The next day we stocked up on food from the local pretentious supermarket, had breakfast at home, and headed out to explore. We walked through downtown Anchorage and it was very charming and small, though more of a proper city than the places we’d visited so far. We got Roz some coffee from a hipster coffee place. And then we hired bikes and cycled 20 miles along the Tony Coates Coastal Path, a really beautiful cycle that surrounded us by forest and ocean. I was exhausted after that (Roz less so, grrrr) but we went to Brown Bag café and had some of the most delicious sandwiches ever.

After pottering around in town a little, we returned home and watched Tallulah on Netflix, which we thought was rather good, and had pasta and pesto before speedily marching half an hour to the suburb of Spenard to Taproot, a little bar/theatre venue to see the Whale Fat Follies. It was packed, and this was a completely charming musical satire show, mocking various aspects of Alaska (designated the 46^th cleverest state, spawning a song about four states being stupider; their love of spam; a really good musical skit about civil partnerships and anti-LGBT laws; various Obama, Trump and Clinton songs, etc). We drank a range of local beers and were completely delighted with this little gem.  Though Roz got hugely homesick for America, which was very inconvenient of her since we are living in Tokyo for quite some years!

The next day I’d inexplicably thought it would be a good idea to climb Flattop Mountain – the most popular city mountain to climb. The morning was rainy but then it cleared just in time. After acquiring more of these amazing sandwiches, we got on a shuttle bus and were driven to the start of the trail where we ate them at a picnic table before setting off. It was lovely: a combination of rolling hills, endless steps, and then a rock face that required hands as well as feet to climb up. Well, when I said lovely… perhaps exhausting and exciting would be a better description. But we were smug when we got to the summit! And then had to rapidly zoom down as our climbing skills were such that we nearly missed the bus home…

We invested in a congratulatory ice cream (despite temperatures not being exactly ice cream weather) and ate it while walking back to our apartment to change our clothes and zoom out. Destination: Bear Tooth Pub and Theater. We saw Alice Through the Looking Glass in 3D while drinking beer in a totally charming little local cinema (we thought the film was quite engaging and better than the reviews would have you believe). We ate dinner at the same venue afterwards (mmm roasted garlic pizza!) before walking home for half an hour through a park with Roz noting that perhaps we should have embraced the bus in this town…

We were distraught that on our final morning in Anchorage I had made a poor plan to visit the Botanical Gardens as (a) they were quite far away, and (b) it was raining. Instead we spent the first part of the morning planning our next leg of our trip, and then we walked into the centre of town and visited the Alaska Museum. This was much more fun than we’d expected: a beautiful building and a great interactive science-y section that was no doubt intended for children. Nevertheless, Roz and I had a fine time encasing ourselves in giant bubbles, leaping in the air to have our jump height recorded, and other such entertaining activities. We only had to kick children out the way a few times. We did have a quick look at some contemporary Alaskan art too…

We had the remainder of last night’s pizza for lunch, packed our bags, finally got on a bus, and arrived at the airport. We waved farewell to our Alaskan adventure. Next stop: Los Angeles!