Seward, the gateway to the Kenai Fjords National Park, nestled in the head of resurrection bay where lofty mountains adorned with glaciers meet the sea. A harbour bustles with a constant stream of pleasure boats, fishing charters and the odd cruise ship. Sea otters laze on their backs bobbing in the waves, washing their faces with their paws and diving in search of a tasty fish. As if by magic the bay or the mountains or everything disappear as a blanket of sea mist rolls in or clouds shroud the peaks. If you are lucky it all clears away as quickly as it arrived but sometimes it lingers hiding Seward's picturesque surroundings. The marina is a maze of pontoons harbouring a multitude of small and large boats. A historic downtown is filled with quaint shops, restaurants and an array of murals depicting life in the Kenai. RV's hug the shore in a meandering line like an overgrown white caterpillar. As evening draws near the caterpillar's feet are illuminated with crackling camp fires and barbeques. We liked Seward. Our television was sitting on our tailboard viewing passing boats, paddleboarders, kayakers, sea otters, lapping waves, mountains and glaciers bright with glistening sunlight or sullen with an overcast sky. Seabirds swarm around returning fishing boats as the days catch is gutted and the trimmings are discarded overboard. We had our share of clear blue skies, fog, clouds, rain and wind. We hiked up past the Exit glacier to get close to the Harding icefield and the weather was glorious. An inhospitable desert of 700 square miles of snow and ice stretched out before us. The quoted 8.2 miles round trip was actually nearer 11 miles, not complaining though it was a great day. We skipped Marathon mountain, a 4300-foot peak directly behind the town. The cloud was all the way down to the tree line, there would be no view to savour. Someone else tried the ascent, part way up the path had been washed away leaving a steep, loose, scree covered slope and the wind was so strong they struggled to stand up. We also skipped our planned 14-mile hidden lake hike. We couldn't see the point when we found it was 5 miles one way in the trees then just 2 miles in alpine meadows before turning around. The cloud was so low that by the time we reached the Alpine meadow the surrounding mountains and glaciers would have probably still been hidden from view. Glad we opted for a wander around the harbour, the downtown shops, the murals and along the seafront instead. We did some more fish viewing at bear creek fish weir. Above the weir the calm water was home to sockeye salmon who had successfully made the jump. Downstream it was a different story, the weaker salmon were resting in readiness to tackle the weir. Occasionally one had a go, jumped and didn't make it. Many of these weaker ones will die before they reach their spawning grounds. This is the end of the sockeye Salmon run, but lots of much smaller Dolly Vardons were vaulting over the foaming waters heading upstream not to spawn but to eat the eggs of the Salmon that made it all the way! It's a hard life being a Salmon. It's not all playtime for us, we spent a whole day doing the laundry, checking our finances, renewing travel insurance (first year is nearly up), answering emails, updating the blog, finding an ATM, filling up with gas, buying groceries, cleaning Tilly out and researching our next destinations and activities. It's a hard life for us as well as the salmon!