Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Seward-- HOT AND SUNNY

Seward was our last stop and also where we had to say goodbye to the Summit... We woke early to find ourselves docked in alittle fishing town. We had a full day ahead of us.. as our train did not leave until 6pm for anchorage. First to get off the ship... again being concerige class afforded us the luxery of waiting in the theatre for our turn to disembark... it was a smooth disembarkation-- off the ship to a tent where we gathered our luggage... oddly no one from customs talked to us... which was fine with us... I snagged a taxi pretty quick and he took us to the train depot a few blocks down... all peices of luggage stacked high!




The train depot was a little one room deal... as friendly as they could be! They took our luggage.. we had alittle time before our first tour of the day was to pick us up so we wandered around town. At 10-- Seeveys Ididarod Tour Van picked us up to go visit the Ididarod dogs and go on a dog sled ride. In our van was the cutest puppy-- also the stinkiest! It was nice to see a dog-- I think we were missing our girls by then... What we were not prepared for was the tour... or at least I wasn't.
But I learned alot-- First off contrary to what you see in movies-- Dog sled dogs are not Blue eyed Huskies or Malamutes with thick coats of hair... Instead they are Mutts-- plain and simple. Large dogs that can pull! Who knew???? And second these are working dogs.. and they are expected to live as such-- They pretty much fend for themselves... No baths, or tv time or laps to sit in... To say it made me sad was an understatement... but for me it got worse... But I digress-- They took us to an area where we got to pet and hold some new puppies... nothing better than a puppy right? Well we learned that most of the dogs we would see that day were puppies... under a year old... and they were being tried out--- Seems that work pulling the tourists during the summer and get widdled down over time until there are about 30 dogs who will make the final cut to pull the sled in the race...


We watched a video about dogsledding.. its a sport for only the hardiest... and those with money/sponsors... then they led us through gates to where the dogs were! Oh my when they say us coming they ALL started barking and pulling at their chains... These dogs LIVE to pull-- and you could see that despite their living arrangements that they were happy...


We were loaded into sleds (8 of us) and the dogs attached... I would guess about 12-14 dogs (all puppies except for the lead dog Charlie who was a vetern) Mike got to stand with the Musher on the back... and I sat in the back seat... I was not happy-- These dogs were still learning... and think about how your dogs acts as it gets trained... sometimes things work and other times they just don't.... and it was that way with the dogs... As they were pulling us they some of them wanted to play-- nip at each other... or turn around to see what they dog behind them was up too.. The musher had to stop multiple times to move dogs around... and even once untangle a dog who was being dragged.... Needless to say this was not a favorite tour while in Alaska




I am glad I went-- I learned alot-- and don't get me wrong these dogs were HAPPY!!! they just lead a different life then my babies at home.
Happy to leave Seeveys-- they were kind enough to drop us off at the other end of town... (probably a big mistake on my part) We all went to the SEALIFE Center... Its part aquarium and part rescue center... very hands on and full of interesting information. We saw Seals, sealions, puffins (birds that swim underwater) and alot of other birds and sealife...


I think we were all starving by now... and walked the length of town to find a little resturant that had the best Halibit and chips... I think I wore my parents out with all that walking because they bailed on the next adventure... one that had I known would be life altering I would have never had them walking across town... but no one balked at the time... and we marched forward. They decided to hang out at the train depot and Mike and I went across the street to the "Train Wreck" alittle place that rented bikes, had shuttles and did tours... We talked to guy who assured us that we could shuttle to Exit Glacier hike for 2 hours and still make it back in time for our train... so thats exactly what we did....

I leave you here for now...more tomorrow.

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