Alaska Sealife Center, Seward, AK

 We took the train from Anchorage to Seward.  In Seward, there are free shuttles, run by the town, to take you to different areas.  (The town is small, but it is about a 30-minute walk from the train station to the center).  Our Seward experience started at the Alaska Sealife Center.  This Center offers up-close views of Alaskan creatures.  Many of them are rescues from the wild.  The Center serves to rescue and rehabilitate marine animals in trouble.  Some are returned to the wild; some can't be released.  

We especially enjoyed seeing the horned and tufted puffins.  The red-legged kittiwakes (a type of gull) were building nests.  They gathered mud and then did a little jig to pack it into the cliff.  The aviary also includes common murres.  These interesting birds are colored and shaped like penguins, but are a type of auk.  They swim and fly.

There are resident Steller's sea lions and harbor seals.

On the cruises we later took, we saw all these animals in the wild, except the red-legged kittiwake.  (We saw a black-legged kittiwake rookery).

The Center also offers amazing views of Resurrection Bay.  It was an excellent start to our time in Seward.

                                                        Tufted puffins

                                                View from the Sealife Center

                                                    Busy octopus