Back to Anchorage

This morning Jan checked out a quilting store in Seward.  The fabric choices are "Alaskan" in design.  It will be a beautiful quilt.

There is an aquatic center in Seward.  It's not an aquarium though it shares some features of one.  It is home to rescued or abandoned wild life.

That's a walrus pup left on the beach for some reason.  It's healthy but still young.   When it naps it wants to nuzzle up against its mom.  So each day at nap time one of the staff members puts on  the hip waders and gloves and naps with it.  I don't know if they draw straws because the human in the picture looks pretty bored.  Notice the pup has one of his flippers draped over her leg.  It will not be possible to return this animal to the wild.  It will become a permanent guest at the center like many others.

The sea lion in this video is also a house guest now.  The literature indicated he weights more than 2,500 pounds.  I guess you don't nap with this one.  

Not every creature needed rescuing.  Some were "lured" there so that marine biologists can study them.  The center keeps remote monitoring equipment in some of the fjords we visited on Wednesday so they can follow the populations.

About an hour's drive from the center is the Alaska Wildlife Refuge.  It's really a zoo.  Some of the animals in the park are "in rehab."  Some that fully healed found "mates" and began breeding.  Others were likely trapped.

Land is plentiful so these "guests" are given enormous areas to wander about.  Most of the animals were sitting because it is hot here by Alaska standards.