Seward, Alaska – Day 2

September 27, 2025

After studying the materials I picked up at the Seward Visitor Center when I arrived yesterday, I discovered that there was another part of town I hadn’t seen yet. I thought I might go to the Aquarium, and on the map it was a few blocks south of where I had been yesterday. The person I spoke with had verified that they opened at 10am and that was when I arrived – to find it locked, with a sign indicating that it opened at noon!

I made a command decision to go on a road trip to a place I had hoped I might have stopped at on the way down from Anchorage yesterday, but with the poor visibility I passed it by. I stayed in Seward for about an hour and then headed off on my new plan.

(Photo credit: Google Maps)

This is the view looking south at Resurrection Bay from the southernmost part of Seward.

That is a wide view. Here are two shots zoomed in a bit:

It looks like it is closed in by mountains. This is why I reposted the map showing my route down from Anchorage. As you can see at the bottom of the map above, there is a large opening out to the Pacific Ocean, but from town the view is looking southeast so some of the land masses you see are islands beyond the east side of the opening, and you can also see “mainland” mountains on either side of the Bay which close in a bit as they approach the opening.

Here is a photo looking up “Main Street” (actually, 4th Avenue) from the Aquarium. It goes on for several blocks before reaching the area I was in yesterday. 3rd Avenue, one block to the left from this view, is Highway 9, locally known as the Seward Highway, which is Highway 1 from Anchorage as far south as Tern Lake, where Highway 9 turns off to come down here. The highway ends just south of the Aquarium.

There were lots of stores and gift shops, and more restaurants, down at this end than there were where I was yesterday. Most of these restaurants were still open and had not closed for the season.

This is the “not-open-until-noon” Aquarium:

This is the original railroad station, located next to the Aquarium. It now houses some gift shops.

There was a large parking lot, and tables scattered about for tourists to relax and take in the views of the Bay. I could also see a bunch of mountains from down at this end of town, mainly going up the east side of the Bay.

On the opposite side of the Aquarium was a large research ship operated by the University of Alaska – Fairbanks.

There was a mural on this side of town highlighting the recreation aspect of Seward.

On 4th Avenue, the three windows of the Seward Brewing Company caught my eye because of the stickers plastered all over them:

You get the idea….

Closer to the harbor I found the Mariner’s Memorial.

Inside were lots of memorials to people lost at sea. Here is a small portion.

There were many more, but I figured they’d be so small that you wouldn’t be able to read them.

Here are some other things I saw as I walked around the area on this side of town:

Here is another angle looking at the harbor from near the Mariner’s Memorial.

Here is a small mural on a cannibis dispensary called the Tufted Puffin:

Here are two mountain views from north of town looking east, towards where my Airbnb was located.

I would have a long drive to get to my surprise destination, and will return to Seward for the night, but will have another set of mountain pictures from Seward taken before I leave tomorrow morning for Homer.