The Proposal in Seward Ak

 

On November 20th we set out to explore Seward Alaska! With it only being 2 and a half hours away (on a clear, non wintery day) we were shocked at ourselves for not venturing out sooner to check this place out.

Me, being the planner in the relationship, wrote out our weekend plans while Lucas packed the jeep accordingly. Our plans, on paper, consisted of us Jeep camping the first night once we arrived (sleeping in the jeep) then hiking to Exit Glacier Saturday morning and set up tent somewhere for the evening, and Sunday visit the highly talked about Alaska Sea Life Center. But…. Plans change!

Our two and a half hour drive there was halted by icy/snow covered roads only allowing us to drive around 35mph, turing the drive into a 4 hour drive, not too bad but once it gets dark here in Alaska the environment changes drastically. (Temperatures drop, its not just a dark dark but a pitch black dark which makes it hard to see farther than 50 ft in front of you and makes it hard to spot Moose and other critters that like to cross the roads at night time) needless to say its no fun to drive at night up here.

We did end up laying our sleeping bags out in the back of the jeep and settled in for the night once we arrived. Luckily we have very warm sleeping bags because temperatures that night got down to about 15degrees or so but we slept like we were kings (and queens)

The next morning we arose just before the sun came up. We packed up the jeep and headed into town to get our morning go-go juice (aka coffee!). When we came out of the gas station we realized it might just be an awesome morning to see the sunrise (we hardly ever get up that early to even think about seeing it) so we drove around till we found ourselves looking at Resurrection Bay. We got out and walked along the snow covered beach and watched as the sun slowly made its way up above the mountains.

I had the brilliant idea of writing “Happy Birthday Grandpa” in the snowy beach (but it was more like carving into hard packed snow) and as it was taking longer than originally thought, Lucas had a more brilliant idea than mine…. He complained of his hands being cold and said he needed to go get warmer gloves out of the jeep. ” I will only be another minute or so.” I said as I frantically tried to carve another few letters, while I see him running in the distance to the jeep . As I finish up and snap a couple pictures for my grandpa, I hear Lucas yelling across the beach “come over here, lets take a selfie of us and the sunrise.” So I run over to him, and wait patiently as he sets the camera up on a log and runs over to me, I wrap my arms around him and hold him tightly, a few seconds later he lets go of my tight grip (more like having to push me off him) and gets down on one knee. I was in total shock and was not expecting him to have that up his sleeve. To be in a loss of words would be a understatement at that moment. All I could get out was “really?” and “YES!” I am pretty sure as I began to cry, my tears were instantly forming icicles, it was so cold but that moment was absolutely perfect in every way. I could not stop staring at the ring he put on my finger.

The rest of the day we went around town acting like the tourists we were, and our plans changed from walking on the glacier and tent camping to calling everyone to tell them the exciting news and renting a hotel room and relax the night away in the pool and hot tubs. I was totally fine with that!

We did however get to go to the Alaska Sea Life Center, which was absolutely amazing! Seals, Sea Lions, Puffins, Octopus, Salmon and they even had interaction tanks where you could reach your hand in and feel the different organisms that were in there. The aquarium far passed our expectations and we left with more knowledge about the sea life in Alaska than we could ever had hope to learn. It was really awesome to see all those animals up close and personal and just as happy as they could be.

Our weekend in Seward was amazing in every way, our only wish is that we had more time to spend there. In the near future we have plans to return to Seward and go to the Kenai Fjords National Park and hike Exit glacier, but until next time….